Occupational Hazards Protection and Prevention
Article 14. The Right to Protection Against Occupational Hazards
Workers are entitled to effective protection in safety and health at work. The law requires employers to protect workers against occupational hazards. This duty of protection also extends to public authorities in respect of their personnel. The rights to information, consultation and participation, training in prevention, stoppage in case of imminent and serious risk, and monitoring of their health status, as provided in this Act, are part of the right of workers to effective protection in safety and health at work.
Employer’s Duty of Protection
In fulfilling its duty of protection, the employer must ensure the safety and health of workers in all aspects of work. For this purpose, the employer must integrate preventive activity within the enterprise and adopt necessary measures to protect the safety and health of workers. This includes:
- Occupational risk prevention planning
- Risk assessment
- Information, consultation, and participation of employees
- Employee training
- Emergency action and serious and imminent risk procedures
- Health monitoring
- Setting up an organization and the resources needed as described in Chapter IV of this Act
The employer will develop ongoing monitoring of prevention activities to continuously improve the identification, evaluation, and control of risks. They must also adapt preventive measures to changing circumstances affecting work performance.
Employers must comply with regulations concerning the prevention of occupational hazards. The obligations of workers, the allocation of responsibilities for protection and prevention services, and cooperation with specialized institutions complement the employer’s actions but do not exempt them from fulfilling their duty. The cost of safety and health measures should not fall on workers.
Article 15. Principles of Preventive Action
The employer shall implement measures for the general duty of prevention under the following general principles:
- Avoid risks.
- Assess unavoidable risks.
- Combat risks at the source.
- Adapt the job to the person, particularly regarding job design, equipment, and work methods, to reduce monotonous and repetitive work.
- Consider the evolution of technology.
- Replace dangerous elements with those involving little or no hazard.
- Plan for prevention, integrating technology, work organization, working conditions, social relations, and environmental factors.
- Prioritize collective protection over individual protection.
- Give appropriate instructions to employees.
Additional Considerations
The employer shall consider workers’ professional skills in safety and health when assigning tasks. They shall also ensure that only workers with sufficient information can access areas of serious danger. Preventive measures must anticipate potential distractions or reckless imprudence by workers. Additional risks introduced by certain preventive measures should be considered, and such measures should only be taken when the risk is substantially lower than the risk being monitored, and there are no safer alternatives.
Insurance transactions may be entered into to cover work risks for employees, self-employed individuals, and cooperative societies for their members.