La Isla Network is collaborating with Sainsbury’s, G’s Fresh and the Spain Ethical Trade Forums to protect agricultural workers in Spain. La Isla Network arrived on July 4 at one of G’s Fresh’s farms in Cúllar, Granada to begin data collection.
This initiative is supporting the organizations’ shared mission to ensure the safety and health of agricultural workers, by assessing the risk of occupational heat stress, addressing the risk and assisting in the implementation of viable measures to protect workers.
The insights gained from this work will be shared within the Spain Ethical Trade Forums Community of Practice, one of the three strategic actions implemented by the Forum’s Health and Safety Working Group. In partnership with Oxfam, the Community of Practice seeks to gather and disseminate best practices across similar networks in a dozen European countries, with the overarching goal of enhancing worker protection against heat stress.
During the visit, Sergio Barberá, General Secretary of the Ethical Trade Forums Association (ETFA), met with Sonia Eiras, Group Ethics Compliance Manager, and the La Isla Network team, including Michael Silva, Felipe Pacheco Zenteno, and Esteban Arias Monge, to review the project’s progress.
Matthijs Nieuwenhuis, Director of European Development at La Isla Network, was present at the site as well. He said, “It’s great to see companies like Sainbury’s and G’s Fresh participating in research to ensure the right of workers to a safe and healthy working environment. This makes them true frontrunners in Europe.
“During this study we had access to all workers present and were able to get a full picture of the efficiency of the occupational safety and health measures in place. We were also able to follow workers, measure their health and circumstances in the field.
“This project is an inspiring example of how companies invest time and energy in improving working conditions, wanting to learn and develop. This is how we can protect workers’ health and the productivity of companies, in times of a changing climate.”
A key focus of this project is the innovative approach to monitoring the physical exertion of workers. Each participant wears a chest band throughout their workday, which tracks and records their heart rate. This data, when combined with personal metrics such as weight, height, and gender, allows for the calculation of body temperature and caloric consumption, providing a crucial indicator: the effort expended in kilowatts per hour.
Additionally, specialized equipment is used to measure environmental factors such as ambient temperature, humidity, wind speed, and direction in real-time. This data is cross-referenced with the physical effort data to assess the impact of these conditions on workers.
Michael Silva, Epidemiologist at La Isla Network, was present at the worksite to conduct data collection. He said, “Action to protect workers from the effects of climate change requires studies that provide evidence-based, comprehensive measures of workers’ exposure to heat stress. This will require the joining of many efforts. In this sense, the commitment of companies like Sainsbury’s and G’s Fresh to ensuring good conditions for workers is essential to monitoring risk and generating data that will allow us to adapt interventions and make better decisions in the face of changing climate conditions.”
To complement these technical indicators, workers are also surveyed about their understanding of heat-related risks, their perceptions of the company’s preventive culture, and the overall effectiveness of occupational risk prevention measures.
G’s Fresh has shown remarkable collaboration in this project, providing their facilities and prevention services to ensure the study’s success. We applaud the initiative of Sainsbury’s to drive industry improvement and set an example for other companies on protecting workers in a changing climate. Finally, we extend our gratitude to the Spain Ethical Trade Forums for joining on the collaboration with a keen eye to learning best practices in the field of occupational safety and health.
La Isla Network is encouraged by the progress made and are proud to see that our partners are placing employee well-being at the core of their operational strategy.
La Isla Network is an occupational health research and advisory nonprofit dedicated to ending heat-related illnesses among workers and their communities worldwide. Our mission is to protect workers in a changing climate. We develop and implement data-driven worker protection and management assessment protocols to improve the resiliency of workforces and businesses to heat stress. Our work is backed by best-in-class researchers, industry leaders, and government and multilateral institutions like the ILO. For more information including press engagements please contact in**@la***********.org and visit our website at laislanetwork.org.
