The black spot of workplace accidents: almost 9 accidents a day in Campo de Gibraltar

The Campo de Gibraltar region in Cádiz, made up of eight municipalities, can be considered one of the main industrial hubs in the region.. At the same time, it is one of the areas of Spain in which the most workplace accidents occur: 2,943 from January to November of last year.. The unions warn of this trend that they consider worrying, while the Labor Inspection confirms that the region receives preferential treatment in the planning of inspection activities and in the assignment of active inspection officials.

The answer to this high rate of workplace accidents in the Cadiz region is that “companies prioritize money over the health of their employees”. This is how blunt Pepe Gavilán, head of Occupational Health at CCOO in Campo de Gibraltar, is, who continually makes visits to the work centers to inspect that the regulations are complied with.. In this way, it ensures that in this petrochemical hub in which refineries and heavy industry prevail, one of the main ones in the province, safety measures are complied with..

According to the data managed by the union, from January to November 2023, 2,943 work accidents occurred.. That is, 8.81 each day. Of all of them, seven were serious and three were fatal.. Algeciras is the municipality hardest hit by this reality, with 1,564 minor accidents, two serious ones and the three that occurred with a fatal outcome.. The rest are distributed, from greatest to least presence, between San Roque, Los Barrios, La Línea de la Concepción, Tarifa, Jimena de la Frontera and Castellar de la Frontera. In San Martín del Tesorillo no accidents have been recorded in these 11 months.

As Gavilán relates, the most frequent accidents are due to entrapment, falls of suspended load and those related to musculoskeletal conditions.. “Many times, these accidents are the result of not having previously carried out an exhaustive evaluation of the risks faced by workers, who regularly carry out repetitive movements with loads,” specifies the union member..

Although there is a decrease in this type of accidents at the state level, the same does not happen in this dark corner of Spanish occupational safety.. Gavilán still remembers with some regret how two workers died when they fell into a high-voltage cistern dedicated to cleaning sewage, those composed of waste that arrive through the pipes of buildings.. “They fell in and were trapped, so they drowned in the mud,” he specifies..

The other worker from the Campo de Gibraltar region, who lost his life while carrying out his duties as an employee, died after being trapped in a generator 70 meters high, recalls the head of Occupational Health.. “As soon as we find out about this type of accident, we implement a protocol to try to gather as much information about what happened as possible, because many times the company denies us entry to the business premises,” he explains..

Gavilán summarizes the situation in which companies “prefer to save a few euros instead of investing that money in prevention, and this is what we continually detect after our evaluations,” as the CCOO member reiterates.. In this sense, the Confederation of Businessmen of the Province of Cádiz has declined to respond to the questions posed by El Confidencial..

“On repeated occasions, the middle managers in charge of reviewing the safety of the production processes do not do their job and, in the end, the workers are forced to perform functions that put their lives at risk,” denounces Gavilán.. His anger and astonishment increases when, once meeting with the businessmen, they tell him that they are unaware of the Occupational Risk Prevention Law, especially small and medium-sized businessmen..

The same risk assessments

The person responsible for Occupational Health for this region, hard hit by workplace accidents, considers that everything would be easier without the employers demanding compliance with safety plans and the application of the Occupational Risk Prevention Law, as well as carrying out a correct risk assessment. These evaluations, the specialist confesses, are a cut and paste from each other, copied word by word from one position to another, paraphrasing their terms..

The criticism increases when Gavilán realizes that the risk assessments are so generic that they repeatedly do not even address the possible accidents that a worker may have in his or her job.. “Risk assessments are a living thing. If you have to change them a thousand times, they are changed a thousand times, because not all of us have the same strength or physiognomy.. What we cannot agree to is that it has to be the worker who adapts to the evaluation, and not the other way around,” he says..

As is usually the case, men predominately stand out among women injured in their jobs or while traveling to them.. Without going any further, 1,327 men suffered a work accident in Algeciras during the period between January and November 2023, compared to 242 women.. In the eight municipalities there were 2,394 accidents compared to 549 accidents.

For Gavilán, this result is a consequence of the “masculinization” of the jobs that exist in Campo de Gibraltar: “If we talk about the steel industry, there are few women on the job, the majority are in offices or in positions of responsibility.. However, if I go to the hospital in the region, they completely rule,” he illustrates..

Outside of official data

The fact that there are almost nine workplace accidents every day in Campo de Gibraltar is worrying, but alarm bells go off if the statistics do not faithfully reflect reality.. “We are even investigating serious cases such as those that occur in a refinery, where if an employee of one of its subcontractors has an accident, instead of notifying the competent authorities, they send them home with paid leave,” criticizes Gavilán.. That is, this accident is outside the statistics and any type of investigation..

Given this situation, employees' fear of employer retaliation plays a key role.. “They are very afraid of being fired, which is why it is difficult to find witnesses to the accident who want to present themselves as such in the investigation of the case,” adds the expert.. In reality, as he says, it would not be the first time that a worker who demands security in his job finds himself with a veiled dismissal as a consequence..

Preferential treatment

The Ministry of Labor, and more specifically the Inspection, affirm that “Campo de Gibraltar represents in the province of Cádiz one of the main, if not the main, region from a business and economic point of view.. This means that it is given preferential treatment both in the planning of inspection activities and in the assignment of active inspection officials.”.

The sources consulted also emphasize that the Labor Inspection has “a delegate office in Algeciras to serve companies and workers in Campo de Gibraltar.”. Asked about the reason for this high rate of workplace accidents in the region, the Inspection responds that it is not their responsibility to “analyze the evolution or characterization of the accident rate, without prejudice to the fact that all the data and statistics referring to it are taken into account. consideration for better use of public resources”. On the other hand, they also emphasize that the autonomous communities and social partners play a certain role in the task of reducing accidents.. “It is worth remembering in this context that the prevention of occupational risks is an obligation of companies,” they conclude..