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Law 54/2003 of 12 December, reforming the Regulatory Framework for Occupational Risk Prevention, introduces new rules on the presence of preventive resources in certain types of work.
The following are considered preventive resources:
· Workers designated by the company.
· Members of the company's in-house prevention service.
· Members of external prevention services.
· Employees of the company with relevant knowledge, qualifications and experience, who hold a basic-level qualification in occupational risk prevention.
The employer shall manage occupational risk prevention by integrating preventive activity into the company. This shall be implemented through the adoption of an occupational risk prevention plan and all measures necessary to protect the safety and health of workers. To this end, the Occupational Risk Prevention Plan must set out the organisational structure, responsibilities, functions, procedures and required resources, as well as the essential instruments for managing and implementing the plan:
· Initial risk assessment, subsequent updates to that assessment, and periodic reviews of working conditions as appropriate.
· Planning of the preventive activities identified as necessary by the assessment, including the prioritisation of those activities.
· Ongoing monitoring of the plan to ensure its effective implementation.
There are three situations in which the on-site presence of preventive resources is mandatory, regardless of how those resources are organised:
1.- Where risks may be aggravated or altered by the interaction of various operations carried out successively or simultaneously.
2.- Where activities or processes are carried out that are classified by regulation as hazardous or as involving special risks.
3.- Where the Labour Inspectorate and Social Security requires the presence of preventive resources owing to working conditions identified on site.
The Labour Inspectorate and Social Security may require the presence of preventive resources at the workplace when, following an inspection visit, and taking into account all information gathered on the measures adopted regarding the organisation of preventive resources at the workplace, and having regard to the circumstances of each case, it considers:
· That the measures adopted by the employer do not guarantee a sufficient level of protection of workers' health and safety to fulfil the duty of protection adequately.
· That adequate means do not exist to ensure the effectiveness of the preventive measures in place.
· That such measures are not appropriate to achieve a consistent and responsible application of the principles of preventive action.
In determining whether the presence of preventive resources is required, the Labour Inspectorate and Social Security shall pay particular attention to all activities or tasks involving equipment or products that may give rise to serious risks, or serious and imminent risks, to the health and safety of workers carrying out or using them, whether due to their inherently hazardous nature, their particular complexity, or the interaction of different activities carried out concurrently, and which therefore require a higher degree of supervision, monitoring or control by the company's preventive organisation.
The Directorate-General of the Labour Inspectorate and Social Security sets out a list of activities for which the presence of preventive resources at the workplace is required during their execution. These situations are as follows: 1.- Installation, maintenance and repair work on lifts and hoists and other lifting equipment.
2.- Work carried out in confined spaces, where dangerous gases may accumulate, oxygen-deficient atmospheres may form, or toxic substances may build up.
3.- Building construction and maintenance:
a) Work involving a risk of falling from height.
b) Erection, dismantling and modification of scaffolding.
c) Underground work in shafts or galleries.
d) Work inside tunnels.
e) Demolition work.
f) Diving or underwater immersion work.
4.- Construction plant and machinery:
a) Self-propelled work equipment.
b) Load-lifting equipment.
5.- Rider-operated powered industrial trucks.
6.- Workers involved in railway operations where simultaneous maintenance or repair work is being carried out on or near the tracks.
7.- Electricity:
a) Work on high-voltage installations.
b) Work in proximity to live components.
c) Access to service areas and enclosures housing electrical equipment.
d) Construction and other activities involving the movement or transport of equipment or materials in proximity to overhead lines, underground cables or other electrical installations.
e) Work in locations with a risk of fire or explosion.
8.- Shipbuilding work.
9.- Work in refrigeration installations.
10.- Hot work, meaning work that generates heat, sparks, flames or high temperatures in proximity to flammable liquids or gases, or in containers that contain or have contained liquefied gases.
11.- Work in areas involving ionising radiation.
12.- Work in hyperbaric environments: underwater activities and professional diving.
13.- Work carried out in compressed-air caissons.
14.- Work in explosive atmospheres.
15.- Work with hazardous substances:
a) Chemical agents.
b) Biological agents.
c) Carcinogenic, mutagenic or reprotoxic agents.
d) Work involving asbestos.
16.- Hazardous activities involving isolated work at height or in mountainous terrain.
In addition to the above cases, the presence of preventive resources may also be required for analogous activities where similar risk conditions exist, or where the concurrent performance of various operations produces interactions that may aggravate or alter the risks, whether due to the number of companies and workers involved, the type of activities being carried out, or the characteristics of the workplace.
The presence of preventive resources may likewise be required where work is carried out by workers under the age of 18, by particularly vulnerable workers, or by recently recruited workers, on the grounds that the specific risks associated with the activity may be heightened given the characteristics of those workers.
There are exceptional cases in which the company with preventive resources for activities included in the above list argues that it is technically impossible to implement them, either due to the procedure or method used, or because the direct physical presence of the preventive appeal could itself constitute an additional risk factor, whether for the designated person or for the other workers under supervision. In such cases, the Labour and Social Security Inspectorate may require that supervision be exercised by indirect means throughout the entire duration of the works.
Indirect supervision means that the workstations where the processes, activities or operations requiring the presence of preventive resources are carried out must remain in contact with the person holding that designated role, so that they can activate, where necessary, the preventive and emergency measures in place through the use of technological communication methods and procedures.
Such methods consist of mandatory rounds systems or of making available to the personnel carrying out the work the appropriate telecommunication means to ensure their connection with the person designated as preventive appeal, or with another employee or team of workers under their supervision, and with a permanently occupied company premises or an emergency point established for that purpose.
Failure to implement preventive resources where these are mandatory constitutes an administrative infringement, with sanctions that vary according to their severity:
· Where the absence of preventive resources or non-compliance with the obligations relating to their presence is classified as serious, the applicable penalty ranges from €1,502 to €30,050.
· Non-compliance is classified as very serious where it concerns activities that are regulated as hazardous or involving special risks; in such cases, the penalty may range from €30,050.62 to €601,012.
