Almirall offers its employees 6,500 hours of training in health and safety
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In 2008, 450 training actions took place
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1,000 employees were involved
Barcelona, 13 July 2009.- Prevention management is one of Almirall’s distinguishing features. In 2008 the company provided its employees in Spain with around 6,500 hours of training, which can be broken down into around 450 training activities to 1,000 participants; an average of 6.5 hours per employee. To aid attendance at these training sessions, different methodologies were employed, ranging from classic classroom training to the online learning training modules. Therefore, 85% of the Almirall Spain workforce received online training.
Commenting on this programme, Carlos Blanquer, General Director Industrial Area, states: “safety and health of all employees in the working environment is a strategic factor for Almirall. This is why we share health and safety action plans with all of them as well as with external companies who work with us in our centres”.
Almirall has its own Prevention Service which, under the guidelines of a committee director, leads start-up and improvement of prevention plans. The service includes the preventive specialities of Occupational Safety, Industrial Hygiene, and Ergonomics and Applied Psychosociology, while a fourth speciality, Work Medicine, has been agreed with an external accredited prevention service. The structure is complemented with assistance from what are known as “safety roles”: people from other departments that take on specific safety functions in the various company areas and work centres.
Almirall milestones in health and safety
As part of its continuous improvement process, Almirall has been implementing risk prevention action plans for some time. In 2008, some of the main actions in the various Almirall centres in Spain were:
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OHSAS 18001:2007 certificate: In 2007 the certifying entity TÜV Rheinland awarded the company the prestigious certificate OHSAS 18001, after an exhaustive evaluation and auditing process, which guarantees that Almirall continuously applies safety and health criteria in the workplace in excess of current legislative standards in Spain.
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Recently, processes to adapt the new version of the OHSAS 18001:2007 were reviewed and new processes started up in the corporate application PREVAL, such as internal audits, safety inspections, audits to suppliers, tutelary information to employees and changes control.
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In January 2009 the second OHSAS 18001 follow-up audit by TÜV Rheinland was undergone successfully, with Almirall being awarded the certificate according to the aforementioned 2007 standard.
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Employee’s sensitisation and training campaign for health and safety entitled "safety and health: our most active principle". This innovative campaign, which was started up in 2007, combines own elements from an internal communication campaign and elements from a marketing campaign.
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119 risk assessments in sites and workstations.
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Over 80 safety inspections and internal audits.
Almirall’s products are currently present in over 70 countries while it has direct presence in Europe and Latin America through 11 affiliates.
Press release