“Workers and laborers in the construction industry doing outdoor work, a core business of ACCIONA, are particularly vulnerable to heat stroke”
A few days before the Philippines celebrates Labor Day on May 1, The World Day for Safety and Health at Work is celebrated every April 28 to raise global awareness on the prevention of occupational accidents and diseases.
This is towards the assimilation of a safety and health culture to help reduce the number of work-related injuries and death.
Led by the International Labor Organization, a tripartite United Nations agency, of governments, employers’ organizations, and workers’ organizations from 187 member States, this advocacy emphasizes the need to ensure that all work environments employ occupational safety and health practices for their workforce.
According to the Philippine Statistics Authority’s pre-pandemic data from the Integrated Survey on Labor and Employment- Module on Occupational Injuries and Diseases conducted in 2019, a total 37,513 occupational accidents were reported in industries in the Philippines.
From the 38,305 surveyed that had 20 or more employees, approximately 10.9 percent (4,186) experienced a number of work-related accidents.
In terms of individual cases, these accidents resulted to 40,892 injuries which was a 1.9 percent decrease compared to 2017 data.
One percent of the cases were fatal while about 42.7 percent were non-fatal with lost workdays.
The majority of the injury cases (56.6 percent) only required first-aid or medical treatment and were able to return to work the next day.
By industry sector, manufacturing had the highest incidents of occupational injuries at 42.7 percent of the total cases. Next are workers doing administrative and support service activities at 11.1 percent and construction services at 9.5 percent.
The global shift towards automation and digital technologies is while confronting the planetary impact of climate change is changing the work environment with less physical rigors but pressures that pose new occupational risks involving psychosocial stress and non-communicable diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, and cancer.
In fitting response to this global celebration of the human workforce, ACCIONA, a global leader in sustainable infrastructure and renewable energy solutions, recently hosted the 2nd Health and Safety Day 2024 on April 18 in Taguig City.
More than 200 health and safety professionals from various public and private organizations gathered in symposia to share insights on advancing workplace safety practices and employing new innovations to address the impacts of climate change on occupational safety and health.
Most interesting was the presentation on ACCIONA’s new Smart Control Center and the Health and Safety Center which aims to revolutionize health and safety management by incorporating cutting-edge technologies.
Powered with artificial intelligence, the Smart Control Center enables real-time monitoring of the workplace and provides enterprise managers with data, predictive analysis and guidance for more proactive risk management in their workplace environment.
Based on an intelligent prevention model, the Health and Safety Center can be managed remotely from virtually anywhere.
It monitors various parameters related to health and safety, including incidents, risks, and safety protocols. ACCIONA leverages the center’s technology to improve safety management across all its work centers.
In his keynote speech, ACCIONA Southeast Asia Infrastructure Managing Director Mr. Ruben Camba emphasized their commitment to sustaining a safe and healthy workplace driven by innovative initiatives like their AI powered Smart control Center which revolutionized risk prediction by enabling them to initiate preemptive interventions before incidents occur.
Among the issues tackled during the event were re the impacts of climate change and most relevant are the successive days of dangerously high heat index sweeping the country reaching 42 to 47 degrees Celsius.
Schools have been disrupted forcing classes to be suspended, adjustments in schedules, and resorting back to online/asynchronous mode.
Deaths from heat stroke have also been reported.
Workers and laborers in the construction industry doing outdoor work, a core business of ACCIONA, are particularly vulnerable.
The experts pointed out other factors that are stress-related such as lack of sleep directly affect the performance of employees which will eventually reflect on a company’s productivity.
In addition to prioritizing compensation for accidents, the participants recognized the need to focus on policy formulation to address safety concerns.
Equally crucial are programs in capacity building, training, and research to enhance safety measures.
The participants agreed that to overcome the challenges that companies encounter to implement safety standards, investment and commitment to sustain safety and health programs and engaging relevant stakeholders is crucial.
The Department of Labor represented by Engr. Jose Maria Batino likewise acknowledged the “need to integrate resiliency in occupational safety and health programs.”
The good wellbeing of all employees of any enterprise, regardless of size and sector, is a foundational requisite for achieving business objectives which will then collectively impact the local and national socio-economic dynamics of the country.