Fundación Sando celebrates the 6th National Meeting on Health and Safety in Construction with strong institutional support
The Minister of Employment, Training and Self-Employment of the Government of Andalusia, Rocío Blanco, highlighted during the closing of the 6th National Meeting on Health and Safety in Construction, organised by the Sando Fundación and the Chair of Prevention and CSR of the University of Malaga, the Andalusian Occupational Health and Safety Strategy 2017-2022 and the investments planned for next year.
“We are going to allocate 108.64 million euros to the Health, Safety and Labour Relations area in 2020 with big budget gambles”, said the Minister, who recalled accident data for the period of January to August this year: “The data shows that there have been 63,493 accidents at work with sick leave, 5.8% more in the same period of 2018”.
During the closing ceremony, she was accompanied by the rector of the University of Malaga, José Ángel Narváez; the president of the Confederation of Entrepreneurs of Andalusia (CEA), Javier González de Lara, the general secretary of UGT Andalusia, Carmen Castilla, the general secretary of CCOO Andalusia, Nuria López, the director of the School of Industrial Engineering of the University of Malaga, Alejandro Rodríguez, and the deputy chair and CEO of Sando, Luis Sánchez.
The rector of the University of Malaga stressed in his intervention on the role of the university on the expected future changes and the need to involve all actors: “We have to involve society in raising awareness.” An idea which the president of the CEA elaborated on: “Society must have healthy people who become the basis of a healthy economy and we must raise awareness among everyone.”
The general secretary of Comisiones Obreras in Andalusia talked about the importance of the existence of trailblazing companies such as Sando, committed to health and safety: “This philosophy can help other companies in the sector reflect on prevention.” In this sense, Carmen Castilla highlighted the economic role of the private sector, essential in this area: “We have to invest more in prevention, that should be the culture of companies, the one that saves lives.”
On the same subject, the deputy chair and CEO of Sando explained how commitment to training and investment in prevention is reflected in a lower accident rate: “Thanks to this policy, in our main civil engineering and building company, Sando Construcciones, in 2018 we were 47.7% below the national accident rates.”
The meeting concluded with the Sando Fundación Health and Safety Awards, which were given to the works team of the Conacon company that executed the Rincón de la Victoria Secondary School, and to the construction company, Isidoro González e hijos.
Opening ceremony
The symposium began with the welcome from the Director General of Employment and Well-Being at Work of the Government of Andalusia, Beatriz Barranco, who recalled the role of the administration in the prevention surveillance, especially in the relationship between companies and workers. Sitting next to her at the opening table were the Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of Malaga, Teodomiro López, the director of the Chair of Prevention and Corporate Social Responsibility, Juan Carlos Rubio, the Councillor for Security of the City of Malaga, Avelino Barrionuevo and the general manager of Fundación Sando, Esther Sánchez.
In her speech, the general manager of Fundación Sando emphasised how during the crisis price prevailed over the technical part or the prevention of occupational hazards in public tenders: “We have experienced a prolonged crisis in which public tenders have become auctions. This practice is totally counter-productive and at Fundación Sando we believe that it should be avoided.”
After the opening ceremony, Sara Gutiérrez, director of Occupational Risk Prevention of AFFOR Psychosocial Prevention, and David Sáez, director of the Occupational Safety and Health area of the Construction Labour Foundation addressed how psychosocial aspects influence the prevention of occupational hazards: “We have to identify the risk factors in a company and work on the psychosocial skills with the people to whom we assign a task,” said David Sáez.
Road Safety
The main theme of the meeting, Occupational Road Safety in construction, was discussed during a round table with the participation of Juan Carlos Hidalgo, Secretary of Trade Union Policy, Occupational Health and Environment of UGT Andalusia, Nuria Martínez, Secretary of Work Conditions and Occupational Health of CCOO Andalusia, Teresa Lascorz, Head of the Occupational Health and Prevention Service of the General Directorate of Traffic, Francisco Canes, president of Fundtrafic and Fernando García, head of the Office of Innovation and Programs of ORP of the Directorate General of Employment and Well-Being at Work, as moderator.
During the discussion panel examples of what kind of behaviours favour accidents, such as speed, mobile phone use or lack of rest, were shown: “Psychosocial factors intervene. If a worker is tired, nervous or overwhelmed in his position it will affect his likelihood of suffering an accident”.
Finally, Fernando Valero, a partner of Grant Thornton, gave a conference in which he has explained in detail the implementation of the BIM methodology (Building Information Modeling) applied to the Prevention of Occupational Risks in the construction sector.
The 6th National Meeting on Health and Safety in Construction was attended by Quirón Prevención, 101 Tv, 7 Tv, La Razón, Europa Press, EFE, El Mundo, Cadena Ser Málaga, La Opinión de Málaga, Onda Cero and Málaga Hoy.
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