High air temperatures are unbearable for workers who do outdoor work. According to the scenes from the construction site, employers do not care about employees who can put themselves in a life-threatening condition by staying on hot concrete for a long period.
Construction sites in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) are often places where violations of regulations are visible, and it is evident even these days when air temperatures reach 40 degrees Celsius.
Health workers have long warned that much more attention should be paid to this profile of BiH workers, primarily by adjusting working conditions and shortening working hours, but many employers obviously do not care about their health.
Few construction sites are currently active in the Tuzla area, and visibly exhausted from the heat, workers are unlikely to talk to reporters. However, on the hot concrete, through a conversation with one of the builders, journalists found out that these days are unbearable for his team.
“It is difficult, since we are in the sun all day, but a person gets used to absolutely everything. The sun, heat, winter, and snow are what accompany our work. The job needs to be done, and we are required to meet deadlines. You know it yourself, this is the situation in BiH, work is very important for all of us in order to feed our family, pay off the loan installment,” the interlocutor pointed out.
At the beginning of July, the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Policy issued a recommendation to employers on the implementation of measures for protection against high temperatures, while the unions proposed the abolition of working hours in the hottest part of the day, which means from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. But, for employers, it is not worth the paper it is written on.
“Inspections have the most important role in this whole storybecause they would contribute the most to compliance with all existing regulations. However, it is obvious that they do not make enough effort to change the current situation. They must act more repressively because without that improvements in the construction field and implementation of more humane working conditions, will certainly not be possible, ” Skamo emphasized.
As it was confirmed, fortunately, inhumane working conditions to date in Tuzla and Sarajevo Canton have not resulted in heatstroke and other threatening conditions when it comes toconstruction and workers in other industries, which are forced to work outdoors.
Contrary to the recommendations of the federal ministry, the new Federation of BiH (FBiH) Law on Occupational Safety is good for the union on paper, but it needs to be put into practice in order to reduce injuries and deaths in the construction field.
This could follow only at the end of this year because employers have a deadline until November this year to adjust the regulations and acts in their companies, Klix.ba writes.
E.Dz.
