PREVENTION OF MUSCULUOSKELETAL DISORDERS ( MSDs ) WITHIN THE CONSTRUCTION TESTING LABS

1. S.C. HIDROCONSTRUCTIA S.A. PREVENTION OF MUSCULUOSKELETAL DISORDERS (MSDs) WITHIN THE CONSTRUCTION TESTING LABS www.hidroconstructia.com

2. S.C. HIDROCONSTRUCTIA S.A. • 57 years of activity • Joint stock Company since 1995 • 11 subsidiaries • about 10,000 employees • Head office in Bucharest Calea Dorobantilor 103 – 105Sector 1, Bucuresti – RomaniaCod:010561 Telefon:+40.(0).21.20.81.400 Fax:+40.(0).21.208.14.01 E-mail: office@hidroconstructia.com

3. During its 50 years of activity, S.C. Hidroconstructia S.A. developed the main hydrographic basins in the country, by performing both in Romania and abroad (Algeria, Iran, Germany) dam works, headraces and HPPs in various construction solutions as follows: • 186 HPPs with an installed power of 6960 KW • 185 dams with an accumulated volume of over 10,500 million cu.m. of water • 740 Km underground galleries • 573 million cu.m. excavations • 505 million cu.m. backfillings • The complexity of the hydrotechnic developments called for the approach of a whole range of construction works by performing besides the hydropower specific works, also civil and industrial ones, roads and bridges, edilitary works, land slide stabilization works, waste ecologic storing facilities, plant repair works, metal structures, reinforced concrete prefabs. S.C. HIDROCONSTRUCTIA S.A.

4. At present Hidroconstructia carries out the following types of constructions: -  hydrotechnical, civil, industrial, edilitary (water supplies, sewerage systems); -   roads and bridges; -   performance and maintenance of forest roads; -   land reclamations works and environment protection; -   production of concretes, aggregates for concretes and concrete prefab products; -   metal structures and constructions. S.C. HIDROCONSTRUCTIA S.A.

5. CERTIFIED MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS • The Quality Management System – as per the reference standard SR EN ISO 9001:2001 of 2000 with LLOYD’S REGISTERED • The Labour Healths and Safety Management System – as per the reference standard OHSAS 18001:1999 of 2001 with TUV Rheinland, being recertified in 2007 • The Environment Management System – as per the reference standard SR EN ISO 14001:1997 of 2001 with TUV Rheinland, being recertified in 2005 as per the reference standard SR EN ISO 14001:2005. S.C. HIDROCONSTRUCTIA S.A.

6. Main riscs related to the works carried out by the Company • The riscs were identified according to the labour system components: • A. Performer: • - Wrong actions: defaulty performance of operations, lack of operation timing, performance of operations not mentioned in the labour duties (start up, interruption of technical equipment running, travel/stand by in hazardous areas, travel with falling hazard, etc. • - Omissions, etc. • B. Labour duties: • - Unsuitable content of labour duties (wrong operations, rules, procedures, succession of operations, etc) • - Under/over sized charge as compared to the performer’s capacity: • physical effort (static and dynamic effort, vicious working positions) • psychic (high working rhythm, difficult decision on a short term, etc.) S.C. HIDROCONSTRUCTIA S.A.

7. C. Production mens: - Mechanic risk factors: hazardous movements (maschine parts in movement, movement of transport means, self starting or self blocking, movement under gravity effect, under propulsion effect, hazardous surfaces or contours, pressure retaining vessels, excessive vibrations) - Thermal risk factors: high or low temperature of objects or surfaces, fire, flames. - Electric risk factors: electric curent - Chemical risk factors: toxic, caustic, flamable and explosive substances. S.C. HIDROCONSTRUCTIA S.A.

8. D. Working environment: - Microclimate factors: air temperature and humidity, air currents, noise, vibrations, lighting, radiations, natural catastrophies. - Chemical risk factors: gases, steam, dust in air suspension, flammable gases or steam or explosives - Biologic risk factors: bacteria, viruses, fungus, hazardous plants and animals. - Special character of environment. S.C. HIDROCONSTRUCTIA S.A.

9. Activities with risks caused by the physical effort of the workers: Due to a large approach of construction works tipes by SC Hidroconstructia SA there are very many activities and working places or jobs which involve manual activities of hoisting, drawing, pushing, manual transport and weight handling, out of which mention should be made of: - masonry activities; - concrete prefab erection and performance activities; - sewerage and water supply works; - material handling in the company’s stores and on sites; - concrete vibration and shotcreting - erection of steel - concrete rebars - handling of weight in construction testing labs S.C. HIDROCONSTRUCTIA S.A.

10. The topic of good practice shown in this paper is represented by the Prevention of Musculuoskeletal Complaints (MSD) in the Company’s construction testing labs. PRESENTATION OF THE S.C. HIDROCONSTRUCTIA S.A. LABS 11 central labs and 51 unit labs operate within the Company’s subsidiaries. They are authorized by the State inspector in constructions for multiple construction analyses and tests, on materials component elements and works, during all performance stages. S.C. HIDROCONSTRUCTIA S.A.

11. The Company’s testing labs adopted a qualities system concieved as part of the existing quality management system of the Company. The Quality System was issued in 1994, having as references the standards SR EN ISO 9001:94 and SR EN 45001:93. At present the Quality System in the labs is issued having as a reference SR EN ISO/CEI 17025:2001 “General requirements for the testing lab competence”. Based on the existence of the Quality System the labs grant suitable trust in the quality of their services. In order to grant their clients more trust in the services performed by the Company’s labs their accreditation was decided and therefore the labs of the following subsidiaries were accredited: Ardeal, Arges, Bistra, Jiu, Moldova, Olt Inferior, Olt Superior, Iron Gates, Raul Mare Retezat. S.C. HIDROCONSTRUCTIA S.A.

12. The activity of the labs is focused on carrying out tests on: 1. grounds 2. natural aggregates for concretes 3. cements 4. additives 5. water 6. ashes 7. material for bentonitic munds 8. concrete, reinforced concrete, precompressed concrete 9.non-distructive verifications and verification of construction behaviour in running 10.masonry and walls 11.mortars for plastering and masonry 12.concrete steel, wire or welded mesh rebars 13.natural aggregates for railway and road works 14.materials for roads 15.sanitary installations S.C. HIDROCONSTRUCTIA S.A.

13. Due to the European campaign of this year whose motto is “Reduce the effort”, the Company launched an identification and analysis action for the activities and professions involving a physical effort passable to induce musculuoskeletal complains. To this end, after having gathered all data, the physical efforts made by the workers within the construction testing labs were found to be pretty high and the concentrated actions to prevent them within the whole Company were rather small until this year. A risk evaluation commission was formed at the Company level which identified, evaluated and proposed the measures for risk reduction/elimination; this commission reviewed all construction testing labs within the Company. S.C. HIDROCONSTRUCTIA S.A.

14. The solutions proposed by the Risk Evaluation Commission were endorsed by the LHS Committee. The necessary resources to prevent the risks evaluated within the construction testing labs were included and approved with the Company’s investment program for 2007. The main risk factors identified for the activities within the construction testing labs are the following: - handling of very high weights by hoisting, transporting and positioning them; - unconfortable working positions upon weight handling; - the worker’s standing position; - the sizes and shape of production means. S.C. HIDROCONSTRUCTIA S.A.

15. Categories of personnel employed in the construction testing labs Out of the table above there results that the total number of employees performing their activity within the construction testing labs of the Company is of 192 out of which 142 are women and 50 are men. This situation shows that more than 70 % of the workers are women and more than half are in the age group of over 45 years, which represents a high risk factor to caused musculuoskeletal complains. S.C. HIDROCONSTRUCTIA S.A.

16. The situation of the workers’ health status within the construction testing labs Medical leaves: The Human Resources Department together with the Company GPs at each subsidiary and with the Prevention and Protection Departments reviewed the recorded medical leaves of the workers within the labs. The said medical leaves were found to be extremely frequent and the predominant diagnosis is of musculuoskeletal conditions. Subsequent to the review the back pain conditions were found to have a bigger share of the medical leave days consequence of the issued medical leaves. Part of these back pain conditions can be considered as professional illness. The conclusion is that the risks connected to the manual handling of weights represent an issue to be solved immediately. S.C. HIDROCONSTRUCTIA S.A.

17. Working manner before the risk assessment and their annalysis S.C. HIDROCONSTRUCTIA S.A.

18. Working manner before the risk assessment and their annalysis Working manner before the risk assessment and their annalysis S.C. HIDROCONSTRUCTIA S.A.

19. Working manner before the risk assessment and their annalysis S.C. HIDROCONSTRUCTIA S.A.

20. Working manner before the risk assessment and their annalysis Working manner before the risk assessment and their analyses S.C. HIDROCONSTRUCTIA S.A.

21. Working manner before the risk assessment and their analyses S.C. HIDROCONSTRUCTIA S.A.

22. Undertaken actions: • The formation of risk evaluation commissions at the Company/subsidiary level which identified, evaluated the risk factors and proposed measures for their reduction/elimination; • Questioning of employees with regard to the measures taken and their indorsement in the LHS committees. • The asignement of working duties acording to each individual, especially those concerning the manual handling of weights, correlated with the respective worker’s health status. • The proposal to include in the Company’s investment program for 2007 the purchase of labour equipment to replace and/or mitigate the workers’ physical effort within the labs; • The on going training of the workers with regard to the meeting of the LHS requirements at the working place and to the manual handling of weights. S.C. HIDROCONSTRUCTIA S.A.

23. SC HIDROCONSTRUCTIA SA cooperated with “Punctul Focal Romania” of the European Agency for LHS in this mater - form used for the identification of risk factors: Manual handling of weights - risk identification sheet S.C. HIDROCONSTRUCTIA S.A.

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37. CONCLUSIONS: This year’s topic proposed by the European Agency for LHS whose assumed by our Company as well, fact which determined the promotion of an integrated managerial approach in dealing with the musculuoskeletal complains, which included both the prevention of the said complains and the maintenance in activity or professional rehabilitation and reintegration of workers suffering of musculuoskeletal complains. The implementation of this campaign within the activity of the construction testing labs involved a great financian effort wich shall be also maintained during thr next years, had a benefic effect for the directly involved workers in such activities because both their working conditions were improved due to the purchase of labour equipment meant to replace the physical effort and their level of training and awareness was increased. S.C. HIDROCONSTRUCTIA S.A.