Occupational Health and Safety Act of Venezuela

Posted on Sep 28, 2024 in Law & Jurisprudence

Purpose of This Act

Article 1

Establish the institutions, rules, policy guidelines, agencies, and entities that guarantee workers’ safety, health, and wellness in a suitable work environment conducive to the full exercise of their physical and mental faculties through the promotion of safe and healthy practices, preventing work accidents and occupational diseases, providing damage reparation, and promoting and developing incentive programs for recreation, leisure, rest, and social tourism.
Regulate the rights and duties of workers and employers in relation to health, safety, and the working environment, as well as recreation, leisure, rest, and social tourism.
Implement the provisions of the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the Benefits Regime for Safety and Health at Work, established in the Organic Law of the Social Security System.
Establish penalties for non-compliance.
Regulate the benefits derived from the substitution by the Social Security System and the objective material liability of employers with the occurrence of an accident or occupational disease.
Govern the liability of the employer and their representatives for the occurrence of an accident or occupational disease when fraud or negligence exists on their part.

Scope

Article 4

The provisions of this Act apply to dependent work performed for an employer, regardless of its nature, location, profit motive (or lack thereof), and whether in public or private establishments within the Republic’s territory. It generally applies to all personal services involving employers and workers, in any form, except as expressly provided by law. Home work, domestic work, and concierge services are expressly included.

Those working in cooperatives or other associations or communities providing productive or service work are covered by this Act.

Members of the National Armed Forces are excepted, in accordance with Article 328 of the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

For promoting occupational safety and health, preventing occupational accidents and diseases, providing support materials, and encouraging programs for recreation, leisure, rest, and social tourism, this Act also applies to activities performed by non-dependent workers.

To these same effects, when laws, regulations, or technical standards relating to workers also encompass non-dependent workers, as compatible with their work’s nature.

Limitation of Actions for Compensation

Article 9

Actions to claim compensation from employers for work accidents or occupational diseases have a statute of limitations of five (5) years, counted from the date of employment termination or the certification of the accident’s or disease’s occupational origin by the technical-administrative unit of the National Institute for Prevention, Health, and Safety, whichever occurs last.

Entities Managing Benefits

Article 15

The entities managing the Benefits Regime for Safety and Health at Work are:

The National Institute for Prevention, Health, and Safety, an autonomous institution with legal personality and its own budget independent of the National Treasury.
The National Institute of Training and Recreation for Workers, an autonomous institution with legal personality and its own budget independent of the National Treasury.

Delegates of Prevention

Article 41

In any workplace, establishment, or operating unit of public or private firms or institutions, workers elect delegates of prevention to represent them on the Committee on Occupational Safety and Health, through democratic mechanisms established by this Act, its regulations, and collective labor agreements.

Regulations will determine the number of delegates, considering the number of workers, work organization, shifts, areas, departments, physical spaces, and hazardous work processes, with a minimum set according to the following scale:

Up to ten (10) workers: one delegate.
Eleven (11) to fifty (50) workers: two (2) delegates.
Fifty-one (51) to two hundred fifty (250) workers: three (3) delegates.
Two hundred fifty-one (251) or more workers: one (1) delegate for each additional five hundred (500) workers, or fraction thereof.

Powers of Delegates

Article 42

The powers of delegates of prevention are:

Jointly establish the Committee on Occupational Safety and Health with employer representatives.
Receive worker complaints regarding work conditions, environment, and recreation programs to process them before the Committee.
Engage with employers and their representatives to improve preventive action and promote health and safety at work.
Promote worker cooperation in implementing regulations on work conditions and environment.
Coordinate with unions on actions for defense, promotion, control, and monitoring of health and safety at work.
Other powers assigned by this Act and its regulations.

Article 43

In exercising their powers, delegates of prevention are entitled to:

Accompany company technicians, consultants, external advisors, inspection agency officials, and social security inspectors during workplace evaluations and make necessary comments.
Access information and documentation related to working conditions, subject to confidentiality and trade secret limitations.
Request information from the employer about worker health issues and visit the scene to learn the circumstances.
Request reports from those responsible for health and safety activities.
Visit workplaces and recreation areas to monitor conditions and communicate with workers, without disrupting production.
Request the employer to adopt preventive measures and make proposals to the Committee.
Receive justification for negative decisions by the employer regarding proposed measures.

Protection and Guarantees

Article 44

. The delegate of prevention may not be dismissed, removed or deteriorated in their working conditions, from the time of your choice and up to three (3) months after expiration of the term for which elected or elected, without just cause previously certified by the Labor Inspector, in accordance with the Labor Law.

From the date on which the workers or their organizations to notify the Labor Inspector’s will choose the delegates or delegates prevention, all the workers of the company, work center or production unit in question be covered by tenure established in the Organic Labor Law. The Labour Inspector or Inspector shall notify the employer or employers concerned for the purpose of workers to elect delegates or safety representatives. The election referred to in this article should be in a period not exceeding thirty (30) days of notification. The call and the agencies overseeing the development of the electoral process will be established in the respective Regulations.

The delegate to prevent last two (2) year term of office may be reelected for equal periods. Similarly, it may be revoked by the workers and women workers for unexcused absences to the meetings or omissions in presenting their respective reports to the Committee on Occupational Safety and Health, and by failing to comply with the calls and express requirements of the National Institute Prevention, Health and Safety. These grounds will be developed in the Regulations of this Act and the statutes of the Committee on Occupational Safety and Health.

The time spent by the delegate to prevent the performance of its functions under this Act, as well as training in health and safety at work, will be considered part of the working day, being given paid leave. The employer or the employer shall provide and take all measures to ensure that the delegate can make prevention activities when acting in the performance of their duties.

The delegate of prevention must submit report on its activities before the Committee on Health and Safety and to the National Institute for Prevention, Health and Safety, in accordance with the provisions of the Programme on Safety and Health at Work.

The employer or employer shall provide such delegates prevention and media unions and training on safety and health at work, which are necessary for the exercise of their functions. Similarly, to provide training in the area of promotion, development, evaluation and monitoring of recreation programs, use of leisure, rest and social tourism. This training should be provided by the employer or employers on their own or by agreement with bodies and institutions specializing in this area and the same shall conform to the specifics of the undertaking, establishment, operation or task.

Article 53. Workers and workers are entitled to their duties in an appropriate work environment conducive to the full exercise of their physical and mental faculties, and to ensure safety, health and good welfare. In the exercise hereof shall be entitled to:

Be informed, prior to the start of its activity, the conditions under which it will develop, the presence of toxic substances in the workplace, the damage that they may cause to their health, as well as means or measures to prevent them.
Receive education and training, sufficient, adequate and periodically for the execution of the duties inherent to their activity in the prevention of occupational accidents and occupational diseases, and the use of free time and use the break at the moment entering work, when changes in the functions performed, when introducing new technology or changes in work teams. This training should be provided, whenever possible, within the working day and if it occurs outside the discounting of the workday.
Participate in the monitoring, improvement and control of working conditions and environment in the prevention of accidents and occupational diseases, the improvement of living conditions and recreation programs, use of leisure, rest and social tourism and infrastructure for its operation, and the discussion and adoption of national, regional, local, by industry, by firm and establishment in the area of health and safety at work.
Not be subjected to dangerous working conditions or unhealthy, according to the existing technical and scientific progress, can be eliminated or attenuated by changes in the production process and facilities or jobs or through collective protection. Where this is not possible, be provided with the tools and personal protective equipment appropriate to the working conditions present in your workplace and the work performed in accordance with the provisions of this Act, its regulations and collective agreements .
Refusing to work, away from an unsafe condition or interrupt a task or work activity when, based on their training and experience, has reasonable grounds to believe there is an imminent danger to his health or his life without this being considered and dereliction of duty. The worker shall notify the CEO or delegate of prevention and immediate supervisor of the situation in question. Activity will resume when the Committee on Occupational Safety and Health determined. In these cases the relationship is suspended and the employer or employer continues to pay the salary for and calculate the duration of the interruption to the age of the worker or the worker.
Report unsafe or unhealthy working with the immediate supervisor, the employer or employer, the union, the Committee on Safety and Health, and National Institute for Prevention, Health and Safety, and receive a timely response.
Report to the National Institute of Prevention, Health and Safety any violation of the conditions and working environment, where the act required or when the employer or employer did not timely correct the deficiencies reported, as well as any failure of programs for the recreational use of leisure, rest and social tourism and the construction and maintenance of infrastructure for development.
Accompany the inspection officers or officials when they perform their inspection work in enterprises, establishments or farms.
Be relocated from their jobs or the suitability of their duties for health reasons, rehabilitation or reintegration.
That will carry out regular preventive health screenings, and full access to the information contained therein, as well as the confidentiality of its results to third parties.
The confidentiality of personal health data. In such cases, they may only be communicated prior consent of the worker or the worker concerned, such limited knowledge by doctors and the health authorities.
Actively participate in recreation programs, use of leisure, rest and social tourism.
Freely express their ideas and opinions, and organize to defend the right to life, health and safety at work.
Be protected from dismissal or other sanction for having exercised rights under this Act and related provisions.
The defense in case of complaints or allegations that could lead to sanctions under the provisions of this Act
The privacy of correspondence and communications and free access to all data and information personal to you.
Receive timely benefits and compensation provided for in this Law
Be members or affiliated by their employers or employers to Benefits Regime Safety and Health at Work created by the Organic Law of Social Security System.
Require employers or employers timely payment of contributions to the Benefits Regime Safety and Health at Work.
Report to the Treasury of Social Security non-affiliation to the Health and Safety at Work and delays in payment of contributions to be made by the employer or the employer and which the worker or the worker becomes aware.

Duties of workers and workers

Article 54. The duties of the workers:

Perform the work under their contract of employment subject to the safety and health at work not only to protect their own safety and health but also with respect to other workers and to safeguard the premises where he works.
Making proper use and maintain in good operating condition monitoring systems for unsafe working conditions at the enterprise or workplace, according to the instructions received, realizing immediate supervisor or responsible for its maintenance or malfunction thereof. The worker or the worker must inform the Occupational Safety and Health at Work in the company or the Committee on Health and Safety when, according to their knowledge and experience, consider that the control systems referred to this provision correspond to unsafe conditions to be monitored.
Use it correctly and maintain good personal protective equipment according to instructions from realizing immediate responsibility for its supply and maintenance, loss, damage, maturity, or malfunction of them.The worker or the worker must inform the Occupational Safety and Health at Work in the company or the Committee on Health and Safety when, according to their knowledge and experience, consider that provided personal protective equipment does not correspond to the objective of protect against unsafe conditions to which it is exposed.
Make good use and care of basic sanitation facilities, as well as the facilities and amenities for recreation, use of leisure, rest, social tourism, food consumption, culture, sports in general, of all service facilities social.
Respect and enforce the ads, billboards and safety warnings and other indications of that set in various places, plant and machinery of their workplace safety and health at work.
Maintain conditions of order and cleanliness in the workplace.
Comply with the instructions, warnings and lessons to be impartieren safety and health at work.
Complying with the rules and instructions of the Programme on Safety and Health at Work set by the company.
Report immediately, whenever it has knowledge of the existence of an unsafe condition that can cause harm to the health or life, own or third party, the people involved, the Committee on Health and Safety and his immediate superior, abstaining from until the task is not to rule on whether or not their implementation.
Actively participate directly or through the election of representatives in the Committees on Health and Safety and other agencies to be created for the same purpose.
Actively participate in recreation programs, use of leisure time, rest and social tourism.
When serving as supervisors or supervisors, foremen, foremen, managers or heads of groups or gangs and, in general, when permanently or occasionally act as group leader, staff or production line, monitor the observance of safety practices and health personnel under their direction
Report to the National Institute of Prevention, Health and Safety, any violation of the conditions and working environment, where the event requires it or in any case the employer or employer did not timely correct the deficiencies reported.
In general, refrain from acts or engage in behavior that may impair the proper functioning of the Health and Safety at Work.
Abide by the guidelines set forth by the immediate supervisor’s order to comply with regulations to prevent and safely maintain harmony and respect in the workplace.

The duties established by this Law to the workers and the allocation of responsibilities for the safety and health, complementing the activities of the employer or the employer, without thereby exempting it from fulfilling its duty of prevention and safety .

Rights of employers and employers

Article 55. Employers and employers are entitled to:

Require their workers comply with the rules of hygiene, safety and ergonomics, and prevention policies and participate in recreation programs, use of leisure, rest and social tourism to improve their quality of life, health and productivity.
Actively participate in the Committees of Safety and Health.
Participate in the discussion and adoption of national, regional, local, by industry, enterprises and establishments in the area of health and safety at work.
Request and receive advice from the Committee on Health and Safety of the workplace, the National Institute of Prevention, Health and Safety and other relevant bodies.
Participate individually or collectively in activities to improve the quality of service provision Scheme Health and Safety at Work.
To receive information and training on health, hygiene, safety, welfare work, recreation, use of leisure, rest and social tourism, by the competent bodies.
Requiring workers the proper use and maintain in good operating condition monitoring systems for unsafe working conditions in the company installed or workplace.
Require workers to use appropriate and properly, and maintain in good condition provided personal protective equipment to protect health.
Requiring workers to good use and care of basic sanitation facilities, as well as the facilities and amenities for recreation, use of leisure, rest, social tourism, food consumption, cultural, sporting and general all the facilities of the workplace.
Requiring workers the respect and observance of the ads, billboards and warnings that are set at various sites, facilities and machineries of the workplace, in health, hygiene and safety.
Propose to the Committee on Health and Safety warnings to workers who fail to comply with the obligations established in Article 54 of this Law
To receive prompt and adequate response in relation to their applications to relevant agencies.
Get in the periods provided by this Act and its regulations, reimbursements for payments made to workers in case of daily allowances for temporary disability.
Ensure that their workers receive timely medical care benefits guaranteed in this Benefits Regime Safety and Health at Work, the National Public Health System.
Making the System Safety and Health at Work is subrogated to the obligations of strict liability of the employer or the employer upon the occurrence of an accident or illness when there was no negligence or willful misconduct of the employer or the employer .
Be reclassified in a timely and appropriate in relation to the risk categories established in the classification of enterprises for the purpose of contributions to the System Safety and Health at Work.
Report to the Superintendency of Social Security irregularities concerning the registration and granting of benefits under the Health and Safety at Work.
Report to the competent authorities and receive prompt and timely response to any violation of laws and regulations applicable regulations on conditions and working environment, general environment, conditions for recreation, use of leisure, rest and social tourism, which affects the working environment of your company, part of the surrounding businesses or public agencies or private.
Require their workers to refrain from acts or engage in behaviors that may damage the operation of Benefits Regime Safety and Health at Work.
Put on a defense in case of complaints or allegations that could lead to sanctions under the provisions of this Act

Duties of employers and employers

Article 56. The duties of employers and employers, take steps to ensure workers health conditions, health, safety and welfare at work and recreation programs, use of leisure, rest and social tourism and infrastructure development in the terms provided for in this Law and international treaties signed by the Republic, the laws and regulations be established, as well as individual employment contracts and collective agreements. To this end they shall:

Organizing the work in accordance with the technological advances that allow its implementation in conditions appropriate to their physical and mental capacity of workers, their habits and cultural beliefs and their dignity as human beings.
Consult workers and their organizations, and the Committee of Occupational Safety and Health, before they are executed, the measures to be changes in the organization of work which may affect a group or all of the workers or important decisions in health and safety and working environment.
Report in writing to the workers of the principles of prevention of unsafe or unhealthy conditions, both when entering the work as to a change in the work process or a modification of the job and instruct and train on the promotion health and safety, prevention of occupational accidents and diseases as well as in regard to use of secure personal devices and protection.
Report in writing to the workers and the Committee of Safety and Occupational Health unsafe conditions to which they are exposed first by the action of physical, chemical, biological, meteorological conditions or psychosocial disergonómicas or may cause harm to health, according to the criteria established by the National Institute of Prevention, Health and Safety.
Refrain from doing themselves or their representatives, any offensive, malicious, intimidating and any act which harms the psychological or moral workers, prevent any situation of harassment by the degradation of working conditions and environment , physical or psychological violence, isolation or for not providing a reasonable occupation worker or the worker according to their abilities and background and avoid sanctions justified or not clearly disproportionate and unjustified and a systematic criticism of the worker or the worker, or work.
Report in writing to the National Institute for Prevention, Health and Safety and the National Institute of Training and Recreation Workers in the software developed for recreational use of leisure, rest and social tourism in the state of infrastructure for implementation thereof, the impact on quality of life, health and productivity as well as difficulties in the integration and active participation of workers in them.
Develop, with the participation of workers, the Programme on Safety and Health at Work of the company, policies and commitments and internal regulations related to the subject and plan and organize production according to these programs, policies , commitments and regulations.
Take appropriate measures to avoid any form of sexual harassment and establish a policy to eradicate the same workplace.
Refrain from discriminating against applicants to obtain work or against the workers and, within the requirements of productive activity, respect freedom of conscience and expression of the workers.
Take all appropriate measures to ensure the privacy of correspondence and communications workers and free access to all data and information personal to you.
Notify the National Institute for Prevention, Health and Safety, a mandatory occupational diseases, occupational accidents and any other pathological conditions that may occur in the workplace provisions of this Law and its Regulations and keep track of them.
Keeping an updated record in terms of prevention, occupational safety and health and recreation, use of leisure, rest and social tourism according to the criteria established by the information systems of the National Institute for Prevention, Health and Safety .
In case of activities that are considered to be hazardous by the regulation as subject to special controls for the damages caused to workers or the environment, report in writing to the National Institute for Prevention, Health and Safety unsafe conditions and measures developed to control according to the criteria it establishes.
Document policies and principles adopted in safety and health in accordance with the provisions of this Act and the regulations it develops.
Organize and maintain the Safety & Health at Work under this Act