Occupational Health and Safety for Employees Training ...• Diseases that result from a work...

1 Occupational Health and Safety for Employees Training Course for beginners

Occupational Health and Safety for Employees Training Course for beginners


Introduction .............................................................................................................................................................. 4 1| Definitions related to occupational health and safety 1.1| Work accident ................................................................................................................................................... 6 1.2| Occupational disease ........................................................................................................................................ 6 1.3| Occupational Medicine ...................................................................................................................................... 7 1.3.1| Goals .............................................................................................................................................................. 8 1.3.2| Medical examinations ..................................................................................................................................... 8 1.3.2.1| Medical admission examination .................................................................................................................. 8 1.3.2.2| Periodic medical examinations .................................................................................................................... 9 1.4| Aggressive agents and main side effects caused on the organism ................................................................... 9 1.5| Occupational health ........................................................................................................................................ 10 1.6 Occupational safety ......................................................................................................................................... 10 1.7| Occupational Hygiene ..................................................................................................................................... 11 1.7.1| Definition: ..................................................................................................................................................... 11 1.7.1| Where does Occupational Hygiene intervene? ............................................................................................ 12 1.8| Employee ........................................................................................................................................................ 12 1.9| Independent employee .................................................................................................................................... 12 1.10| Employee representative .............................................................................................................................. 13 1.11| Employer or employing entity ........................................................................................................................ 13 1.12| Work place .................................................................................................................................................... 13 1.13| Occupational material components ............................................................................................................... 13 1.14| Hazard .......................................................................................................................................................... 13 1.15 Occupational Risk .......................................................................................................................................... 13 2| Occupacional safety fundamentals 2.1| General prevention principles ......................................................................................................................... 15 2.2 Prevention objectives ....................................................................................................................................... 15 3| Fundamental and organizational aspects of the healt and safety function 3.1 Employee representatives and health and safety commission......................................................................... 19 3.1.1 Employee representatives ............................................................................................................................. 19 3.2 Occupational health and safety commissions .................................................................................................. 19 3.3 Employee duties .............................................................................................................................................. 19 3.4 Types of occupational health and safety services ............................................................................................ 20 3.5| Occupational Health and Safety Goals ........................................................................................................... 21 4| Work accidents and occupacional disease 4.1| Work accident repairment ............................................................................................................................... 23 4.2| Masking an accident as a work accident ......................................................................................................... 24 4.3| Disability .......................................................................................................................................................... 24 4.4| Work accident causes ..................................................................................................................................... 25 4.5| Communicating a work accident ..................................................................................................................... 25 4.6| The costs of Work accidents ........................................................................................................................... 25 4.7| Consequences of accidents ............................................................................................................................ 26 Bibliography Technical Sheet


This manual for the occupational health and safety training course for beginners of the InForAdapt project company employees pursuits the following goals: • To sensitize participants to an occupational health and safety culture; • To give participants general knowledge about occupational health and safety

factors, allowing them to detect existing anomalies in their workplace enabling them to propose improvement solutions;

• To give participants the knowledge about fundamental aspects about occupational health and safety and enabling those to use learnt concepts in a constructive and preventive way in real day to day work situations.

This manual was prepared by the InForAdapt Project Development Partnership, Epralima (Escola Profissional do Alto Lima), ACIAB (Associação Comercial e industrial de Arcos de Valdevez e Ponte da Barca), IEFP (Instituto de emprego e Formação Profissional de Arcos de Valdevez) e IDICT.


Introduction Every individual is always looking to satisfy basic needs of various natures trough, for example, food, or even secondary needs, such as, for example, social recognition. To reach these goals, each individual organizes his time as best as he can, which includes the necessity to have an occupation. About half the time of an individuals´ total active life is spent working. Normally, a person sleeps an average of eight hours per day, works an average of another eight hours and the remaining hours are spent on eating, on leisure, on transportations, etc. This is why the analysis of various occupations is of great importance, namely, the situations that may potentiate hazards and affect the safety and well being of every individual. It is during the course of his occupation that the individual is, sometimes, more exposed to risk and danger and consequently to the probability of occurring accidents, which may cause lesions, temporary or permanent disability, or in extreme cases, loss of victims’ life. So, as a consequence, it is very important to give employees’ correct training of occupational health and safety. This manual aims to support the occupational health and safety training course for beginners, of 20% of the employees of companies that are partners of the Equal Communitarian Initiative; InForAdapt -Inform, Train and Adapt companies to Occupational Health and safety.


Definitions related to occupational health and safety


1.1| Work accident A work accident can be defined as brisk and violet interruption of work performance and satisfaction. A work accident can also be defined as an event that occurs during work hours and place, resulting, directly or indirectly, in bodily injury, functional disturbance or illness that cause reduction on the workers ability to work or death. Another definition can be: “Any injury suffered by a worker during or as consequence of work that is executed for an employer”. This definition refers to injuries that occur at work and on the route to and from work or home. These latter accidents are denominated as “in intinere” From a technical point of view, a work accident is “any unexpected or unwanted occurrence that generates the workers loss of health or injuries. In Portugal, a work accident occurs when it happens: At work during work hours, these may or may not cause bodily injury, illness, reduction of the ability to work or death; Away from work and work hours, while executing certain services for or permitted by the employer. On the way to work and back, when using company means of transportation or when there exist circumstances that may increase risks on the normal route. During the execution of a spontaneously provided service that may result in an economic advantage to the employer. The more knowledge we have about the characteristics of each occupation, the better identification we can make of risks that each one is submitted to and when. The more carefulness we have on eliminating or preventing risks, the lower the probability of work accidents to happen. No accident happens by chance, but because an occupation is being carried out in a place where risks exist or where there is lack of hygiene and sanitary conditions. In a clean, tidy and risk free work place the number of accidents and occupational diseases is different from a place where the conditions are untidiness, filthiness and permanent risk. Occupational diseases also occur as a consequence of the prolonged and repetitive exposure to a certain risk.

1.2| Occupational disease The exposure to risk or harmful factors that employees are submitted to many times frequently result in accidents or occupational diseases. It is necessary to distinguish the various types of occupational diseases according to the way they where originated: • Diseases that are directly caused by the occupation, consist of the list of

occupational diseases;


• Diseases that result from a work accident situation, which is defined as a harmful event that affects the workers productive ability, that occurs during the execution of an occupation and manifests in a sudden and violent way;

• Disease related to work, or better, disease that worsens with work, or by not being directly related to work disease is influenced by it.

The World Organization of Health (WOH), distinguishes two types of work related disease: Occupational disease: situation where a well established relationship exists between health alterations and one or more work factors that can be very well identified, quantified and eventually controlled; Work related diseases: situation where the relationship between health alterations and work is weak, unclear and variable. In this case are included situations like work conditions that can aggravate, accelerate, or exacerbate already existing symptoms, affecting the ability to work. Personal characteristics, surrounding environment (exterior) and socio cultural factors constitute an important risk factor for these diseases that are more and more frequent in the workplace. During the execution of an occupation workers are many times submitted to health aggressions. These aggressions can be provoked by various risk factors, namely: • Risk of accident; • Environmental risks; • Symptoms related to climate factors; • Illumination of workplace; • Physical, mental and nervous overload associated to work. In most work places a mixture of all these factors can be verified. Occupational diseases consist of an organized list published in a National newspaper. A bodily injury, functional disturbance or disease that is not included on the referred list is granted compensation as long as it is proved to be a necessary and direct consequence of the job and doesn’t represent normal worn out of the body.

1.3| Occupational Medicine Definition: The American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM) defines occupational medicine as follows: “Occupational medicine is the medical specialization that is dedicated to disease prevention and control and work disturbances, health promotion and employee productivity.” It can also be defined as: “The science that is based on the knowledge of the human body and of the environment where it develops its activity, in this context the working environment, and aims to promote health (or prevent loss of health), treat disease and rehabilitation”. Occupational Medicine is recognized in Portugal since 1962. The Portuguese law obligates the constitution of health services in companies with risk of silicosis. Later, in 1967, this obligation is extended to companies with more than 200 employees, or companies with risk of occupational diseases.


1.3.1| Goals Health surveillance for employees aims to prevent the occurrence of health alterations that may be caused or worsened while carrying out an occupation. Initially, occupational medicine aimed to cure work related diseases; in the meantime, this function suffered some modifications and now aims to prevent work related diseases. In 1959, by the International Labour Office (ILO) in their Occupational Health Services Recommendation document (nº 112) consist the occupational medicine activities that were developed, and are as follows: • Know the workstations, by establishing for each one, risk factors to account for,

and adjust worker medical examinations to the risk factors identified at their workstation;

• Realize Medical examinations for work admission, periodically and when returning to work, and analyze complementary diagnosis examinations that are necessary to assess the employees health state, never forgetting the workstations characteristics;

• Collaborate with workstation analysis, to adequately adjust work to the employee and the employee to his work;

• Collaborate on the selection of means of individual protection that are the most adequate for the employee;

• Encourage employees to take on good practices at work; • Coordinate emergency strategies in case of accident or indisposition; • Coordinate first aid training courses and collaborate with occupational health and

safety courses; • Control the hygienic and health conditions of social establishments; • Establish general health prevention measures, namely, vaccination, nutritional

education, health and rehabilitation. It is of great importance to realize employee health surveillance to maintain healthier workstations, also it enables, if necessary, a timely intervention by means of prevention or by changing the most sensible workers to other workstations.

1.3.2| Medical examinations Medical examinations are important to determine whether or not a worker is fit to work at a certain workstation or to detect early enough any health alterations. These can be admission, periodic, or back to work examinations, always with the aim to assess the workers aptitude for the workstation.

1.3.2.1| Medical admission examination Every time the company admits a new employee, the occupational doctor is asked to perform medical admission exams on that worker, to develop a medical file where all medical information of interest must be included, namely, registration of personal data, demographic info, workers and family medical history, anamnesis data, reference medical tests and occupational history, by describing: • The companies where the person worked before; • What kind of workstations were occupied before and what work methods were

used; • For each workstation, register potential risks and, if possible, data from an

exposure assessment; • Means of prevention that existed and if they were used by the person;


• Appearance of symptoms (register when and relationship to developed tasks); • Data concerning the appearance of similar symptoms or disease on work

colleagues; • Increased risk factors: person’s social habits (alcohol, tobacco, etc.), another

occupation in part-time and free time activities.

To enable the doctor to write up an aptitude report for a work station, in many cases, he needs to ask for additional diagnosis exams, such as, for example, medical analysis, radiographies, respiratory studies, ophthalmology exams, hearing studies, electroencephalograph, etc.

1.3.2.2| Periodic medical examinations These are realized in regular intervals of time, according to the nature and importance of risks to which the worker is exposed to. In the absence of any pathology, it is not necessary to endure examinations again as complete as the admission exams. In the meantime, it is important to drive your attention to risk factors present at the workstation, to verify if the worker suffers any alterations of his health state and to verify if the worker changed to a different workstation or if the workstation has undergone any modifications.

1.4| Aggressive agents and main side effects caused on the organism

Agents responsible for side effects Side effectsInert dust and fibrogenics (silica, asbestos)

Irritable chemical substances Allergenic agents (organic and chemical dusts, etc)

Micro-organisms

Respiratory alterations

Physical load Posture

Repetitive workSkeletal muscle alterations

Carbon monoxide Benzene, amino-aromatic compounds

Lead, cobalt, manganese Ionizing radiations

Hematologic alterations

Chlorinated organic solvents Alcohols (methanol, etc.)

Nitro-aromatic compounds polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH)

vinyl chloride Micro-organisms (virus)

Hepatic alterations

Metals (lead, mercury, cadmium, arsenic) Aliphatic chlorinated hydrocarbons

Organic compounds – amine

Renal/urinary tract alterations

Halogenic solvents Carbon sulphide

Aromatic nitro compounds Metals (lead, cadmium, arsenic)

Cardiovascular alterations


Carbon monoxide Noise and vibrations

Metals (lead, mercury, cadmium, etc.) Organic solvents

Cytostatics Anesthetic gases

Ionizing radiations

Reproduction system alterations

Organic solvents Heavy metals (lead, mercury, arsenic, etc.)

Carbon monoxide Carbon sulphide

Neurological and behaviour alterations

Acid and alkaline solutions Organic solvents

Mineral oils Micro-organisms

Detergents

Skin alterations

At workstations where there exists exposure to chemical substances, biological monitoring should be undertaken, this enables the analysis of how much of the chemical contaminant enters the body and by this it enables the prevention of occupational diseases.

1.5| Occupational health The concept of occupational health goes beyond occupational medicine, because it doesn’t limit itself to health surveillance with medical examinations to asses workers health state; it is extended to the control of physical, chemical and psychological or mental elements that may affect the workers health. It consists of the opportunity to influence workers in the sense of improving their behaviours toward their own health. On the other hand, this influence reaches the household and consequently, it reflects on a better lifestyle.

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines health as “the state of total physical, mental and social well being and not only absence of damage or disease”.

It also defines health promotion as a process of enabling persons in the sense of increasing their control and improvement of their own health.

1.6 Occupational safety Humans are limited from a psychic, physical and biological point of view that is why it is necessary to use safety devices to guarantee that human flaws may occur without causing injuries to workers. This principle is denominated as a safe flaw.

A safe machine is one that is human error and flaw proof.


Work accidents are influenced by factors related to the immediate work situation, such as, machinery, task, working environment and also by work organization, by work relationships and by correlation of existing forces in a certain society. Thus, unemployment threat, superior pressure to increase productivity, machinery conditions; work environment conditions (presence of heat and noise), reduction of team size with increased employee overload and overtime are all important components that must be analyzed when you want to understand and prevent the occurrence of work accidents. So it is safe to say that accidents are phenomenon that result from different causes, socially determinable, predictable and can be prevented. In the prevention of machine related accidents, traditional engineering techniques are not sufficient, such as the simple installation of a safety device. Accident prevention will only be effective if accompanied by bigger spaces inside the companies, so that employees and their representatives may carry out their occupation better.

Workplace organization is the best remedy against accidents and diseases!

Work safety is linked to man during his occupation and it has been developing throughout time, at the same rhythm that the occupation evolves. An occupation always presents risks. These risks are associated to flaws, faults or errors that generate accidents. Occupational safety can be defined as: “The technique to prevent and control operational risks, risks that are capable of affecting employees´ health, safety and well being”. Otherwise: occupational safety is a set of methodologies that aim to prevent work accidents by eliminating or minimizing risks associated to the productive process. Work accidents or occupational disease should never be the reason to begin using safety measures; these should be previously established, always with a preventive perspective. Employers should be conscious about increasing safety and diminishing occupational diseases at their companies, because this means better production rates, better quality, better business image and greater competition.

Safety should be a constant worry, this is: “working well should always be working safely”.

1.7| Occupational Hygiene Occupational hygiene aims to eliminate, at workplaces, all environmental risk factors. Their total elimination is not always possible. So, occupational hygiene has to manage workplace environment contamination in a way that minimal health conditions are not compromised.

1.7.1| Definition: Occupational Hygiene is defined by the American Industrial Hygiene Association as “the science and art dedicated to the recognition, assessment and control of environment factors generated at, or by work, and may cause disease, health and well being alterations or significant discomfort and inefficiency among employees or among citizens of a surrounding community.”


It is necessary not to confuse the word hygiene with its cleaning meaning to which it is normally associated to.

We can say that it is cleaning, not of filth, but of a whole working environment. Occupational hygiene deals with environment risks, insecure situations related to the working environment that may cause accidents and occupational disease. It is dedicated to the study of employees exposed to different environment factors generated at the workplace which can be to physical agents (for example: noise, vibrations, temperature factors and radiation), chemical substances or micro-organisms (for example: bacteria, viruses and dusts). Occupational Hygiene is designated as so, because it studies the relationship between the individual person and his working environment. The Occupational Hygiene approach is, fundamentally, to prevent and control environmental factors to levels that do not present the risk of altering the employee’s health state. That being said, it is important that its information is emitted at the time of the workplace project and conception phase, anticipating eventual environmental risk factors that will result from future work and proposing respective correction measures.

1.7.1| Where does Occupational Hygiene intervene? • Planning work places; • Identification of possible environmental risk factors (chemical, biological and

physical) inherent to a certain occupation; • Elimination and/or maintenance within acceptable levels of the workers exposure

to environmental factors generated at the work place; • Proposition of means of prevention and proceeds, periodically, with efficiency

controls of the implemented prevention system; • Participation in occupational health and safety information and training courses; • Collaboration on the identification of causes of occupational diseases; • Verification of emission conditions of liquid and gaseous effluents and verification

of solid residue removal conditions.

1.8| Employee An employee is a singular person that, in trade of a payment, obligates himself to work for an employer, including Public Administration, public institutes and other entities of public right, and, as well as, the trainee and the apprentice and all those that are economically dependent of an employer in terms of work and result of its activity, although they are not holders of a public or private legal relationship of work.

1.9| Independent employee

Is a singular person that works for own account.


1.10| Employee representative A representative is an elected person according to the terms defined by law, to undertake employee representative functions in the occupational health and safety domain.

1.11| Employer or employing entity Singular or collective person with one or more employees and is the person responsible for the company or establishment or, when we are talking about non-profit organisms, the person that detains competence to admit workers.

1.12| Work place Every place where an employee is found or where to the employee must direct himself in virtue of his job and is directly or indirectly submitted to the employer’s control.

1.13| Occupational material components These components are the workplaces, the working environment, the tools, the machinery and materials, the chemical, physical and biological substances or agents, the work process and work organization.

1.14| Hazard Hazard is an intrinsic property of a work component liable to cause harm.

1.15 Occupational Risk Occupational Risk is the possibility of an employee to suffer certain damage due to work. To qualify a risk you must jointly value the probability of occurring an injury and its seriousness.


OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY FUNDAMENTALS


2.1| General prevention principles Prevention is the denomination of an action of avoiding or minimizing occupational risks, through a set of chosen measures in all stages of the productive process, this is a set of techniques and/or procedures against accidents. It is often said that there are no safe occupations, all have proper risks. These are potential sources of accidents.

It is known that about 80% of accidents human related: that is why it is important to salient that the primary preoccupation of prevention is the worker.

2.2 Prevention objectives • Contribute to respond to fundamental human rights, which include the right

to life, the right to safety and the right to health surveillance; • Act as a company modernization and competitive factor, improving

productivity, quality, profitability and its position both in internal and external marketplaces.

To make this process possible it is necessary to define a number or sequential preventive actions to take, passing through the following stages: 1| Identification of existing hazards in any work component and proceed to its elimination; 2| Hazard assessment; 3| Fight hazards at their origin; 4| Adapt man to the job; 5| Attend to the evolution state of technology; 6| Substitute what is hazardous for one that is free of hazard or less hazardous; 7| Integrate prevention as a coherent whole; 8| Prioritize collective protection in detriment of individual protection; 9| Training and information.

These stages aim to limit or annul occupational risk side effects and adapt the occupation to man. The main idea to retain is that prevention should pursuit risks and not accidents. 1. Identification of existing hazards in any work component and proceed to its elimination Consists on the identification of existing hazards in every work component, their elimination or reduction if they are not possible to eliminate, prevention should be the first attitude. The elimination should occur right at the conception and project stage, passing also through the working stage. 2. Hazard assessment When hazards are not eliminated, they become risks and, therefore, it is of extreme importance to asses them at the work place. This assessment is realized at the origin (worker, occupational material components, etc.), on how they occur, their greatness, frequency and type of consequences to man.


3. Fight hazards at their origin Prevention is all the more effective the sooner it is put in action. The control action at the hazard source not only avoids its propagation but as well as avoids other risks, eliminating or minimizing all of its subsequent side effects by controlled actions. This principle is included at the essence of prevention and opposes to corrective prevention that is limited to act over risk side effects.

4. Adapt man to the job This principle not only respects the physical components of work (ergonomics), but also its organizational and human components. The grand domains of this principles application are: • Conception of work places and stations; • Selection of work tools and equipments; • Definition of work methods and processes; • Adjusting work rhythms; • Analyze work periods (breaks, night work, work by shifts, etc.)

5. Attend to the evolution state of technology A permanent and profound technical innovation that characterizes modernity produces effects in all domains of the productive activity, therefore only the hazardless or low hazard components of the productive process (equipments, materials and products) should be selected. Prevention should constantly equate the impact of innovation at the following levels: • Physical work components; • Organizational and human components; • Assessment techniques and risk control; • Methodologies of occupational heath and safety management.

6. Substitute what is hazardous for one that is free of hazard or less hazardous Technological evolution presents, simultaneously, improved preventive solutions and new risks, which is why it is always necessary to maintain in permanent functioning risk assessment and control mechanisms and action revisions, in a constant effort to keep up to date knowledge about risks and better working conditions.

7. Integrate prevention as a coherent whole The preventive system must be integrated in an occupational health and safety management system that chooses to implement means of prevention, from production conception, to work organization and working conditions and finally to the social relationships with the company.

8. Prioritize collective protection in detriment of individual protection Individual protection should only be utilised if the collective protection can no longer offer safety solutions to eliminate or minimize hazards. Therefore, individual protection is the last resource for worker protection that is why it is located at the end of the general principles of prevention list. It must only be used when collective protection is not technically possible or insufficient. Individual protection must be: • Adapted to the employee; • Adequate to the risk; • Adequate to the job.


9. Training and information The training and information principle goals are to provide knowledge and skills, to prevent risks associated to their work tasks, to interiorize proper behaviours and improve employee knowledge about the productive process. Information wise the law seeks that every employee is to be informed about: • Risks that threaten their health and safety; • Means of prevention and protection not only for their work stations or functions but

also for the company or establishment where they work; • How to apply the means of prevention and protection; • Measures and instructions to take on in case of immediate and serious danger; • First aid measures and fire fighting and employee evacuation organizational

system in case of accidents; • Alterations that come with changing workstations or functions or introduced or

substituted technologies; • Risk assessment; • Training program and how it is organized; • Who are the designated workers liable for prevention and protection activities and

who is the external consulting source; • Protection equipment; • Work accidents that have already occurred. Training is a process where knowledge is transmitted relatively about strategies and organization methodologies and preventive actions. The goal of training is to work on and develop the workers ability to cooperate with occupational health and safety. So the employer must: • Ensure general training of all employees; • Ensure training to those who are appointed to carry out emergency actions and

those that can have access to serious danger zones; • Promote training of occupational health and safety technicians and of OHS

employee representatives. Employees hold the right to training and as stated in the law, it must be free to them and to their representatives and must occur during work hours. This is applicable for training that is given internally or externally to the company. So, training and information should also be understood as a: • Personal and professional worthiness and development factor; • Safety increase factor; • Increase of effectiveness, efficiency and overall quality at work factor. All employees for these reasons must receive training and information not only about their workstation and function, but as well as about occupational health and safety.


FUNDAMENTAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL ASPECTS OF THE HEALTH AND SAFETY FUNCTION


3.1 Employee representatives and health and safety commission

3.1.1 Employee representatives According to the law, occupational health and safety representatives: • Are elected by employees through a secret and direct vote, according to the

principle of representation of the Hondt´s Method; • Can only compete with lists that are presented by unions that have employees

represented in the company or lists that are subscribed by a minimum of 20% of company employees, no employee can subscribe or be part of more than one list;

• Each list must indicate number of effective candidates equal to eligible places and equal number of substitute candidates;

• Employee representatives may not exceed the following numbers: • Companies with less than 61 employees - one representative; • Companies with 61 to 150 employees – two representatives; • Companies with 151 to 300 employees – three representatives; • Companies with 301 to 500 employees – four representatives; • Companies with 501 to 1000 employees – five representatives; • Companies with 1001 to 1500 employees – six representatives; • Companies with more than 1500 employees – seven representatives; • The employees representatives mandate is three years long; • Representative substitution is only permitted in case of renunciation or definite

impediment. The substitution is done by effective and substitute candidates by order indicated on the list;

• Employee representatives have a five hour credit per month to dedicate to this function;

• Hour credits may not be accumulated with other credit hours that the employee benefits from by being part of other representative structures.

3.2 Occupational health and safety commissions By law and by an occupational collective agreement: • Occupational health and safety commissions can be constituted with a parity

composition; • Employee representatives will select among themselves, by respecting the

principle of proportionality, members of the occupational health and safety commission.

3.3 Employee duties According to the law, employee duties are: • Comply with occupational health and safety prescriptions established by applicable

legal dispositions and OHS instructions defined by the employer; • Ensure own health and safety as well as others health and safety that may be

affected by ones actions or faults;


• Correctly use machinery, appliances, instruments, dangerous substances and other available equipment such as individual and collective protection equipment according to the employer’s instructions as well as comply with established work procedures;

• Cooperate with the company, establishment or service to improve occupational health and safety system;

• Communicate immediately to a superior, or when this is not possible, to a designated worker, any detected faults or deficiencies that may be susceptible to cause immediate and serious danger, as well as any detected flaw in the protection system;

• In case of immediate and serious danger, and with the impossibility to immediately contact with a superior or with a designated worker liable for with health and safety, the worker must put in action measures and instructions specified for that situation.

Employees cannot suffer consequences if they leave their workstation or a dangerous area in the presence of serious or immediate danger that cannot be avoided, not even by applying measures for own or others protection, unless the employee was severely negligent or intentionally provoked the situation. Measures related to occupational health and safety do not imply financial costs to employees, without consequence to disciplinary and civil responsibilities that emerge by incompliance to respective obligations.

3.4 Types of occupational health and safety services When the employer is organizing his occupational health and safety services he may choose one of the following modalities:

a) Internal services b) Common services between companies c) External services.

- If the company has various establishments he may choose a different modality for

each one. - Health activities may be organized apart from safety and hygiene activities, in this

case each one may adopt a different modality and respective laws; - When it is not possible to choose one of the above mentioned health and safety

modalities, the employer may take charge of that responsibility, if he is adequately qualified, considering the size of the company, establishment or service, type of activity, type of occupational risks and respective prevention.

- To enable the employer to carry out this function he needs appropriate authorization from a competent entity.

A| Internal services - Internal services are created by the company, covering exclusively company

employees; - Internal services are integrated in the company structure and function under

superior orders; B| Common company Services - Common company services are created by a plurality of companies or

establishments for their workers to benefit form. - The agreement that creates the common service should constitute a written

document. C| External services - External Services are contracted from other companies by the company;


- The contracting of external Services does not enable the employer to ignore his occupational health and safety responsibilities attributed by law;

- External services may adopt one of the following modalities: - Associative, when services are undergone by a non-profit legally constituted

association; - Cooperative, when services are undergone by a cooperative whose statutes goal

is exclusively occupational health and safety; - Private, the services can be provided by a partnership when the exercise of

occupational health and safety is mentioned in the social pact, or by a legally trained and qualified freelancer;

- Government agreement, when the services are undergone by public entities or integrated in the National Health Service system.

- The employer may adopt a different modality of external services from the above as long as authorized by a competent entity.

D| National Health Service 1 Health promotion and surveillance can be ensured by institutions and services

integrated in the National Health Service in the following cases: - Independent workers (freelancers); - Street vendors; - Seasonal agricultural workers; - Craftsman and his apprentices; - People that work at home; - Housekeepers.

2 Other occupations health and safety can be ensured by institutions and services integrated in the National Health Service in cases where it is impossible to organize these activities, such as:

- Family farms; - Fishing campaigns.

3 Employees in the above mentioned situations must prove their working situation that entitles them to the right to be assisted by institutions and services integrated in the National Health Service.

3.5| Occupational Health and Safety Goals Occupational Health and safety service should orient their activity to the following goals: - Establish and maintain working conditions that ensure employee physical and

mental integrity; - Development of technical conditions that ensure the application of means of

prevention; - Development of conditions and means that ensure information and training for

workers, as well as their participation.


WORK ACCIDENTS AND OCCUPATIONAL DISEASE


After having presented the theme about work accidents the previous unit, we will now present other subjects related to work accidents.

4.1| Work accident repairment To be able to consider the possibility of repairment of a work accident it must aggregate the following characteristics:

- The accident has to occur at the workplace; - The accident has to occur during work hours; - There has to exist a plausible clause (direct or indirect) between the job itself

and the bodily injury, functional disturbance or disease that may result in loss of life or reduction of the workers ability to work.

The law states the following definitions: Work place Every place where an employee is found or where to the employee must direct himself in virtue of his job and is directly or indirectly submitted to the employers´ control. Work period The work period is not only considered the hours that a person works, but also, the time that is spent before and after that period for work preparation and conclusion, that is in some way related to the execution of the job, as well as normal work breaks and forced interruptions that occur during the execution of the job. The law also includes in the concept of work accident the accidents that occur in the following situations:

o On the route (in intinere) to and from the workplace; o During the execution of any provided service that may result in an economic

advantage to the employer, including services provided out of the workplace and works hours;

o That involve employees or employee representatives when expressing the right of participation (for example, reunions) as long as they take place in the workplace

o That occur while attending training courses or practical training that aims to improve the workers preparation or promotion (even if they occur out of the work place as long as there exists a formal authorization slip form the employer);

o While job seeking during credited work hours conceded by law for that purpose to workers that are near termination of actual work contract.

By route in in itinere accidents the following situations must be considered:

o Between the usual or occasional residence of the worker and his work establishments;

o Between employees residence (usual or occasional) or work place and the place where payments are made;

o Between employees residence (usual or occasional) or work place and places where the worker must present himself to receive assistance or treatment for a previous accident;

o Between the workplace and places where meals are served; o Between usual work place and another place where the employee must go

provide services solicited by the employer. We can still consider accidents that occur on route, even if these suffer interruptions or certain detours by situations that need workers attention, due to a stronger force.


4.2| Masking an accident as a work accident In these cases the right to repairment is not considered. 1 The following accidents have no right to repairment:

o Accidents that were intentionally provoked by the victim or by consequence of his actions or by omission, that result in violation, without just cause, of the safety conditions established by the employer or stated by law;

o Accidents that result exclusively from gross negligence; o Accidents that result from permanent or accidental lack of the victims

reasoning, in the terms of civil laws, unless the lack derives from the job itself, and is independent of the victims will or if the employer or his representative, with knowledge of the victims state, consents the provided service;

o Accidents that result from a stronger force.

1 It is only considered cause of stronger force whatever, being derived from inevitable forces of nature, independent of human intervention, does not constitute risk originated by working conditions nor does it result form a service expressly ordered by the employer in evident dangerous conditions.

2 If these situations are verified the employer must provide first aid to the workers and transportation to a place where they can be medically attended. Exclusions: 1 The following situations are excluded from the law:

a) Accidents that occur while providing spontaneous or occasional services, of short duration, to singular persons in activities that do not aim exploit profit;

b) Accidents that occur while executing jobs of short duration to an entity that usually only works with family members and then calls, accidentally, on one or more workers to help.

2 The above mentioned exclusions do not cover accidents that result from the utilization of machinery and of other equipments that are especially dangerous.

4.3| Disability Nature of disability Relatively to the nature of disability work accidents can be considered in various forms:

a) Work accidents can cause temporary or permanent work disability; b) Temporary disability can be partial or absolute; c) Permanent disability can be partial, absolute for the usual job and absolute for any

and every type of job. Temporary disability converts in permanent after 18 consecutive months, after this time the degree of disability is established. To determine the nature and the degree of disability, as well as the value of compensation, it is solicited for the labour court to intervene, in the cases of work related accidents and to the National centre of protection against occupational risks, in case of occupational diseases. The compensation values use as a reference the National table of disability by work accident and occupational diseases.


4.4| Work accident causes Work accidents can be caused by two types of distinct causes:

Types of accident causes Most common examples • Human • Poor work habits;

• Lack of experience; • Lack of or deficient training; • Fatigue; • Stress.

• Material • imperfect materials; • Equipments in poor conditions; • Inadequate physical or chemical

environment

It is statistically proved that more than 80% of work accidents have human causes. That is why it is important to act over man, by providing adequate training and information, with the aim to diminish the number of accidents.

4.5| Communicating a work accident Ways of communicating an accident:

By the victim or victims family members to the employer; By the employer to the insurance company; By the employer to the respective social security institution; By the occupational doctor to the health delegate.

This communication is done by filling out a document that describes the accident as complete as possible that is then sent to the competent entity.

4.6| The costs of Work accidents The costs of work accidents are subdivided in two types: direct and indirect: The direct costs are the most evident they are the ones that can be directly imputed to a given accident and normally can be easily quantified and this is why they are insured. The indirect costs are more unnoticeable, but can have costs three to four times higher than direct costs. Direct costs Indirect costs• Salaries; • Indemnities; • Medical assistance; • Medication; • Increase of insurance premium.

Time lost by the victim and by other workers with: • Rescuing the victim and investigating cause of

accident; • Recovering normal work rhythm; • Repairment of damaged equipments; • Loss of products; • Victims re-integration; • Affect on the company’s image; • Victims suffering; • Victims family suffering; • Time and costs with recruitment, selection and

training of a substitute when necessary; • Loss of production motivated by the influence

caused on other workers.


After many studies about accidents, H.Heinrich reached the conclusion that direct costs and indirect costs have a 1:4 proportion. Using the analogy with an iceberg, the visible part (1/5 of its volume) represents the direct costs and the submersed part (4/5 of its volume) represents the indirect costs, as we can observe in the figure on the side.

Everyone loses with work accidents

The worker loses when he sees his potentialities as a person and as a professional diminish, and also his family loses, the insurance company that pays the indemnity but not the total damages (indirect costs) loses, the company loses because competitiveness decreases, general society loses that has to charge more taxes to compensate losses that result form the decrease of qualified manpower and decrease of richness, etc.

4.7| Consequences of accidents

Any work accident has consequences that not only affect the victim but also the society in general. Possible consequences of work accident victims:

Victim Family Colleagues Company Country

• Human damage • Physical and moral

suffering • Decrease of human

potential

• Human damage

• Suffering; • Preoccupation.

• Human damage

• Bad working environment

• Restlessness • Fear

• Human damage • Affect on image • consternation

• Human damage • Loss of human

potential

• Material damage • Decrease of salary; • Decrease of

professional potential

• Material damage

• Economical difficulties

• Material damage

• Loss of time; • Lower

productivity • Task

accumulation

• Material damage • Loss of production; • Delays on delivery

dates; • Admission and

training of a substitute;

• Increase of costs; • Increase of

insurance

• Material damage • Lower production; • Increase of social

costs; • Decrease of

purchasing ability

We can make the following conclusions: 1 Any type of occupation implicates various levels of risk;

2 It is possible and desired that that risks related to diverse occupations be minimized;

3 Minimizing risks will attenuate consequences.


BIBLIOGRPHY


CABRAL, Fernando; Veiga, Rui; Higiene, Segurança, Sáude e Prevenção de Acidentes de Trabalho, Verlag Dashofer, Edições Profissionais IDICT (Instituto de Desenvolvimento e Inspecção das Condições de Trabalho) , Serviços de Prevenção nas Empresas. Livro Verde, Lisboa, IDICT, 1997. IDICT (Instituto de Desenvolvimento e Inspecção das Condições de Trabalho) , Serviços de Prevenção nas Empresas. Livro Branco, Lisboa, IDICT, 1999. MIGUEL, A. Sérgio. Manual de Higiene e Segurança do Trabalho. Porto, Porto Editora, 1989. MIGUEL, A. Sérgio, Segurança e Higiene do Trabalho. Lisboa, Universidade Aberta, 1998.


Technical Sheet


Coordination of the project Rui Manuel da Torre Vieito Author of the project Rui Manuel da Torre Vieito Sandra Maria Fonseca Veloso Review of the text Arnaldo Varela de Sousa Rui Manuel da Torre Vieito Graphic Design | Multimedia Cláudio Gabriel Inácio Ferreira Programming Jorge Miguel Pereira de Sousa Sequeiros Centro técnico de H.S.T. | EPRALIMA Rua D. Joaquim Carlos Cunha Cerqueira apartado 102 4970-909 Arcos de Valdevez Telef | 258 523 112 | 258 520 320 Fax | 258 523 112 | 258 520 329 www.epralima.com/inforadapt2euprope [email protected] Arcos de Valdevez | July 2008

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