PRESENTAtioN

In our safety-conscious world, it is a known fact that work-related accident rates are far higher, compared to other societies, than is acceptable. This has raised doubts about the real application of ethical and responsible conduct, in contrast with its use for strategic purposes.
 
The responsibility of employers for matters involving labour relations and the responsibility of everyone in the organisation for safety concerns, elements laid down in legislation on Health and Safety at Work (the “Ley de Prevención de Riesgos Laborales”), are examples of how social expectations become transformed into rules which serve as guidelines for safe and healthy practices. 

The pillars underpinning the objectives of these rules are consultation with the workers and their inclusion in decisions affecting them, together with adequate training and the provision of information.

It is necessary to open the discussion from the perspective of ethics and social responsibility as being concepts of comprehensive management of Health and Safety in the workplace, at the same time describing the real situation of companies and the small and medium-sized firms (“Pymes”- Pequeñas y Medianas Empresas) that supply them.  Consideration should also be given as to which preventive measures are being imposed on companies by the markets themselves in response to social demands, bearing in mind that production practices based on the integration of resources, such as compromise and trust, have been proved to be profitable.

Health and Safety policies in the workplace are one of the basic aspects of Social Responsibility and are used as parameters by companies to measure their progress in this respect. “Socially responsible” companies are those that adopt an authentic culture of precaution in their organisation at all levels of the hierarchy and take into account the considerations of all its spokespeople and interest groups. To achieve this, it is not enough simply to observe the rules; there is a need to go beyond what is mandatory. Social policies should therefore be integrated in the day-to-day running of the company in such a way that they become a guiding element in its functioning, given the fact that “company image is a reflection of the welfare of its workers”.

In view of this conviction, the Galician Regional Assembly would like all of you to share the added value of the celebration of this “First International Congress on Occupational Risk Prevention and Corporate Social Responsibility in Small and Medium-sized Companies.”