After 15 years of litigation, five workers at a marble factory in Vigo dedicated to the manufacture and installation of worktops have obtained the first criminal conviction of those responsible for their illness, silicosis, caused not by the handling of granite but of quartz conglomerate. The information of the agreement reached at the end of January has taken on national importance today, after newspapers such as El País, have echoed a conviction that may set a precedent.
The ruling, handed down after a hearing, found the manager of the company where the workers were employed (Granitel) and the president of the Cantoria-based multinational, owner of the Silestone brand, under which the star product of kitchen worktops is marketed, responsible for the illness suffered by these workers.
Cosentino accepted six months and three days in prison for five crimes of serious injury by negligence in ideal competition by providing late and insufficient information about the characteristics of the material. The prosecution reduced the initial sentence (two years and nine months) by applying the highly qualified mitigating circumstance of repairing the damage, as he alone assumed the payment of compensation to those affected; he paid 1.1 million euros as opposed to the 790,000 requested by the Public Prosecutor’s Office. In addition, the mitigating circumstance of undue delay was applied when the investigation was halted for two years while awaiting a key report issued by the National Institute of Silicosis, which determined that the dust released by the handling of quartz agglomerate was much more dangerous than that of the more harmful granite.
For his part, the manager of the Vigo marble factory was sentenced to one year, three months and three days in prison (as opposed to the initial three years) for the same offences as well as one against workers’ rights, as he knew the composition of the surface, but did not adopt control measures. The private prosecution also agreed to reserve the relevant civil actions against the company.
Communiqué from the company Cosentino
From La Comarca Noticias we got in touch with the multinational company, who sent us the following communiqué:
It is completely incorrect that Cosentino has admitted having concealed the fact that the manipulation of Silestone has caused the majority of cases of silicosis that have affected 1,856 workers.
In the Vigo process referred to in the news item, the compliance agreement reached only contemplates the assumption of liability for insufficient technical information that would have affected only the 5 operators of a specific marble factory, nor does it have a general scope. Therefore, it cannot be extrapolated to other past or future proceedings.
In fact, in other proceedings involving the company, the judgments declared the correctness of the information provided by Cosentino, stating that it had adequately and sufficiently informed about its products.
It is also essential to remember that it is the managers of the marble factories that transform and manipulate these surfaces who are responsible for ensuring that their workers have the necessary means of protection and that they implement them properly. For this reason, the agreement reached with the Public Prosecutor does include the indictment for the offence against the safety of workers for the marble works, but excludes it with respect to Cosentino.
In this sense, the accusation stated that the marble factory being prosecuted did not comply with even the most minimal safety measures. Therefore, not even the information provided by the manufacturing company would have been useful for the protection of the workers, as there was no minimum implementation of these measures.
In this case, the company’s legal team has chosen to settle a long process in which the main victims (the private prosecution) had already withdrawn from the case, having reached an agreement with the legal representative of those affected by the insolvency of the workshop for which they worked.
Cosentino provided an extensive written response to the journalist’s request, acknowledging receipt. Further proof of this is that the journalist himself, despite denying this transparency of information, includes a quotation mark that he attributes to the company.
The company does not deny its responsibilities. This agreement of conformity comes in a case that has been dragging on for almost 15 years, a period in which both the regulations on risk prevention and the company’s management in this area have evolved considerably.
This shows the company’s commitment in a tangible way, despite the fact that the facts of almost 15 years ago have been prosecuted, when the legislation was imprecise and the science of occupational risk prevention had not yet evolved to today’s levels. The company understands that it has complied with the regulations in force at all times in its responsibility as a manufacturer and supplier.
Cosentino is a company deeply committed to development and innovation in the sector, as well as to improvements in its working methods and the well-being of its employees.
As a pioneering company, Cosentino is the first company in the sector to invest heavily year after year in the research and development of new safety solutions. It is worth highlighting the launch of the pioneering HybriQ technology, patented by Cosentino and developed for the manufacture of the new Silestone®, which reduces the presence of silica (quartz) in its composition in two main levels: «Silestone -50», which indicates a silica content lower than this percentage, and «Silestone -10», lower than 10%. Currently, all the production of this material is below 50% in terms of the presence of silica.