The new Occupational Safety, Health and Well-being Plan of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Employment will promote the implementation in SMEs of plans to improve the physical and mental health of workers to reduce the accident rate due to cardiovascular accidents and that they come “happy ” to their posts and thus increase their productivity. The initial objective is to reach 200 companies in the Community.
The Minister of Industry, Commerce and Employment, Mariano Veganzones, signed protocols with the official associations of nutritionists, physiotherapists, psychologists, physical trainers and occupational therapists with which they will generate a letter of services for companies that want to implement these plans, within a “absolutely pioneering” program in Spain in the fight against workplace accidents.
In February, Veganzones said, his department will issue a call endowed with half a million euros to implement these plans, with the help of these professionals, as well as for the acquisition of defibrillators to have condio-protected spaces in companies, and the creation of a hallmark of a heart-healthy company in Castilla y León.
Mariano Veganzones clarified that it is about establishing stress control plans, a healthy diet, physical improvement, postural or sleep hygiene, rest, leisure and social participation, within an action that will be accompanied by training and dissemination initiatives in all provinces. , the publication of a monograph in the Castilla y León prevention magazine and the creation of new digital spaces on its website.
The counselor specified that it is a new line of work “innovative, pioneering in Spain”, in cooperation with professional associations to “improve the physical, mental and social health” of workers and companies. He asserted that wellness plans “generate tangible and intangible returns, make it easier to retain talent, increase productivity, lower healthcare costs, workers are healthier and more motivated, with decent and healthy jobs, because all workers are essential.”
Some plans whose essential objective is to reduce the occupational accident rate by intervening in cardiovascular risk factors, which are the leading cause of death in the workplace. “The vast majority of deaths are caused by cardiovascular accidents, diseases such as strokes or heart attacks, which take place at work. We want to emphasize that we have to attack this symptomatology through prevention in new areas of safety and health at work ”, he reasoned.
The general director of Labor and Risk Prevention, Fernando de la Parte, specified that 2022 closed with 26,138 accidents at work, three percent more than in 2021, with 51 fatalities, compared to 42 in 2021, an increase that is explained by the eight most produced by cerebrovascular accidents, which killed 23 workers, 45 percent of the total. “Wellness programs are aimed at intervening on them.” There were also 219 serious ones, 459 occupational diseases were declared, and 2,487 occurred commuting, although the accident rate per thousand workers hardly changed, going from 28.51 in 2021 to 28.79 in 2022, below the average national of 29.5.