Mr. Martin Sonnberger
Austria | HSE Manager PORR
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Dipl. Ing. Mechanical Engineering, Austria For the last 34 years he has worked as a Health & Safety Manager in different industries (out of which 25 years were in the Construction Sector). During 1998–2015 he worked as a Health & Safety Engineer for the PORR Group (an Austrian construction group of companies) and since 2015 he holds the post of Head of Occupational Safety (Europe) for PORR AG. Some of his biggest projects: • Implementing the VISION ZERO campaign based on the ISSA campaign (http://visionzero.global/) • Target group-oriented preparation of operating instructions and training courses in cooperation with Limbio Business (www.limbio.at). • Development of the basics for a European equipment driving license in special civil engineering (www.effc.org) with the involvement of 16 states. • Safe lifting of containers, slinging of PSAgA on crane hooks in cooperation with the Alpine Colloquium (www.bauforumplus.eu). • "Working safely with construction machinery", "Psychosocial risks in the construction industry" and “dust was Yesterday” as part of the social dialogue in Brussels (www.fiec.eu). • State Award for Occupational Safety 2009 "More safety through more apprenticeship training". Mr Sonnberger is a member of various European committees, insitutions and working groups regarding Health and Safety in construction: • FIEC - Health and Safety Committee, Brussels. • Social Dialogue, Brussels. • EFFC - European Federation of Foundation Contractors. • Alpine Colloquium. • Working Group Construction Austria. • Standards Committee Earth-Moving Machinery. • Committee for Occupational Safety and Health Protection at the Main Association of the German Construction Industry.

Abstract 

Session 1: Focus on People | Title “How to handle language problems on sites”

Shortages of skilled workers, partly due to the lack of attractiveness of the sector, repeatedly lead to challenges in project execution.
Colleagues from many nations work together to complete the buildings on time. Due to the many languages involved, communication problems occur in the daily business. However, communication problems are not only due to language, but can also be caused by functional illiteracy or noise-induced hearing loss. Particularly in the case of instruction, insufficient understanding can lead to serious health consequences.

The preparation of documents, training content, documents is an essential part of making the construction site safer. Instruction is to be understood as work instruction, so that our construction workers come home safely in the evening.

For this reason, there is intensive cooperation with experts. These provide support in preparing training content in a way that is suitable for the brain. They compare the
differences between graphics, drawn figures or real people, as well as the effects of symbols used. In the brain scan at the University Hospital Salzburg, the blood flow in the different brain regions is measured. The results are always impressive.