Under the motto of working actively in risk management in the companies of the sector, the Regional Association of Oil, Gas and Biofuels Sector Companies in Latin America and the Caribbean (ARPEL) published a new document called “Guidelines for addressing the evaluation of psychosocial risk factors in the workplace”.

The document deepens in the actions to take for the evaluation of psychosocial risks and proposes intervention tools, and it is a follow up of the document published by ARPEL in 2014 “Guidance for health surveillance in psychosocial risk factors”

This guide places ARPEL, its Occupational Health Project Team, and its HSE Committee (CASYSIA) as pioneers in a topic of utmost importance for the companies, both in the competition for talent and in the sustainability of its operations.

The study carried out by the ARPEL Occupational Health Project Team, under the leadership of Ecopetrol, highlighted the significant change in the design, organization and management of working activities, the increasing importance of psychosocial risks and the stress related to work, which it is a challenge for occupational health and safety professionals. Based on this, criteria and recommendations were established to identify and manage the potential damage for the workers who are exposed to psychosocial risks.

Besides the elaboration of the document, it was identified the Batería de Instrumentos para la Evaluación de Riesgos Psicosociales; a methodology developed by the Ministerio de la Protección Social of Colombia and the Universidad Javeriana de Bogotá, as a complimentary tool to the ARPEL guides, that will be implemented in the companies to support the design of evaluation and management programs of these risk factors.

ARPEL is now planning pilot activities to implement the documents at Petrobras, and other member companies.

The guide is available on the ARPEL website and it can be downloaded in https://arpel.org/library/publication/463/