From October 21 to 27, the European Week for Safety and Health at Work is celebrated. Its objective is to raise people’s awareness about occupational health as well as guarantee adequate health conditions for workers throughout Europe. The Andalusian Institute for the Prevention of Occupational Risks (IAPRL) develops awareness campaigns through the media on the prevention of occupational risks, with the objective of contributing to the improvement of working conditions and raising awareness about the preventive culture at society.
Behind this advertising mask of the Andalusian government, USTEA wants to focus on the reality of the treatment of occupational health by the Ministry of Education.
In relation to this lack of interest we denounce the understaffing of the Occupational Risk Prevention Unitswell below what is established in the Prevention Plan of the Andalusian Ministry of Education. This leads to the exhaustion of the professionals in these unitsgiven the very high workload they support, and is also detrimental to the attention to Andalusian teachers. The provision and coverage of these places It has not been a priority of this administration. The staff of technicians in the total UPRL of the Ministry would have to be 250 and currently it has less than 40 people. Thus, as an example, we can point out that in Seville the unit only has 4 occupational risk prevention (OLP) people out of the 22 that would correspond to them, all newly appointed because the previous ones have “fled” due to the overload and pressure they had. In Malaga there are also 4 of the 18 that correspond to them and this is repeated in the rest of the Andalusian provinces.
Another sign of the lack of interest is that the provincial committees for the prevention of occupational risks have not met this year to date in any province except for Almería. Likewise, the Sectoral Occupational Health and Safety Committee has not been convened either. In all of these committees, USTEA is represented, but it is not effective as a defense of workers due to the Andalusian government’s strategy of not convening them or when it does, emptying them of content and not providing data, among other issues.
Of course, the Ministry of Education has had “only” two courses talking about offering a basic training course for the provincial union officials who are part of said committees and to date we are still waiting for that offer of a course adapted to the prevention of occupational risks in the educational field.
What the Ministry has done is to send this week to the directives a basic guide for the management of the ORP in the educational management application (SENECA). In this guide, the directors and the coordinator of the center’s health and safety plan can become aware of the enormous responsibilities that the Ministry transfers to them, in the form of information, coordination and prevention management work. A mostly bureaucratic job, for which they have had no training and which is another example of the work overload that teachers support in their different roles as teacher tutors, specialists or coordinating teaching bodies or management positions. Among the tasks attributed to them we can highlight: Renew the ORP commission in Seneca or assign the profile of self-protection coordinator. Renew the center’s ORP commission. Update and final report of the self-protection plan. Management of emergency drills. Information on occupational risks individually to teachers or administration and services staff. Report on health surveillance through medical examinations and manage documentation related to work accidents, among other issues. All of this enormous work includes only recess hours in preschool and primary school, for example, as a reduction in hours according to the order of April 16, 2008 that regulates the procedure for the preparation, approval and registration of the self-protection plan. Note that an occupational health coordinator is designated for each center, without requiring training or providing it, as required by the Occupational Risk Protection Law.
These are some examples of the many other issues that the Ministry does not develop related to Occupational Health, such as the poor development of the Bioclimatization Law, the failure to care for school infrastructure (presence of asbestos, classes in barracks, centers in poor state of conservation) and not having the mandatory equality plan for the Ministry’s workers.
Finish by pointing out that at USTEA we will continue betting and working so that everything related to Occupational Health is scrupulously complied with, for the benefit of all Andalusian teaching staff and the educational community.. In this sense, our union will organize a conference on occupational health in November to try to train us and “cover” the training gaps of the Ministry.
