Eduardo González
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will conduct an Occupational Risk Assessment at the Spanish Consulate General in Casablanca following a complaint filed by the Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) union after a non-consulate employee died last January when an elevator collapsed in the building.
On January 30, the Secretary for Occupational Risk Prevention, Psychosocial Risks, and Occupational Health of the CCOO Foreign Service Section, Miguel Montero Lange, conducted a working visit to the Consulate General in Casablanca to directly assess the conditions of the building and the workplaces, “particularly in light of the tragic accident in which an elevator collapsed, resulting in the death of a person not affiliated with the consulate, meaning one who was not part of the consulate’s workforce and had not used its services,” the union reported in a press release.
According to the union, the visit revealed “cables everywhere, understaffed spaces and overcrowded offices, an enormous workload that cannot be managed with the current staffing, serious psychosocial risk issues as a result, and serious structural problems that are compounded by the danger posed by an elevator system that does not meet even the most basic safety standards.”
Following the report presented by the Secretary of Occupational Health, “who was the only union representative to assess the situation on-site,” CCOO denounced “the institutional neglect that has been occurring for years at this center” and demanded “an urgent Risk Assessment.”
Likewise, at the end of January, CCOO-Exterior sent a report to the General Subdirectorate of Personnel of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs detailing “the serious structural deficiencies of the building that houses the Consulate” and which “require urgent intervention by the Ministry.” These include “the high levels of psychosocial risk faced by staff” as a result of “the workload and precarious employment conditions suffered by this group” and “the lack of preventive measures,” which “compromises staff safety.” “The evacuation routes are inadequate, the archives pose a danger to staff safety, the furniture is deteriorating, and there is no evacuation plan or emergency drills,” it added.
For all these reasons, CCOO-Exterior demanded “the immediate implementation of an Occupational Risk Assessment at the aforementioned center.” At the time of the latest Information Bulletin on Occupational Risk Prevention (ORP) for Personnel Abroad, published in early April, the union was able to “confirm that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has finally agreed to carry out this assessment, which will be carried out as a priority.”
The Diplomat has contacted the Ministry to confirm this and to obtain more details about the Occupational Risk Assessment at the Consulate General in Casablanca, but has not received any information so far.
On March 21, the Association of Spanish Diplomats (ADE) denounced “the poor condition of many of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ buildings abroad,” specifically the embassies and consulates, whose “deterioration” poses “a serious risk to both the people who work there and the public who visit them” and causes “reputational damage to our country’s image.”