Occupational Health & Safety: A Comprehensive Guide

Posted on Nov 1, 2024 in Law & Jurisprudence

ITEM 9. WORKING CONDITIONS: SECURITY AND OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH

1. THE PREVENTION OF ACCIDENTS. BASICS.

  • Prevention: A set of activities designed to prevent occupational hazards.
  • Occupational Risk: The possibility of harm arising from work.
  • Damage from Work: Working conditions suffered by employees.
  • Risk of Serious and Imminent Labor: Risk is likely to have immediate and severe effects if it occurs.
  • Processes, Equipment, Operations, or Potentially Dangerous Products: Those that, in the absence of preventive measures, pose a risk to worker health.
  • Team: Machinery, equipment, or tools used at work.
  • Personal Protective Equipment (PPE): Items to be worn or carried by workers to protect them from risks that threaten their safety.
  • Accident: Unplanned outage of the production process that does not cause injury.

2. WORKING CONDITIONS

Status of Work: Work characteristics that can influence the generation of risks to health and worker safety. Includes: local characteristics, facilities, equipment of the workplace, physical, chemical, or biological procedures used, and any feature that influences the magnitude of risk.

3. CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF WORK

These are diseases, illnesses, or injuries suffered that are work-related.

  • Occupational Disease (Article 116 LGSS): Contracted in paid work and produced by substances or items that are listed for each occupational disease.
  • Accident at Work (Article 115 LGSS): Bodily injury arising out of paid employment, including the regular route between the worker’s home and workplace.

4. PHASES OF PREVENTIVE ACTIVITY

Occupational Health and Safety should be integrated into the overall management of the company, for all activities and hierarchical levels, implementing a plan of PRL (Prevención de Riesgos Laborales), through the following phases:

  1. Risk Assessment: Initial risk will be reviewed depending on the activity, processes, work items, etc.
  2. Planning Preventive Action: This will be taken into account, in coordination of human and material resources, financial resources, emergency measures, and monitoring and informing workers.
  3. Organization of Resources: Responsibility of the employer and can be done by:
    • The employer assuming responsibility in companies with fewer than six workers if there is no significant risk.
    • Designating one or more workers with training in PRL.
    • Establishing a PRL service in companies with more than 500 employees or companies between 250 and 500 workers if there are hazardous activities. For the rest of the businesses, a risk assessment will determine if a PRL service is needed, or if the competent labor authority decides so.
    • Using an external prevention service: Recruitment of a specialized entity, usually a mutual accident insurance company.
    • Establishing joint prevention services for two or more companies in the same sector or that physically share a workplace.

5. LEGISLATION AND CONTROL OF OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH

This mandates the inspection of work (page 18, table, paragraph 3), safety representatives, and safety committees.

  • Workplace Health and Safety Representatives: Representatives of workers with preventive functions regarding risk in the workplace, elected by and from among the workers’ representatives. They have advocacy roles in the observation of the rules of safety, health, and working conditions, and in the enforcement of labor laws. The employer must consult them before deciding on a prevention delegate. There will be one delegate in companies with up to 30 workers, coinciding with the staff representative; one in businesses between 31 and 50 employees, chosen by and among the three personal representatives; and elected by and between the works councils in companies with more than 50 workers.
  • Safety and Health Committee: For regular consultation on the company’s actions in terms of prevention, in companies with more than 50 workers. Consisting of prevention delegates and the employer or its representatives in equal numbers to safety representatives. Its functions involve all phases of the prevention plan and promote initiatives related to PRL.

6. PRINCIPLES OF PREVENTIVE ACTION

  • Avoid risks.
  • Assess the risks that cannot be avoided, combating risks at their source.
  • Adapt the job to the person (the workplace and equipment) to reduce drudgery and health effects.
  • Take account of developments in technology.
  • Replace dangerous elements with non-dangerous ones.
  • Develop a prevention plan as an integrated whole, prioritizing collective protection over individual protection.
  • Provide clear instructions to workers.

7. DUTIES OF WORKERS

  • Properly use machines, equipment, and products.
  • Properly use protective equipment provided by the employer, following their instructions, and not disconnecting safety devices.
  • Report any situation involving risk.
  • Help meet PRL obligations.
  • Cooperate with the employer in terms of prevention. In case of default, the worker may be punished.

8. RESPONSIBILITIES

  • Administrative Liability: For breach of the employer’s obligations, sanctions with fines between 30 and 601,012 Euros may be imposed.
  • Liability: For injury to workers resulting from the employer’s actions, the employer shall indemnify the worker financially or their families for the harm caused.
  • Criminal Liability: Employers who break the rules and do not provide the necessary means to ensure safety for workers may face penalties such as fines or imprisonment, according to the seriousness of the offense.