Location:

GM Colombia - GMISC Office

Avenida El Dorado No. 68C-61
Bogota, Distrito Cptl de San

What is your relationship to the organization?

Contractor

Please identify the person(s) engaged in this concerning behavior, if applicable:

ANDRES PEÑA - Safety and industrial hygiene.

Have you pursued any other formal complaint regarding this concern, and if so, what was
the outcome?
NO

Where did this concern occur?

Continuous improvement room (document validation).

Please provide the specific or approximate date/time this concern occurred:

1:00 pm

How long do you think this problem has been going on?
1 to 3 months

How did you become aware of this concern?

It happened to me

Details:

Among the functions of the GM-Colmotores team of industrial hygiene and safety techni-
cians is to verify that the documentation submitted by companies as contractors is truthful
and complies with the relevant regulations for the activity to be carried out.
However, although it is requested that the companies where training is carried out have to
be certified by organizations that in turn have electronic databases to verify the authentic-
ity of endorsements, it is requested that these documents have to be verified in physical
format.
And if such support is not available the engineer doesn’t perform the validation, and it is
appropriate to confirm through the page established for that purpose. This validation is
only carried out for two hours per week, we are more than 40 contractor companies. If
there are more companies on duty for document review and the time is passed due to the
high number of requested documents and companies, it will be necessary to wait until the
next week to do it.
Likewise, the engineer Andrés Peña has stopped activities for giving a personal interpre-
tation to the current legal regulations, specifically for working at heights, stipulating
mandatory training as a rescuer to work with mobile lifting platforms and requesting a
rescue kit for vertical descent, being that the operation manuals of this type of equipment
specify that the safe way to perform the descent is by activating the emergency stops
which these equipment have for depressurization and descent in a controlled manner pre-
venting the team from falling.
Now, I quote verbatim the regulations in which mention is made of the requirement of a
"rescuer" (Resolution 1409 of 2012, which establishes the Safety Regulations for protec-
tion against falls at work in heights):
"Article 24. Emergency plan. Every employer that includes the risk of falling due to work
at heights within daily risks, must include within the emergency plan established in nu-
meral 18 of article 11 of Resolution number 1016 of 1989, a written chapter of working
at heights that must be practiced and verified, in accordance with the activities that are
carried out and that guarantees an organized and safe response to any incident or accident
that may occur in the workplace, including a rescue plan; For its execution it can be done
with its own or contracted resources.
In the rescue plan designed according to the risks of the activity at heights developed,
certified rescue teams must be assigned for the entire operation and must have brigade
members or personnel trained for this purpose.
It will be available for emergency care and for the provision of first aid: first aid kit, ele-
ments for immobilization and care for wounds, hemorrhages and other elements
that the employer considers necessary according to the level of risk.
The employer must ensure that the worker who performs work at heights has a communi-
cation system and a support person available so that, if necessary, can report the emer-
gency immediately.
Paragraph. The companies will be able to share resources to implement the emergency
plan within the mutual aid plans. “
Our company has a Mutual Help Plan endorsed by the GM-Colmotores emergency de-
partment. However, the behavior of the engineer Andres was arbitrary by not allowing us
to work, based only in one part and in his interpretation of this law. It should be clarified
that this document had never been requested before and the work had already been done
with the risk of working at heights.
Therefore we perceive a persecution by this collaborator and not only our company but in
general the group of contractor companies who for fear of reprisals are keeping silent,
since he has the power to stop the work that is carried out if he is on duty to sign work
permits.