The Beja Labor Court proved the lack of an Internal Occupational Health and Safety Service, and condemned the Portuguese Red Cross (CVP) a fine of 9.180 euros, thus giving reason to the Local Unit of the Litoral and Baixo Alentejo of the Authority for Working Conditions (ACT).
Judge Catarina Serra's decision was announced on Tuesday afternoon, where he justified that CVP “was not organized in such a way as to have internal services and had external services contracted from third partiesâ€, remembering that in 2018, the institution already had more than 2000 workers and more than three hundred rescuers.
ACT applied an infraction of 12.240 euros to CVP, but the judge considered that “there was no recurrence of the irregularity. Despite being a non-profit association, The law must be applied as if a company were not complying with the law.â€, reducing the value of the initial fine.
The judge considered that “whether or not internal services are organized, It has nothing to do with the accident.â€, referring to the crash of a CVP ambulance affecting the CVP Safara and Sobral da Adiça Delegation (DSeSA-CVP), in the municipality of Moura, where two rescuers died.
The truth is that the ACT inspection process originated from the accident that occurred on the night of 8 May 2019, the National Road (IN) 258, when the ambulance was moving from Safara to Santa Aleixo da Restauração, responding to the call made by the Urgent Patients Guidance Center (CODU) from INEM for a pre-hospital medical emergency mission.
As this was a case that constituted a work accident, ACT was called to the location and during the investigation, inspectors found that the Red Cross did not comply with several standards, such as the existence of the Internal Occupational Safety and Health Service, applied to anyone who has at least 400 workers. The lack of organization of that service constitutes a very serious infraction, subject to the application of an administrative offense.
Despite the efforts of Lidador NotÃcias (LN), it was not possible to speak to Silvia Martins, CVP defense attorney, to understand whether the institution will appeal the decision to the Évora Court of Appeal.
Teixeira Correia
(journalist)
