Comparative analysis of the duties and responsibilities of interveners in matter of health and safety in construction sites within the countries forming “Europe’s 15”

Abstract

Spain is among the European countries with highest rate of accidents in the construction sector, but in a contradictory way, it has relatively new and very broad laws. In the European field, this activity is also considered as a high-risked one, in fact, the Council of the European Communities, in its resolution of December 21st, 1987, chose construction among three of greatest risk and instructed the Commission to develop a directive which culminated in the one identified as 92/57/CEE, June 24th, 1992, related to construction activity, while the conversion into our legal system was carried out by RD 1627-97, October 24th. The study of the different conversions from 92/57/CEE Directive to the legal system of every country comprised in the European Union through the information provided by several European organizations such as the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work or CEN - the European Committee for Standardisation, has given us through its analysis, contrast and discussion of such documentation, information on how to carry out the different obligations of agents involved in the construction process emanating from the 92/57/CEE directive, knowing the legal pros and cons of each one and reflecting on the suitability of the current methodology development in the construction sites in Spain. In the same way, it has been tried to establish a series of organizational improvements in the field of Preventive Planning, which by now is scarce and poor, and has emerged as one of the main causes of accidents in the construction sector. Already in 1991, Lorent’s report stated that over 70% of accidents involving construction workers were caused by failures in the project. This work has within its targets to improve planning and management tools that we have on safety and health at work proposing alternatives to the present.