Marc Olària i Serra, Director of Development, UNIDA Qualitat i Prevenció, an alliance of companies working on the optimization of working conditions, told all-andorra.com about the most vulnerable sectors of the Andorran economy from a labor safety point of view and called for all corporate cultures to bear these in mind:
“There are times when we make wrong decisions and do things that we later regret. Such situations can be avoided if nearby there is a source of information that can give us the right advice based on years of knowledge and experience.
I would like to draw your attention to Law 34/2008 on occupational safety and health, which entered into force on 21 April 2013 here in Andorra. The purpose of the law is to protect the life and health of employees during their working day. It is based on rules for the prevention of risks in the workplace.
The law enforcement agency is the Labor Inspectorate (Servei d’Inspecció de Treball) of the Andorran government. This organization, on its own initiative or due to an organization’s request, visits companies offices or places of work and studies the occupational risk that could be present in order to put in methods of prevention.
Failure to comply with such rules can entail both civil and criminal liability.
The law also regulates the issues of compensation for damage caused by violation of the existing rules.
Violations are divided into three groups: minor, serious and very serious.
I will give some data from 2016-2017 as an example. The riskiest sector in this period was the social services sector, where there were 86 accidents, resulting in 51 cases of dismissal. Second, was the production sector: 36 accidents and 11 dismissals. Next came the unified sector “Health and Veterinary” – 33 accidents, but with no dismissals. Fourth, was real estate sector (21 accidents and a complete absence of dismissals), afterwards, the construction sector (17 accidents and 6 cases of a dismissal being made), followed by “Trade and car repair” (15 accidents and 2 dismissals), and finally, “Agriculture, hunting and logging” (8 accidents and 7 dismissals).
For two years in Andorra, the only registered death in the industry that took place was in the construction industry.
It is important to note that labor safety is mandatory for every employee. Thus, the main components of the Law 34/2008 are the employer, employee and inspection, which ensures compliance with the rules for preventing occupational risks.
But there is a fourth part – these are companies that, based on professional analysis of the situation, offer optimal solutions and ways to protect employees from negative consequences. These are professionals in the field of labor-management who can explain all the existing safety and prevention rules, assess the likelihood of accidents at workplaces, and also conduct personnel certification and training. Such enterprises help create a fundamentally new corporate culture and minimize the number of accidents. Such a culture is necessary both for the economic prosperity of the enterprise and for each individual worker. ”
Steven Broyden
