Foundation for Occupational Risk Prevention assessed

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Spain's quadripartite Foundation for Occupational Risk Prevention, which seeks to promote activities aimed at improving health and safety at work, started operations in 1999. Here we assess the Foundation's achievements up until early 2002, concluding that in its short history it has played a valuable and innovative role.

In the 1990s, the high rate of industrial accidents began to be recognised as a visible problem in Spain (ES0106247F), and the social partners and the public institutions became increasingly aware of the need to introduce measures to promote health and safety. The Law on the Prevention of Occupational Risks (Ley de Prevención de Riesgos Laborales) was adopted in 1995 (Law 31/1995 of 8 November). It partly reflected transposition into Spanish law of EU Directive (89/391/EEC), which establishes the general basic framework of health and safety at work, and was also an expression of the 1981 International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention No. 155 on occupational safety and health, which called for an up-to-date policy of health and safety at work, and represented the development of Article 40.2 of the Spanish Constitution. One of the provisions of the new law was the establishment of a Foundation for Occupational Risk Prevention (Fundación para la Prevención de Riesgos Laborales, FPRL).

Creation of the Foundation

On the basis of the 1995 law, and through the application of the fifth additional provision of the Constitution, the Foundation was set up on 27 April 1997 under the aegis of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. It is a quadripartite institution, involving:

• the administrations of the regions/autonomous communities (plus the cities of Ceuta and Melilla in North Africa);

• the national government;

• the employers organisations - the Spanish Confederation of Employers' Organisations (Confederación Española de Organizaciones Empresariales, CEOE) and the Spanish Confederation of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (Confederación Española de la Pequeña y Mediana Empresa, CEPYME); and

• trade unions - the General Workers' Confederation (Unión General de Trabajadores, UGT), the Trade Union Confederation of Workers' Commissions (Comisiones Obreras, CC.OO), Basque Workers' Solidarity (Eusko Langileen Alkartasuna/Sindicato de Trabajadores Vascos, ELA-STV) and the Galician Union Confederation (Converxencia Intersindical Galega/Confederación Intersindical Galega, CIG).

The main goal of the Foundation, which began to operate in 1999, is to promote activities aimed at improving health and safety at work, particularly in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Decisions are taken by the Foundation's quadripartite board, which views social dialogue as the driving force for its operations. In practice, the Foundation represents the active branch of the National Commission for Health and Safety at Work (Comisión Nacional Seguridad y Salud en el Trabajo), and its role is one of monitoring and provision of funding aimed at promoting new habits in health and safety at work, particularly in SMEs.

Operation of the Foundation

The Foundation is financed from social security contributions. Its initial funding was provided by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, which allocated to the Foundation 20% of the Prevention and Rehabilitation Fund (Fondo de Prevención y Rehabilitación), which consists of the surplus funds of the social security system's mutual insurance associations for industrial accidents and occupational illnesses. The total initial allocation was ESP 10 billion for the period 2000-5.

The Foundation operates on the basis of supplying funds, whereby applicants propose the activities to be funded and the Foundation assigns resources to them based on certain general criteria of priority. The applicants therefore play a major role. According to the Foundation, it funded the following actions in 2001: 29 indirect sectoral actions (with funding of EUR 3.2 million); 91 indirect regional actions (EUR 9.7 million); and five direct actions (EUR 1.3 million). This comes to a total of 125 actions - 10 more than in 2000 - with total funding of EUR 14.2 million. The 2001 budget also funded two direct actions at the request of the National Commission for Health and Safety at Work, to the tune of EUR 420,000, making a total outlay of EU 14.6 million

Funding criteria

The main criteria for granting funding to applicants are:

1. the content of the proposed measures (see below);

2. the size of the companies concerned;

3. whether the sector concerned has a high accident rate, and particularly whether the proposed action responds to a study of the needs of the sector;

4. the number of workers and the size of the area affected; and

5. whether the proposed measures relate to social dialogue in the sector concerned.

With regard to the content of the measures proposed, the Foundation gives priority to:

• measures to promote a culture of prevention and to disseminate information on the existence of regulations in this area;

• information campaigns on occupational risk problems and their consequences (to individuals and to business in general);

• health and safety activities for employers, workers and their representatives, involving education, training and awareness-raising in companies;

• technical assistance to improve the capacity for health and safety action in companies;

• contributions to the training of workers, employers and safety representatives;

• disseminating lists of bodies in the health and safety field and drawing up catalogues of training programmes and of entities that provide them;

• disseminating information on the activity and objectives of the Foundation.

Activities

The initiatives and actions carried out by the Foundation in 2001 fell into the following categories:

• information actions. These are aimed at disseminating among employers and workers the principles of health and safety action, or the specific areas of application of these principles;

• technical assistance actions. These are aimed at studying and solving problems arising from the practical and material application of health and safety actions;

• training actions. These involve designing the methods and content of programmes that can be applied in sectors and subsectors of production, particularly in those in which small companies are the majority; and

• actions aimed at promoting fulfilment of the health and safety regulations. These involve fostering knowledge of and compliance with the law, regulations and conventions on health and safety by employers and workers, particularly through mechanisms and instruments developed at the sectoral and regional levels.

The actions may be direct or indirect. Direct actions are those generated directly by the Foundation's board on its own initiative or at the request of the National Commission for Health and Safety at Work. These actions are managed directly by the Foundation, and the area of application is national or supra-regional.

Indirect actions, which form the vast majority of the initiatives, may be requested by the following entities and organisations :

• tripartite regional organs, with a similar nature to the National Commission for Health and Safety at Work;

• foundations at national level;

• organisations that are signatories of national collective agreements, subject to the actions concerned being approved in the framework of the relevant agreement;

• national employers' associations and trade union federations;

• national trade union federations and employers' associations that are not board members of the Foundation; and

• the public administration and most representative employers' organisations and trade unions in the cities of Ceuta and Melilla, subject to agreement.

In 2001, 121 applicants for funding were employers' organisations, 78 were trade unions and 36 applications were agreed or carried out by national sectoral foundations formed by employers and unions. In all cases, the funds are assigned to organisations representing interests that are considered as particularly in need of protection and that the board recognises fully.

In its short existence, the Foundation has operated within a very clear field of competence, being oriented particularly towards providing information and creating methodological content for training and technical assistance. It clearly defines its area of intervention so as to leave room for the training provided through the Foundation for Continuing Training (Fundación para la Formación Continua, FORCEM) and its successor, the Foundation for Training in Employment (Fundación Tripartita para la Formación en el Empleo) (ES0109202F), and for the supervision of companies performed by the Labour Inspectorate: it thus complements their activities. The Foundation has carried out: 34 technical assistance actions; 26 information actions; 20 training actions; 19 actions for the promotion of health and safety legislation; and 32 actions of a mixed nature.

At the end of 2002, it is planned to conduct an efficacy and efficiency study in order to determine the Foundation's achievements over this period and to improve future interventions.

Commentary

The Foundation for Occupational Risk Prevention is an exemplary and innovative socio-institutional initiative supported by social dialogue. It marks an important step forward in providing mediation to improve working conditions and health and safety at work by generating new attitudes towards them. Its role is merely one of control (rather than management), of channelling resources on the basis of the applications received, and of providing technical assistance and information. However, its existence could lead to greater achievements in the medium term. This would be possible: if its funding were increased in amount and duration; if it established closer collaboration with other similar state institutions - such as the new Foundation for Training in Employment and the Labour Inspectorate; if the opportunity were created for observing and studying the dynamics of production in relation to the improvement of working conditions; if these studies established suitable links with labour markets; and if there were a will to consolidate its activity by designing long-term plans of action. (Daniel Albarracín, CIREM Foundation).