The government is stepping up its efforts to combat accidents in the construction sector: Last week, Deputy Minister of the Economy MK Yair Golan announced a planned revolution in the field of work safety in Israel. As part of the program, a new authority will be founded for work safety and occupational health. The authority will bring together all the governmental agencies involved in work safety and will adopt the "Safety Stars" program.
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Golan made the announcement at a conference of the Construction and Infrastructure Sector Safety Headquarters operated by the Foundation for the Encouragement and Development of the Construction Industry, the General Organization of Workers, and the Israel Builders Association. The conference was attended by representatives of about 200 construction companies from all over the country and all fields of construction, alongside regulators in the industry.
According to the new initiative led by Golan, in addition to founding the new authority, the government will introduce changes in the ways in which work safety planning, training, and enforcement procedures are carried out. The highlight of the activity will be legislating a Basic Law on work safety.
"We're entering a period of transition from animosity to partnership between the training and enforcement agencies and construction companies in Israel," said MK Golan at the conference. "Our program will incorporate training, supervision, and compensation for excellence in the field of work safety. One of the steps will be to adopt the 'Safety Stars' program led by the Construction Sector Safety Headquarters, which will gradually become mandatory for all contractors in Israel."
The deputy minister added: "Two issues that have to change as part of the reform involve the collection and processing of data, and the publication of conclusions among all those involved in planning, construction, and enforcement. I'm not happy with the current state of enforcement and it will improve with the new law, which will organize responsibility and authority over work safety. But it is also necessary to grant recognition and compensation to those who invest efforts in this field.
Alongside cooperation with the sector itself, we also need to collaborate with the relevant government ministries – the Housing Ministry, the Ministry of Interior, and the Ministry of Agriculture. Local government should also be involved in the war on work accidents, based on the understanding that local authorities are responsible for what happens in their territory."
Raul Srugo, President of the Israel Builders Association and the Foundation for the Encouragement and Development of the Construction Sector, which operate the sector's Safety Headquarters, said: "We at the Builders Association changed our approach to safety years ago. We can see the change gradually seeping in at a great many construction sites.
"We budget the Foundation for Encouragement and Development and will continue to invest high sums in order to finance activities meant to save workers' lives." He added: "The government's involvement, led by Yair, is crucial. The contractors must send workers to safety training programs twice – all of them. In the coming year we will lay emphasis on working with small contractors and eliminating the phenomenon of companies that are not listed in the Contractors Registry yet were inspected according to law before beginning construction."
Head of the Construction and Infrastructure Sector Safety Headquarters Maj. Gen. (ret.) Eyal Ben-Reuven: "The 'Safety Stars' program, which Yair decided to implement nationally, is a culture-changing program that, in its first year of operation, has already been adopted at hundreds of construction sites throughout the country.
"The program includes planning, management, special training, and in-depth learning of investigative processes meant to prevent accidents, performed with us by former senior officers in the Air Force. Its results can already be felt on the ground. We believe that the decision of the Deputy Minister of the Economy will bring a surge of activity in the construction and infrastructure sector geared towards accident prevention, the results of which will be felt immediately on the ground."
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Itzhak Moyal, chairman of the Construction and Allied Industries Workers Union, said at the conference: "We're fully cooperating with the Builders Association, and together we're leading the safety revolution. The government and the Knesset have announced their wish to be part of the revolution. I'm glad the Workers Union is involved not only in the activity itself but also budget-wise and in allocating resources to make sure workers are safe. The road is long, and we have to complement the step taken by Deputy Minister Golan with professional training."
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