HEALTH & SAFETY
Our workers are our main asset. Their safety and encouraging a prevention culture are key aims for the cement industry, one of the country’s safest sectors
The Spanish cement industry considers its workers’ health & safety to be the cornerstone of its activities. Wherefore, great efforts have been made for decades to develop preventive measures, minimise risks and protect the workers.
Sectoral health & safety policy
Apart from the effort made to implement the best technologies and practices available in the safety area, our aim is to carry on pursuing a preventive culture. As a consequence, the cement sector has become one of the safest sectors in Spanish industry:
In search of health & safety excellence
Cement firms are involved in a host of activities to promote occupational health & safety, going beyond what is merely required to comply with the standards, such as:
- safety awareness projects,
- actions to promote health
- internal objectives involving preventive observations and zero accidents
- sectoral benchmarking that enables them to detect possible opportunities for improvement
Less accidents with temporary incapacitation
Since 2005, the accident rate has been cut by 58%. The frequency rate, which expresses the number of accidents for every million hours worked, lay at an average of 7.79 for the sector in 2016.
Leader in Safety
The accident frequency rate with temporary incapacity in the cement sector in 2015 was, 77% less than for industry in general, 60% lower than in the services sector and 82% less than in the construction industry.
More information is available in the Oficemen Annual Report and its statistical reports.
Contributing to the safe use of cement
Oficemen offers cement firms and the stakeholders, all the information they need about a suitable use for the product; this information is contained in the Cement Safety Files.
The sector has adapted to the changes required by the very stringent European regulations concerning chemical preparations and substances (Regulation 1907/2066 (REACH), Regulation EC 1272/2008 classifying and labelling substances and mixtures), additional to those required by the Construction Products Regulations.
Initiatives for Ongoing Improvement to Working Conditions
Health & Safety Training
Ongoing training is a key element in company competitiveness, and as such is of great interest to the sector. Oficemen provides a common platform from which to carry out training activities, such as for example, group sectoral training financed by the Tripartite Trust for Employment Training. Coordinated by the CEMA Trust, the workers are trained annually in different areas, including occupational risk prevention, environmental management, etc.
Expert Course in Occupational Risk Prevention at Cement Manufacturing Plants
The aim of occupational health & safety is to apply measures and develop the activities needed to prevent risks caused by work. It is constructed in a suitable working environment, with fair work conditions, where the workers can carry out an activity with dignity and where it is possible for them to participate in improving their health & safety conditions.
The cement industry considers the health & safety of its employees to be one of its main aims. That is why it supports training in this area in such a way that its workers are involved in improving the health & safety conditions in their own working environment.
Expert Course in Environmental Management, Recycling and Recovering Energy from Waste at Cement Manufacturing Plants
The cement industry works towards sustainable development, which requires a long-term vision and needs firms to focus on maintaining quality of life, which means fulfilling human needs and the requirements of both local and global ecosystems.
Therefore, the environment and recycling and waste valorisation is one of the major strategic variables for any worker in the cement sector. Therefore, all employees must be familiar with the techniques and technologies that allow for:
- Compatibility between cement manufacturing activities and respect and protection for the environment.
- Offering society the opportunities that the cement industry gives for treating the waste generated in other industrial and human activities, especially in the field of the energy valorisation of waste, providing a safe and environmentally-friendly solution when it comes to managing certain waste types.
- Improving the environmental performance of the manufacturing facilities by improving environmental management.