Prevention does not depend only on you or only on the employer. There is an organisation of people, documents and bodies that sustains it.
How the employer organises prevention
Article 30 of Ley 31/1995 and Real Decreto 39/1997 allow several forms. The employer can:
- Appoint one or more workers to deal with prevention.
- Set up an in-house prevention service.
- Contract an external prevention service, a specialist body.
- Set up a joint service with other companies.
In small companies, the employer can take on prevention personally in the cases that Real Decreto 39/1997 allows (up to 10 people, or up to 25 if the company has a single workplace, and with other conditions).
Workforce participation
- Prevention representatives (delegados de prevención): these are the people who represent the workforce on prevention (article 35). In companies of up to 30 workers it is the staff representative; from 31 to 49 there is one, elected by and from among the staff representatives; from 50 to 100 there are two, and the number rises with the workforce.
- Health and Safety Committee: a joint body that exists in companies or workplaces with 50 or more people (article 38). It meets at least quarterly.
- Representatives can accompany technicians and the Inspectorate, visit workplaces and propose measures.
Documentation
The employer must keep available to the labour authority (article 23):
- The prevention plan.
- The risk assessment and the planning of preventive activity.
- The results of checks on the working environment and on health.
- The list of accidents at work and occupational diseases resulting in more than one day's sick leave.
Several companies in one place
When several companies share a workplace, they must cooperate and coordinate (article 24). The company that owns the workplace informs the others of the risks and the emergency measures, and whoever contracts or subcontracts work or services that are part of its own activity monitors compliance.
Public bodies
- Labour and Social Security Inspectorate: monitors compliance and can impose penalties. Any worker or their representatives can go to it if they believe the measures are insufficient (article 40).
- INSST (the National Institute for Safety and Health at Work): a technical body that publishes guides and studies.
- Bodies of the autonomous communities (Spain's regions): with powers in prevention, advice and control.
- Mutual insurance societies collaborating with Social Security (mutuas): they help manage the benefits for accidents at work and occupational diseases of the companies attached to them.
The risks specific to your sector
Every sector has specific risks: a kitchen, a warehouse, a shop, an office, farming, cleaning or caring for people are not the same. This course covers general risks. Those of your particular job must be explained by your employer.
What this course is and what it is not
This course takes as a guide several blocks of the programme that Annex IV of Real Decreto 39/1997 sets for the basic level: basic concepts, general risks and their prevention, basic elements of management and first aid. It does not cover the block on the specific risks of each sector.
It is not equivalent to the basic-level training under article 35 of Real Decreto 39/1997. That training prepares people to carry out basic-level preventive duties in the company. It lasts at least 50 hours in companies with Annex I activities and 30 hours in others, follows the programme and the allocation of hours in Annex IV, and is evidenced by a certificate from a prevention service or from a public or private body entitled to give that training. This course does not meet those conditions. It is general training for workers and does not qualify you to carry out prevention duties in the company.
What your employer must still do
Article 19 of Ley 31/1995 requires the employer to give theoretical and practical training that is sufficient and adequate, focused on the job. It must give it on hiring, when duties or equipment change, and repeat it if necessary. Wherever possible it is given within working hours; if not, the time spent is deducted from them. Its cost never falls on the worker.
A general course does not replace it. Your employer must also inform you about the risk assessment for your job, show you the emergency measures of your workplace and give you protective equipment.
Construction and metal
In construction, the General Agreement of the Construction Sector sets its own prevention training, which is evidenced by the Tarjeta Profesional de la Construcción (TPC). In the metal sector, the national sector agreement also sets its own prevention training, especially for those who work on building sites. This course does not meet those requirements.