The importance of preventive training actions for the reduction of workplace accidents within the Spanish construction sector

The degree of compliance with occupational risk-prevention legislation among Construction Sector firms within Spain, most of which are micro-SMEs and SMEs, is studied in this research. Likewise, a meticulous analysis is completed of all aspects that are related with the training of workers within the Construction Sector. Information is collected through a survey administered to an accumulated sample of 250 workers, referring to the indicators that are directly related to the principal causes of accident rates in construction. Numerous firms participated in this study, led by High-level Risk-Prevention Technicians. The results highlighted the serious shortcomings existing within the field of preventive actions and worker training, motivated in large part by the severe crisis of the Construction Sector in Spain that began in 2008, some important consequences of which live on, reflecting high occupational accident rates. The investigation concludes with proposals to overcome these contingencies, referring especially to the need to strengthen professionalization within the Construction Sector, to improve training actions in prevention matters, and to encourage firms to work towards efficient compliance with the safety regulations

Constructiońs health and safety Plan: The leading role of the main preventive management document on construction sites

The European Union's strategic framework seeks to better protect its millions of workers from work-related accidents and illnesses. One of the main challenges, included in the European Strategy 2014–2020, is to improve the application of existing health and safety regulations, one of the strategic objectives being to help small and medium-sized companies to better comply with safety regulations and health. This study focuses on the Construction Sector, considered one of the economic activities with the highest accident rate, hardship and danger. Its objective, based on the regulatory framework that regulates health and safety in the Sector, is to know the effectiveness of the main management tool that construction works have, the Health and Safety Plan. In this study, 3600 Health and Safety Plans were analyzed in the Autonomous Community of Castile-La Mancha, Spain. The results show that the Health and Safety Plans are documents that present great deficiencies and that do not comply with the regulatory requirements, putting at risk the management of prevention in the workplace and therefore the health and safety of its workers