Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Within the scope of the Ministry of Employment and Social Security, they are developed by the
National Institute for Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (INSSBT), a specialized technical scientific
body of the General State Administration, whose mission is the analysis and study of the
conditions of health and safety at work, as well as the promotion and support to improve them.
Technical advice in the preparation of legal regulations and in the development of standardization,
both nationally and internationally.
Promotion and implementation of training, information, research, study and dissemination
activities in the field of occupational risk prevention, with appropriate coordination and
collaboration, where appropriate, with the technical bodies in preventive matters of the
autonomous communities in the exercise of their functions in this matter.
Technical support and collaboration with the Labor and Social Security Inspectorate in the
fulfillment of its monitoring and control function.
Collaboration with international organizations and development of international cooperation
programs in this field, facilitating the participation of the autonomous communities.
Any others that are necessary for the fulfillment of its purposes and are entrusted to it within the
scope of its competences, in agreement with the National Commission for Safety and Health at
Work, with the collaboration, where appropriate, of the technical bodies of the Autonomous
communities with competences in the matter.
The INSSBT, within the framework of its functions, ensures coordination, supports the exchange of
information and experiences among the different Public Administrations and, in particular,
encourages and supports the carrying out of activities to promote safety and health by the
communities. autonomous.
In relation to the Institutions of the European Union, the INSSBT acts as a national reference
center in order to guarantee the coordination and dissemination of information at the country
level, in particular with regard to the European Agency for Safety and Health in the Work and its
Network.
The INSSBT also exercises the General Secretariat of the National Commission for Safety and
Health in the Workplace, providing the necessary technical and scientific assistance for the
development of its competences.
National Institute of Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (Central Services - Madrid).
National Center for Working Conditions (Barcelona).
National Center for New Technologies (Madrid).
National Machinery Verification Center (Vizcaya).
National Center for Means of Protection (Seville).
Provincial Technical Office of Ceuta.
Provincial Technical Office of Melilla.
On the INSSBT website (http: /www.insht.es/portal/site/Insht/) you can have access to legislation
on occupational risk prevention as well as a huge amount of documentation prepared by the
Institute itself and links to European institutions and organizations and other countries.
22.7.1.4. Actions of the labor administrations of the autonomous communities
As responsible for the enforcement of labor legislation, the labor authorities of the autonomous
communities carry out, within their territorial scope, functions to promote prevention, technical
advice, monitoring and control and, where appropriate, sanctions. A large part of these activities
are developed through specialized technical bodies.
In addition, the labor authorities of the autonomous communities are responsible for the granting
of accreditations to entities that intend to develop activities as third-party prevention services and
authorize the entities that intend to develop the audit activities of the prevention system of
companies.
Ensure that these do not constitute a source of danger for the worker, provided they are installed
and used in the conditions, in the manner and for the purposes recommended by them.
Packaging and labeling them in a way that allows them to be stored and handled in safety
conditions and to clearly identify their content and the risks to the safety or health of the workers
that their storage or use entails.
Provide the information that indicates the correct form of use by the workers, the additional
preventive measures that must be taken and the labor risks that entail both their normal use and
their manipulation or inappropriate use.
Ensure the effectiveness of the same, provided they are installed and used in the conditions and in
the manner recommended by them. For this purpose, they must provide the information
indicating the type of risk to which they are directed, the level of protection against it and the
correct form of its use and maintenance.
Provide the businessmen, and these gather from them, the necessary information so that the use
and manipulation of machinery, equipment, products, raw materials and work tools occurs
without risks for the safety and health of workers, as well as so that employers can meet their
information obligations regarding workers.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, the obligations arising from the applicable regulations in relation
to the general security of the products, whose objective is to guarantee that the products placed
on the market are safe, must be taken into account.
22.5.1. Consultation of workers
The employer must consult the workers, with due notice, the adoption of decisions regarding:
The planning and organization of work in the company and the introduction of new technologies,
in everything related to the consequences that these could have for the safety and health of
workers, derived from the choice of equipment, the determination and the adequacy of working
conditions and the impact of environmental factors on work.
The organization and development of activities for the protection of health and the prevention of
occupational risks in the company, including the designation of the workers in charge of such
activities or the use of an external prevention service.
The designation of the workers in charge of the emergency measures.
The information and documentation procedures provided in the LPRL.
The project and the organization of training in preventive matters.
Any other action that may have substantial effects on the safety and health of workers.
In the companies that have representatives of the workers, these consultations will be carried out
with said representatives.
The employer, including public administrations, has a duty to protect their workers against
occupational risks, guaranteeing their health and safety in all aspects related to their work, by
integrating the preventive activity in the company and the adoption of how many measures are
necessary.
The employer will apply the measures that make up the general duty of prevention according to
the following general principles:
The essential instruments for the management and application of the risk prevention plan, which
may be carried out in phases in a programmed manner, are the evaluation of occupational risks
and the planning of the preventive activity.
The plan must be reflected in a document that will be kept at the disposal of the labor authority,
the health authorities and the workers' representatives, and will include, with the scope
appropriate to the size and characteristics of the company, the following elements:
The identification of the company, its productive activity, the number and characteristics of the
work centers and the number of workers and their characteristics with relevance in the prevention
of occupational risks.
The organizational structure of the company, identifying the functions and responsibilities
assumed by each of its hierarchical levels and the respective channels of communication between
them, in relation to the prevention of occupational risks.
The organization of the production in terms of the identification of the different technical
processes and the practices and organizational procedures existing in the company, in relation to
the prevention of occupational risks.
The organization of prevention in the company, indicating the chosen preventive modality and the
existing representative bodies.
The policy, objectives and goals that the company intends to achieve in preventive matters, as well
as the human, technical, material and economic resources that it will have available for this
purpose.
22.1.2. Risk assessment
What is it?
The assessment of occupational hazards is the process aimed at estimating the magnitude of the
risks that could not be avoided, obtaining the necessary information so that the employer is able
to take an appropriate decision on the need to take preventive measures and, as such, case, on
the type of measures that should be adopted.
The risks present in each job must be evaluated. For this purpose, the existing or planned work
conditions will be taken into account, and, on the other hand, the worker who occupies the
position. In particular, the risk assessment will take into consideration, among others, the
following aspects:
The prevention services will have interdisciplinary character, understanding as such the
coordinated conjunction of two or more technical or scientific disciplines in the matter of
prevention of labor risks.
Prevention services must be in a position to provide the company with the advice and support
they require based on the types of risk in it and in relation to:
The design, implementation and application of a risk prevention plan that allows the integration of
prevention in the company.
The evaluation of risk factors that may affect the safety and health of workers.
The planning of preventive activity and the determination of priorities in the adoption of
preventive measures and the monitoring of their effectiveness.
The information and training of workers.
The provision of first aid and emergency plans.
The monitoring of workers' health in relation to the risks arising from work.
22.2.1. Personal assumption by the employer of the preventive activity
The employer may personally develop the prevention activity, with the exception of activities
related to the monitoring of workers' health, if the following conditions are met:
Whether it is companies with up to ten employees or, in the case of a company that employs up to
twenty-five workers, a single work center.
That the activities developed in the company are not included in Annex I of the RSP, (see section
22.2.7)].
That habitually develop their professional activity in the workplace.
That it has the capacity corresponding to the preventive functions that it will develop, in
accordance with the established regulation.
The monitoring of the health of the workers, as well as those other preventive activities not
personally assumed by the employer, must be covered by recourse to any of the other types of
preventive organization provided.
Preventive activities for which the designation of one or more workers is not sufficient should be
developed through one or more prevention services of their own or others.
features
The number of designated workers, as well as the means that the employer puts at their disposal
and the time they have available for the performance of their activity, must be those necessary to
adequately perform their functions.
For the development of the preventive activity, the designated workers must have the capacity
corresponding to the functions to be performed, in accordance with the established regulation.
22.2.3. Own prevention services
When will it be mandatory to set up a prevention service of your own?
The employer must establish a prevention service of its own when one of the following
assumptions:
That they are companies that have more than 500 workers.
That, in the case of companies with between 250 and 500 employees, develop some of the
activities included in Annex I of the RSP, [see section 22.2.7]).
That, in the case of companies not included in the previous sections, so decides the labor
authority, following a report from the Labor and Social Security Inspectorate and, where
appropriate, from the technical bodies in preventive matters of the Autonomous Communities,
depending on the the dangerousness of the activity carried out or the frequency or seriousness of
the accident rate in the company, unless the option of a specialized entity outside the company is
chosen.
features
The prevention services themselves must have the facilities and the human and material resources
necessary to carry out the preventive activities that they will develop in the company.
The prevention service must have, at least, two of the specialties or preventive disciplines
(occupational medicine, occupational safety, industrial hygiene and ergonomics and applied
psychosociology), developed by experts with the required training for the functions to be
performed. . These experts will act in a coordinated manner, in particular in relation to the
functions related to the preventive design of jobs, implementation and application of a plan for
the prevention of occupational hazards to allow the integration of prevention in the company,
identification and evaluation of the risks, the planning of the preventive activity and the training
plans of the workers.
Likewise, it must have the necessary personnel with the required capacity to perform the
functions of the basic and intermediate levels.
Without prejudice to the necessary coordination indicated in the previous paragraph, the health
activity, which in its case exists, will count for the development of its function, within the
prevention service, with the structure and means appropriate to its specific nature and the
confidentiality of personal medical data, having to meet the requirements established in the
sanitary regulations of application.
When the scope of action of the prevention service extends to more than one work center, the
situation of the various centers in relation to the location of the service must be taken into
account, in order to ensure the adequacy of the means of said service to the existing risks.
The preventive activities that are not assumed through the own prevention service must be
arranged with one or more third-party prevention services.
The company must prepare annually and keep at the disposal of the competent labor and health
authorities and the health and safety committee, the annual memory and programming of the
prevention service.
Between companies that simultaneously carry out activities in the same work center, building or
commercial center, provided that the operability and effectiveness of the service are guaranteed.
Between companies belonging to the same productive sector or business group or that develop
their activities in an industrial estate or limited geographical area, when this is established in
collective bargaining or through agreements between workers 'and employers' organizations on
this matter (interprofessional agreements) or, failing that, by decision of the affected companies.
22.5.2. Rights of participation and representation
Workers have the right to participate in the company in matters related to the prevention of
occupational risks.
In companies or work centers that have six or more workers, the participation of these will be
channeled through their representatives and the specialized representation that is regulated in
the LPRL.
The Prevention Delegates are the representatives of the workers in the company with specific
functions in matters of risk prevention in the workplace.
The Prevention Delegates will be appointed by and among the staff representatives and their
number will be according to the following scale:
From 50 to 100 workers: 2.
From 101 to 500 workers: 3.
From 501 to 1,000 workers: 4.
From 1,001 to 2,000 workers: 5.
From 2001 to 3,000 workers: 6.
From 3,001 to 4,000 workers: 7.
From 4.001 onwards: 8.
In companies with up to 30 employees, the Prevention Delegate will be the Personnel Delegate;
From 31 to 49 workers the Prevention Delegate will be chosen by and among the Personnel
Delegates.
In workplaces that lack staff representatives because they do not reach seniority to be electors or
eligible, workers may elect by majority a worker who exercises the powers of Delegate for
Prevention (fourth additional provision of the LPRL).
Collaborate with the management of the company in the improvement of the preventive action.
Promote and encourage the cooperation of workers in implementing the regulations on
prevention of occupational hazards.
Be consulted on the subjects subject to mandatory consultation for the employer.
Monitor and control compliance with the rules on prevention of occupational risks.
Powers of the Prevention Delegates
Accompany the technicians in the preventive evaluations and the Labor and Social Security
Inspectors in the realization of visits and verifications carried out in the work centers.
Have access, with the limitations provided in the LPRL, to the information and documentation
related to working conditions that are necessary for the exercise of their functions.
Be informed by the employer about the damage caused to workers' health.
Receive from the employer information about protection and prevention activities in the
company, as well as propose the adoption of measures of a preventive nature and to improve the
levels of protection of the safety and health of workers.
Propose to the representative body of the workers the adoption of the agreement to stop
activities in situations of serious and imminent risk.
Make visits to workplaces to exercise surveillance and control of the state of work conditions.
22.5.4. Health and Safety Committee
What is it?
It is the parity and collegiate body of participation destined to the regular and periodic
consultation of the actions of the company in the matter of risk prevention.
As a joint body, it is formed by the Prevention Delegates and by the employer and / or their
representatives in a number equal to that of Prevention Delegates.
It will be constituted in all the companies or work centers that have 50 or more workers.
An Inter-center Committee may be created, with the agreement of the workers, in those
companies that have several work centers endowed with the Health and Safety Committee.
At the meetings of the Health and Safety Committee, the Trade Union Delegates and those
responsible for prevention in the company who are not included in the aforementioned
composition will participate, with voice but without vote. In the same conditions may participate
workers of the company that have a special qualification or information on specific issues that are
discussed in this body and experts in prevention outside the company, whenever requested by any
of the representations in the Committee.
The Health and Safety Committee will meet quarterly and whenever requested by any of the
representations in it and will adopt its own operating rules.
Know the documentation and reports related to the working conditions, those coming from the
activity of the prevention service, as well as to know and analyze the damages produced in the
health or physical integrity of the workers.
Know and inform the memory and the annual programming of prevention services in the company
or workplace.
To know directly the situation relative to the prevention of risks in the work center, realizing for
that purpose the visits that it considers opportune.
The right of workers to effective protection carries in the LPRL a series of derived rights and
obligations.
Workers' rights
For an adequate preventive action, the worker has the right to:
To be informed directly of the risks to their health and safety and of the preventive measures
adopted, including those intended to deal with emergency situations.
Receive theoretical and practical training, sufficient and adequate at the time of hiring and when
the content of the assigned task changes or new technologies or changes in the work teams are
introduced. The training should be focused specifically on the job or function of each worker,
adapt to the evolution of risks and the appearance of new ones and repeat periodically, if
necessary.
To interrupt your activity and if it is necessary to leave the workplace, when you consider that
such activity entails a serious and imminent risk to your life or health.
To have a periodical monitoring of your health status guaranteed, according to the risks inherent
to your job.
Have specific protection measures when, due to their own personal characteristics or known
biological state or physical, mental or sensorial disability, they are especially sensitive to certain
risks derived from work.
Be consulted and participate in all matters that affect safety and health at work. The workers will
have the right to make proposals to the employer and to the participation and representation
bodies (prevention delegates, health and safety committee), through whom their right to
participate is exercised.
worker's obligations
The workers must watch according to their possibilities, and by means of the fulfillment of the
prevention measures that in each case are adopted, for their own safety and health and for those
of other people that may affect their professional activity, for which, According to their training
and following the instructions of the employer, they must:
Use properly machines, tools, dangerous substances, equipment and any means of work.
Use correctly the means and protective equipment provided by the employer and in accordance
with the instructions of the latter.
Do not put out of operation and use correctly the existing safety devices or that are installed in the
media related to your activity or in the workplaces in which it takes place.
Immediately inform your hierarchical superior and the workers designated to carry out protection
and prevention activities, and the prevention service, about any situation that, in your opinion,
entails a risk for the safety and health of the workers.
Contribute to the fulfillment of the obligations established by the competent authority.
Cooperate with the employer so that he can guarantee working conditions that are safe and do
not entail risks for the safety and health of workers.
Companies forced to audit their prevention system
Companies that have not concluded the prevention service with a specialized entity outside the
company must submit their prevention system to the control of an external audit or evaluation.
The same obligation will apply to companies that develop preventive activities with their own and
third-party resources simultaneously.
Companies with up to 50 workers whose activity is not included in Annex I of the RSP will be
exempt from the obligation to submit to an audit, to carry out preventive activities with their own
resources and in which the effectiveness of the preventive system becomes evident without the
need for to resort to an audit due to the limited number of workers and the low complexity of the
preventive activity. In this case, the obligation to audit will be replaced by the submission to the
labor authority of a notification on the concurrence
of the causes that make the audit unnecessary. However, the labor authority, following a report
from the Labor and Social Security Inspectorate and, where appropriate, from the technical bodies
in preventive matters of the autonomous communities, may request an audit, in view of the data
of the accident rate of the company or sector or other circumstances that reveal the danger of the
activities carried out or the inadequacy of the prevention system.
Periodicity
The first audit of the prevention system must be carried out within twelve months after the
planning of the preventive activity is available.
The audit should be repeated every four years, reducing the term to two years if the company is
engaged in activities included in Annex I of the RSP. These review periods will be extended by two
years in cases in which the preventive modality of the company has been agreed with the
specialized representation of its workers. In any case, it must be repeated when required by the
labor authority, following a report from the Labor and Social Security Inspectorate and, where
appropriate, from the technical bodies in preventive matters of the autonomous communities,
when the circumstances reveal the need to review the results of the last audit.
Auditor requirements
The audit must be carried out by natural or legal persons who also possess a sufficient knowledge
of the matters and technical aspects that are the object of the same and have the appropriate
means to do so. The physical person or auditing entity can not maintain commercial, financial or
any other type of connection with the company, other than those inherent to its performance as
auditors.
In the same way, they will not be able to carry out coordination activities for preventive activities
or activities as a prevention service for the same or different company. On the other hand, they
can not maintain commercial, financial or any other type of connection with the prevention
services, with the exception of the following:
The concert of the person or audit entity with one or more third-party prevention services for
carrying out preventive activities in their own company.
The contract to carry out the audit of the prevention system of an entrepreneur dedicated to the
activity of external prevention service.
The persons or specialized entities that intend to develop the audit activity of the prevention
system must have a single authorization from the labor authority, which will be valid throughout
the Spanish territory.
Audit report
The results of the audit must be reflected in a report that the audited company must keep at the
disposal of the competent labor authority and the representatives of the workers. The content of
the report must faithfully reflect the reality verified in the company, being prohibited any
alteration or falsification of the same.
Companies that have a legal obligation to have their own prevention service can not be part of
joint prevention services set up for companies in a certain sector, although they are constituted
for companies of the same group.
Before adopting the constitution agreement, the workers' representatives of each of the affected
companies must be consulted in this regard.
The constitution agreement must expressly state the conditions under which such a prevention
service should be developed. These conditions should be discussed, and if necessary agreed upon,
within each of the health and safety committees of the affected companies.
The constitution agreement must be communicated prior to the labor authority of the territory
where its main facilities are located, in the event that said constitution has not been decided in the
framework of collective bargaining.
Its preventive activity will be limited to participating companies.
These services, whether or not they have differentiated legal personality, will be considered as
services of the companies that constitute them and will have at least three specialties or
preventive disciplines.
Except for those formed between companies belonging to the same business group, the joint
prevention services must have minimum human resources equivalent to those required for third-
party prevention services. In order to determine the material resources that they need to have,
reference will be made to those established for third-party prevention services, adapting them to
the activity of the companies. The labor authority may formulate requirements on the adequate
provision of human and material resources.
The joint prevention service must be available to the labor authority and the author
It is necessary that you have the training required to develop the functions of the basic and
intermediate levels, depending on the characteristics of the companies covered by the service.
Experts in the aforementioned specialties will act in a coordinated manner, particularly in relation
to the functions related to the preventive design of jobs, the identification and evaluation of risks,
prevention plans and training plans for workers.
Arrange for the development of the concerted activities of the facilities and instrumentation
necessary to carry out the tests, recognitions, measurements, analysis and evaluations customary
in the practice of the aforementioned specialties, as well as for the development of the basic
educational and informative activities, in the terms that determine the development provisions of
this royal decree.
Without prejudice to the necessary coordination indicated, the health activity will count for the
development of its function within the prevention service with the structure and means
appropriate to its specific nature and the confidentiality of personal medical data.
When the risks can be aggravated or modified during the development of the processes or
activities, by the concurrence of diverse operations that take place successively or simultaneously
and that require specific control of the correct application of the working methods.
When carrying out activities or processes that are statutorily considered as dangerous or with
special risks (see article 22 bis.1.b) of the RSP.
When the need for such presence is required by the Labor and Social Security Inspectorate, if the
circumstances of the case so require due to the detected work conditions.
Presence is a complementary preventive measure that has the purpose of monitoring compliance
with preventive activities in relation to the risks derived from the situation that determines their
need to achieve an adequate control of said risks.
Such monitoring shall include checking the effectiveness of the preventive activities envisaged in
the planning, as well as the adequacy of such activities to the risks that are intended to be
prevented or to the appearance of unforeseen risks and derived from the situation that
determines the need for the presence of preventive resources.
The location in the work center of the people to whom the presence is assigned must allow them
to fulfill their own functions, and must be a secure site that does not involve an additional risk
factor, neither for such persons nor for the employees of the company. The company must remain
in the workplace during the time the situation that determines its presence is maintained.
The presence of preventive resources in the workplace is also considered as one of the means of
business coordination established by the regulations for the prevention of occupational risks. The
way to carry out the presence of preventive resources will be determined in the planning of the
preventive activity should be provided to workers the necessary data to enable them to identify
the preventive resources designated by the employer
When there are concurrent companies in the work center that perform the operations that
require the presence of preventive resources, the obligation to designate them will fall on the
company or companies that perform such operations or activities, in which case and when there
are several such preventive resources should collaborate among themselves and with the rest of
the preventive resources and person or persons in charge of the coordination of the preventive
activities of the owner or principal employer of the work center.
22.2.7. Activities included in Annex I of the Regulation of Prevention Services
Work with exposure to ionizing radiation in controlled areas according to Real D
ecreto 783/2001, of July 6, approving the Regulation on sanitary protection against ionizing
radiations.
Work with exposure to substances or mixtures causing acute toxicity category 1, 2 and 3, and in
particular to carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic for reproduction, category 1A and 1B, according to
Regulation (EC) No. 1272 / 2008, of December 16, 2008, on classification, labeling and packaging
of substances and mixtures.
Activities that involve high-risk chemical products and are subject to the application of Royal
Decree 840/2015, of September 21, which approves risk control measures inherent to serious
accidents involving dangerous substances.
Work with exposure to biological agents of groups 3 and 4, according to Royal Decree 664/1997,
of 12 May, on the protection of workers against the risks related to exposure to biological agents
during work.
Activities for the manufacture, handling and use of explosives, including pyrotechnic articles and
other objects or instruments containing explosives.
Own works of open-pit and indoor mining, and soundings in terrestrial surface or in marine
platforms.
Activities in immersion under water.
Activities in construction, excavation, earthworks and tunnels, with the risk of falling height or
burial.
Activities in the steel industry and shipbuilding.
Production of compressed, liquefied or dissolved gases or significant use thereof.
Work that produces high concentrations of siliceous dust.
Works with electrical risks in high voltage.
If the non-observance of the regulations involves a serious and imminent risk, the Inspection may
order the immediate stoppage of the work.
The action of the same will be by own initiative, by denunciation, by reasoned request of other
organs, or by superior mandate.
(For more information see chapter 21 regarding the Labor and Social Security Inspectorate).
When the administrative sanctions imposed for very serious infractions are firm, the competent
body that dictated the first resolution in the sanctioning procedure, will order that the sanction
imposed in the Official Gazette of the State or the autonomous community be made public, in
accordance with the corresponding field of competence. The publication will include, at least, the
following information: name or business name, address, National Identity Document or Tax
Identification Code of the company, the violation committed and the imposed economic sanction,
including the amount of the same. The competent body shall incorporate said data into a public
consultation record that shall be authorized in each of the competent Administrations. The data
corresponding to sanctioning resolutions will be canceled after five years, starting on the day of its
publication.