21.04.2009

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Some Aspects of Occupational Safety and Health in Construction

in Latvia

Gita DambeLatvijas celtnieku arodbiedrība (LCA)

Trade Union of Building Workers of Latvia Coordinator for Safety and Health Matters for

Construction Site “Latvijas nacionālā bibliotēka”

(National Library of Latvia)

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Āraišu Lake Fortress

9th Century –What about Work Safety?

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Turaida’s Castle 13th Century

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Work Safety in Bible

"When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, so that you will not bring bloodguilt on your house if anyone falls from it."

Deuteronomy 22:8

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So, some kind of work safety regulations are given in Bible and at least since Baltic Crusades from 13th century “in force” in area what nowadays is Latvia

Then why we have to read newspaper titles like:

[Latvia is the] Country of Falling Construction workers?

Rīgas Balss 22 February 2007

Work Safety in Construction

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Work Safety in ConstructionFrom the newspaper article:

During construction of almost all biggest new buildings there have been lethal accidents at work (supermarkets "Galery Centrs", "Alfa", office building (Swedbank) "Saules akmens“). As only one exemption was multifunctional "Arēna Rīga"

What are the reasons?

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Some Numbers from Statistics• In Construction Merchant Register were

5918 construction merchants having rights to provide commercial services in construction field (data from 31.03.2009)

• There were 129.5 thousands employed in construction sector – 11.4% from the total number of employees

• 26 thousands (20%) are members of LCA

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70

24

6

0

20

40

60

80

Percentige of workers in different size construction

companies

1 to 9

10 to 49

over 50

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Accidents in construction

146 158 171222

251220

42 63 67 66 75 6812 10 15 10 21 11

2003. 2004. 2005. 2006. 2007. 2008.

Accidents total Serious accidentsLethal accidents

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Accidents in construction

Accidents at work with young people aged 18-23 years happens ~ two times more frequently as with older groups

LCA plans this year (2009) to develop more closer co-operation with vocational builder schools.

At the moment LBAS is already realising program of education about labour legislation accenting labour protection for general education school pupils and students

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Statistics

42,8 % from all discovered illegal workers have been employed in construction (2008)

SLI has put in 2009 as main priority the goal to decrease the illegal employement

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Legislation in Occupational Safety & Health in Construction

Labour Protection Law; - transforms more or less acceptable the requirements of the EU framework directive 89/391/EEC

Section 9. Organisational Structure of Labour Protection... (5) The Cabinet shall determine those types of commercial

activities in which an employer shall engage a competent authority, the procedures for the engagement of such authorities, as well as cases where the employer in performing the commercial activities referred to may not engage a competent authority. This shall apply also to those employers who for non-commercial purposes or the needs of their own undertaking perform activities, which conform to the types of commercial activities referred to.

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Legislation in Occupational Safety & Health in Construction

Labour Protection Law:

Section 25. Authorisation for the Cabinet to Issue Regulations regarding Labour Protection

The Cabinet shall issue regulations regarding labour protection requirements: 1) for workplaces; 2) when using work equipment; 3) when using personal protection equipment; ... 5) when moving heavy loads;

6) in performing construction; 7) in use of safety signs;.. 11) in contact with chemical substances; 12) in contact with biological substances; 13) in relation to the level of noise at work; 14) in work with asbestos; 16) in contact with carcinogenic substances; 17) when working on heights; ...

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Legislation in Occupational Safety & Health in Construction

Labour Protection Law; Regulations of Cabinet of Ministers from 2003 No. 92

(MK92) “Labour Protection Requirements in Performing Construction Work” – transforms the requirements of EU directive 92/57/EEC

Other regulations of Cabinet of Ministers mostly corresponding to other individual directives within the meaning of Article 16 (1) of Directive 89/391/EEC, and standards directly mentioned in text of regulations, including annexies

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MK92 defines additional requirements for the workers at

construction site

There must be list of employees at the site List shall be verified by signature and sealThe following information shall be given for each

employee – full name,personal identity number or the number of work permit for foreigners, date of entering into and number of employement contract or work-performance contract, name of the contractor

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MK92 defines additional requirements for the workers at

construction site

Employee at the site must have employee’s identity card issued by the main contractor or respective subcontractor with:

a photograh of the employee; full name of the employee;personal identity number; date of entering into and number of employement

contract; name and seal of the contractor

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• In the Labour Law the requirement that “Employer ensures the availability of the copy of work employement contract at that structural unit where an employee has to work”

• In the Law on Public Procurement the clause should be included that undertaking that employs persons without written work employement contract have to been withdrawn from the tender (the information will be published on website of the Construction Merchant Register)

Planned changes in the legislation

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Legislation in Occupational Safety & Health in Construction

Labour Protection Law; Regulations of Cabinet from 2005 (8.February) No. 99 (MK99) “Regulations Regarding the Types

of Commercial Activities in which an Employer shall Involve a Competent Authority”

Construction is given as one of the types of commercial activities, where involving competent authority (CA) is mandatory...

MK99 is not a requirement from EU...

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Legislation in Occupational Safety & Health in Construction

Cabinet Regulations No.99 postulates that it is allowed not to involve CA only in such cases, if :

1) Number of employees ≤ 5; or if the number > 52) There is established OSH system in undertaking and

Internal Supervision of the Work Environment and Evaluation of Work Environment Risks in the company is performed by a labour protection specialist with higher vocational education in labour protection (OHS). Company must to submit to the State Labour Inspectorate (SLI) the following documents:

a) notification on established OSH system according Annex 2 b) Labour Protection Specialist (LPS) education certificate

and a copy of employement contract ; c) results of the Evaluation of the Work Environment Risks

and the plan of Labour Protection Measures

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On the 01.03.2009. there were in Latvia:

38 Competent Authorities (CA)

502 Competent specialists (CS)

Requirements to the CA and CS are given in Cabinet Regulation from year 2008 No. 723

Regulations on requirements to competent authorities and competent specialists in labour protection and on procedure of evaluation of their competency

Legislation in Occupational Safety & Health

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Main Requirements to CA: 1) There should be at least 1 LPS and 1 physician specialised in occupational health or illnesses (if one person has both qualifications then CA might consist from one person);2) Insured civil liability (20000 LVL)3) Certificated according ISO 9001:20014) Approved by Commission at the Ministry of Welfare and 5) annouced in official newspaper “Latvijas Vēstnesis”

Legislation in Occupational Safety & Health

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Regulations of OSH in Construction

Is there problems with the law and regulations?

– Latvia has transposed all EU OS&H field directives in national legislation, but...

There are some at first look minor discrepancies and a little bit different provisions, but the consequencies.. are not minor

Why the accidents happen some times more frequently as in UK, or Sweden?

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Regulations of Work Safety in Construction

Discutable Provisions: Framework Directive 89/391/EEC

Article 7th of the directive: external services should have subsidiary role

Latvian Labour Protection Law: Section 9 - for certain types of commercial (even for non- commercial purposes) activities the use of external services is preferred

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Problems with MK 99

In construction regulations makes for the employer more easily to involve CA in comparisson with using their own OSH specialist and risk assesment – in notification form employer must declare that all risks have been evaluated..

Such situation at least for me looks contrary to the spirit of framework directives article 7

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Problems with MK 99

CA have been interested to serve as much companies as possibly

Therefore by limited number of LPS there is no enough time to investigate situation in details

Evaluation of Work Environment Risks have been performed on papers

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Problems with MK 99Evaluation of Work Environment Risks have been

performed using general checklists without necessary detalisation, that could be needed

Sometimes it is made per telephoneCheklists are rather long: so Cabinet regulations No

660 (2007) have listed hazardous working environment factors on ~18 pages. So “assesments” are thick files and SLI has no capacity and will not have the possibility to evaluate them...

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Problems with MK 99CA visits the site rarely might be once or twice the

month,

but the situation at the site changes very rapidly, the hazards appears and disapears with each new work, with each new subcontractor, by starting to use new equipment, new substancies etc. Static assesments can not be suitable for construction site, the extensive MK660 based checklist can not be suitable for large and specific site.

The approach shoud be changed...

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View on Construction Site of National Library

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Problems with MK 99 ExampleAt the construction site of National Library

more the 20 subcontractors are involved 3 subcontractors have concluded agreements

with CA (each with different), that makes Evaluation of Work Environment Risks for one and the same site, sometimes just making phone calls without visiting site...

Some from the subcontractors has to do some work at another sites as well

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Occupational Health&SafetyLegislation not completely adequate to EU requirements

Implementation of legislation could be much better, capacity and attitude of SLI should be changed

Legislation has requirements that most of the workers could not understand: so requirements for scaffolds is given in mandatory standarts EN 12810-1, EN 12810-2; EN 12811-1, EN 12811-3, but these standards you can get only in English – there is not translation for mandatory occupational safety requirements!

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Occupational Health&SafetyResponsibility of client is not stressed clearly, if in the theory might be there is just small problems, in real praxis it transforms to a big problem

Education and training of workers is not sufficient

Situation with the vocational education of coordinators in health and safety matters is absolute problem – the regulation requires only 50 hours together with trusted persons in officies – and thats enough for the whole life!

Some employers are unaware of OHS requirements but others are making “savings” not spending money for OHS

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Occupational Health&SafetyOHS is not relevant factor in tenders for state and municipaly orders

Certification according OHSAS 18001 is simply catastrophic - if the certifiers speaks not local language they are not able to check the documents and speak to workers!

The learning from the mistakes of others is almost not possible, because SLI keeps the accident investigation results not freely available to others...

Attitude of the workers and the whole society...

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Thank you for the attention