Fears over site safety to be aired
Athens 2004 President Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki is to meet with members of the construction workers’ union this afternoon to hear what they have to say about workers’ security at the Olympic Village site, following the fourth fatal accident this year. Yesterday, Reuters quoted the head of the union building the village, Demetris Vandoros, saying that the union had called on about 2,000 workers to go on strike today and tomorrow to demand improved safety. This was a day after a meeting of government and Athens 2004 officials under PM Costas Simitis agreed that any contractors not adhering to safety regulations would be expelled. Olympic Village SA, the company overseeing construction, said yesterday that it had expelled the contractors that had employed a worker who was killed in an accident at the site. Marinel Manea, a 32-year-old Romanian, fell off a crane on Monday. The company said that it had started new safety assessments at the site, adding that the frequency of all accidents at the site was lower than the European average, particularly regarding fatal or serious ones.
