| Health and Safety Management System to be Launched in Madrid |
|
At the end of 2003 the ‘Safety and Health at Work for Disabled People’ project was initiated. Co-funded by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, with the collaboration of USEL, the Spanish organisations Fundosa Group and the ONCE Foundation has undertaken an ambitious European Project that contributes to palliate the lack of specificity when it comes to health and safety at work, particularly in the case of people with disabilities.
The project aim was to provide SME’s with a complete Occupational Health and Safety Management System with special emphasis on workers with disabilities, thus contributing to improving the quality of life at work, and also to advance full integration and inclusion in the workplace.
The project has created an Occupational Health and Safety management System based on OSHA 18001 regulations. The system has been contrasted throughout its implementation in four different companies of the Fundosa Group, all SME’s with disabled people in their staff and with input from Northern Ireland SME’s, which work within the disability sector.
USEL as partner in the project, facilitated input from organisations such as Cedar Foundation, Action Mental Health and Orchardville Society. Mivan also provided expert advice from the private employer point of view and experience.
A number of observation visits, which included the 4 Spanish and 4 Northern Ireland SME’s, were conducted, as a means of contrasting the applicability of the System to any SME with disabled employees.
As a conclusion, the project includes a final seminar, to be held in Madrid on the 16th and 17th September 2004, which will reflect on the problems, solutions and trends in relation to the integration of the disability dimension in the field of health and safety in the workplace. Likewise a presentation about the main characteristics of the System and the conclusions reached through its implementation will be considered. The seminar will be attended by a variety of speakers from official institutions that deal with health and safety at work, as well as companies, social economy entities, and people with disabilities.
Finally 1000 CD-ROMS were published in English and Spanish explaining the Occupational Health and Safety System in detail, as well as other relevant information. These contents will be available online after the seminar event.
Anyone interested in attending the seminar or obtaining further information about the project should contact:
Gwen Mills at: gmills@usel.co.uk or telephone: 028 9035 6600
|
|
| G Mills |
|
