Controversy over fatal industrial accidents in Catalonia

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An unusual concentration of fatal industrial accidents in Spain's Catalonia region in July and August 2002 caused widespread public concern. Due to the media coverage that these accidents received, and pressure from the trade unions, the Catalan authorities promised to take a number of measures to reduce risks at work. Meanwhile, regional employers' organisations defended themselves against accusations that the high level of workplace accidents is essentially their fault.

In July and August 2002, there were 22 fatal industrial accidents - 16 of them in the construction sector - in the region (autonomous community) of Catalonia. Given that most of the population is on holiday during this period, this figure is high. Four of these deaths, in addition to one serious injury, took place during construction work on a high-speed train line crossing the region. In view of the extensive media coverage of the deaths and the impact on public opinion, as well as trade union and political pressure, the regional government has promised a number of measures to address the problems.

Trade union positions

The main trade unions claim that the increase in the number of fatal accidents at work (ES0209201N) is largely due to the indifference of the public authorities, which have allegedly failed to take decisive action to fulfil the Law on Preventions of Occupational Risks (LPRL 31/1995) (ES9708216F). The unions have therefore demanded that political responsibilities be identified and that serious and fatal accidents at work be reported to the public prosecutor. They also call for prison sentences rather than just fines for employers that fail to comply with the health and safety laws.

The unions also consider that a key factor in the sustained increase in industrial accidents is unjustified subcontracting by companies, particularly in the construction sector. They also claim that quality of life at work has deteriorated continuously due to the increasing rate of unstable employment - two-thirds of all work-related accidents affect people on temporary contracts, who represent only a third of the employed population (ES0009106N). The trade unions state that there is a need to draw up an 'integral plan' for the construction sector and to regulate subcontracting by law. They have asked the Minister of Labour to present a package of measures to improve health and safety, to give priority to inspecting companies with higher accident rates, and to create sectoral and regional safety representatives to assist workers who have no safety representatives in their companies. The unions also propose that companies holding public contracts should be required to fulfil the health and safety regulations laid down by law.

Opposition parties' views

The main left-wing parties opposition in Catalonia - the Catalan Socialist Party (Partit dels Socialistes de Catalunya, PSC), the Catalan Republican Left (Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, ERC) and the Initiative for Catalonia-Greens ( Iniciativa per Catalunya-Verds, ICV) - called successfully for a plenary session of the Catalan parliament to be held in order to debate the reasons for the high number of industrial accidents during the summer and ask the regional government for explanations on the inefficacy of health and safety measures. This session was to be held in October 2002. The aim is that this debate should help lead to an agreement between the Catalan government, the trade unions and the political parties to guarantee workers' right to health. At national level, the left-wing opposition blames the Spanish government for not enforcing fulfilment of the health and safety legislation, and claims that the government has still not implemented most of the 70 measures contained in the 'Durán report', commissioned by the Prime Minister in 2000 to draw up a diagnosis of the situation and make proposals to reduce the level of industrial accidents (ES0202213F).

Catalan government's response

In response to the concern caused by the work-related deaths over recent months, the Catalan regional government (Generalitat) has promised several measures. These include the signing of an initial agreement with the majority trade unions - the Trade Union Confederation of Workers’ Commissions (Comisiones Obreras, CC.OO) and the General Workers’ Confederation (Unión General de Trabajadores, UGT) - whereby the regional government agrees to regulate subcontracting in those public works that depend on the Catalan public administration.

The Catalan government has also announced that it will propose a modification of Article 24 of the LPRL, aimed at reducing the number of accidents caused by safety failures in subcontractor firms. Paradoxically, a few months previously in the Spanish parliament the governing party in the Catalan Generalitat, Convergence and Union (Convergència i Unió, CiU), together with the national governing party, the Peoples’ Party (Partido Popular, PP), rejected a draft law on this same subject (ie the regulation of subcontracting) presented by CC.OO and UGT and supported by 600,000 signatures (ES0012125N).

The Catalan government has also agreed to intensify safety inspections of companies, and to increase the number of labour inspectors, which is far lower in relation to the employed population than it is in the rest of Spain and in Europe.

Employers' organisations react

Employers reacted sharply to the complaints made by trade unions and politicians over the industrial accidents during summer 2002, in the view of some commentators responding as if they were being subjected to public persecution. They reject the arguments put forward by the unions on the role of subcontracting and unstable employment in accidents, and the attempts by the unions and the authorities to give employers exclusive responsibility for the situation. Fomento del Trabajo Nacional (FTN), the Catalan employers' association, insists that the relationship between temporary contracts and industrial accidents is not very clear, and that subcontracting cannot be blamed for the recent deaths because subcontracted companies tend to be very specialised and their workers are expert at their jobs. It admits that the large number of accidents in such a short period of time is unacceptable, but claims that the increase has occurred only in a few, high-risk sectors. The president of FTN states that the employers are doing all they can to prevent risks. He suggests that the reasons for accidents include unsafe behaviour by workers, who fail to take the necessary precautions through over-confidence, and that bad luck also plays a role in the occurrence of accidents.

According to a leading figure in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises of Catalonia (Pequeña y Mediana Empresa de Catalunya, PIMEC-SEFES), employers should not be treated as the sole culprits in industrial accidents; the employers, workers, trade unions and authorities are jointly responsible. He considers that the solution will not be achieved through the 'easy' route of increasing penalties and inspections, but through a profound analysis of the causes of accidents. The small and medium-sized employers' organisation would agree with the drawing up of an 'integral plan' to combat industrial accidents, as the trade unions have called for, but states that first a serious study must be made of the causes of accidents (because, as stated above, employers do not accept the reasons put forward by the trade unions).

Commentary

Though there was a certain increase in the number of fatal accidents in July and August 2002, particularly in Catalonia, there has been no spectacular increase in the daily average of fatal accidents calculated for the whole year. Therefore, rather than an increase, there was a concentration of accidents over a particular period. However, the recent accidents have occurred in circumstances that have brought them to the public attention. They were concentrated in a short period of time and the same place, because several of them occurred during the construction of the high-speed train line. The companies involved have a strong trade union presence, so the accidents were widely reported. They also occurred in summer, when the media are short of news and pay more attention to social matters. All of this meant that the accidents were given a great deal of media coverage, presenting an opportunity for the groups that wish to obtain better working conditions and improve risk prevention. The authorities (particularly the Catalan Generalitat) felt themselves under pressure, and were forced to offer explanations and make public commitments. However, the commitments are few and ambiguous, and are far from satisfying the demands that the trade unions have been making for many years.

The employers' organisations have been attacked from all sides (the trade unions, the authorities and the media) and have reacted by confirming their position, denying the accusations and stating that employers should not be considered as solely responsible for risk prevention. In general, the statements by the leaders of the employers' organisations with regard to the accidents during the summer arguably indicate how far they are from embracing the general principles of risk prevention. Their attempts to share out responsibilities for health and safety (the LPRL law establishes that the main responsibility is that of employers) or to justify the accidents with reasons that were removed from the principles of risk management long ago (luck, inevitable accidents etc), suggest that the number of industrial accidents is unlikely to fall in the short or medium term. This will perhaps require a firmer intervention by the authorities, which judging from the present case seems to be favoured by a combination of trade union pressure and media coverage. (Josep Espluga. Department of Sociology of the Autonomous University of Barcelona)