The construction industry in Morocco hires more than 1,000,000 employees each year, of whom over two-thirds have never worked in the industry. There are many casualties in the sector: available statistics on work-related accidents show approximately 2,000 fatalities and more than 50,000 employees suffering from a lost-time accident. Compared to Western Europe, the mortality rate is 15 times higher. As a result, safety is a major issue for all concerned: the State, institutions, companies and employees. To date, many construction companies are still not very aware of health and safety issues at work, despite the known risks of incidents caused by working at heights, the use of lifting equipment and construction machinery.
In response to this issue, in 2018/2019 CETEMCO has implemented a development project called SALAMA II “Promotion of Occupational Health and Safety Management in building and public works sites”. This project is part of the general interest activities of the Center and has received funding support from the Ministry of Industry, Trade, Investment and Digital Economy through the Support Fund for Technical Centers “FACET”.

The “SALAMA II” project consists in supporting construction companies to control health and safety risks at work and to reduce accidents on construction sites. The final objective is to contribute to the reinforcement of the construction companies’ competitiveness.

The project was carried out over the following phases:

– Diagnosis, action plans and development of a draft specification of technical and regulatory requirements for the prevention of occupational health and safety risks in construction sites in Morocco

– Support in the implementation of action plans and validation of the specifications for health and safety management in construction sites

– Promotion of the prevention of risks related to health and safety at work in construction sites

– Training of companies on OHS at construction sites
– Elaboration of certification rules that have been approved by IMANOR
– Elaboration of a good practices manual in OHS for construction sites in Morocco
– National seminar on OHS in construction sites