Two years after improving the prevention of occupational risks in Spain, the Ministry of Labor and the unions CC OO and UGT have reached an agreement to change the regulations in which the employers’ associations CEOE and Cepyme do not participate. The last meeting between the centrals and the Government took place and, since then, contacts have continued until reaching a consensus on the content, as confirmed by the unions and the Executive. The governing bodies of UGT and CC OO have approved the pact in recent days, which they also confirm from the department headed by Yolanda Díaz. The signing ceremony is scheduled to take place on February 10, a regulation with which the Government tries to mitigate the drama.
One of the main conditions set by the unions was the commitment that the modifications that could be approved by decree would follow this path, regardless of what happens with the draft law in Parliament, a request to which the Executive has agreed. It is a strategy similar to that of the law: it was not possible to carry out the cut to 37.5 hours in the Workers’ Statute, but the reinforcement of the time register, passable by decree, continues its course. This time the Government is not going to wait for that probable refusal from Parliament and will take both the draft law and the decrees to the Council of Ministers in the coming months. Pedro Sánchez to try to carry out measures through this regulatory route, which does not require the green light from Congress.
Last year (until November) 686 people died at work, a figure that scares the unions. Although it is lower than that reported last year (741), the number of deaths is growing strongly in some especially dangerous sectors. This is the case of construction, with 156 deaths compared to 128 in 2024. The companies themselves recognize that in a third of work accidents the corresponding risk assessment is carried out.
According to the data, Spain has an incidence of workplace accidents (ratio of the number of deaths at work per 100,000 employees) of 1.71. This rate is slightly above the community average (1.63) but is much higher than the data reported by the safest countries on the continent. This is the case of the Netherlands (0.38), Germany (0.71) or Poland (1.18).
What can be approved by decree?
The main aspects that do not have the status of law and that the unions want to approve regardless of the fate of the draft are: a specific decree on psychosocial risks, which would require that all companies have an evaluation in this regard; reinforce the surveillance already required by the royal decree (which applies when several companies operate in the same workplace); change workplace regulations; a specific decree to address exposure to adverse weather; and add several additional requirements in the regulations for prevention services. Labor maintains that the specificity of each of these decrees has not yet been finalized, but the general lines are.
This last modification, that of the prevention services regulations, has a special significance. Among other measures, it expands the content of the evaluation that they must carry out. For example, it gives a new vision of gender by requiring that it be taken into account “the possibility that any position is occupied by men or women and, particularly, in relation to their physical characteristics and anthropometric measurements, if they are different, as well as their biological characteristics and factors linked to gender,” according to the agreed text.
It also requires taking into account “factors of a psychosocial nature, including those that may be related to the working conditions and the characteristics of the task, such as the organization of working time, among others,” as well as “the possibility that the position may be occupied by a pregnant or breastfeeding worker.”
The change in the regulation of prevention services will also be more demanding on companies when it comes to having their own team dedicated to it: all companies with 300 employees or more “must establish their own prevention service”, instead of the current 500, and those that are dedicated to more dangerous activities must establish it with staff of more than 150 employees, compared to the current 250.
Regarding the prevention services of others, private companies dedicated to this matter, the unions consider it common that, although they are specialized in the matter, they are overloaded and barely provide surveillance. To amend the situation, the agreement proposes creating the figure of the “interlocutor” with the specialized company, an employee who must mediate with this service when the employer does not have the training or the means to take care of it.
Likewise, the Executive undertakes to improve the order that regulates the accreditation of entities specialized in prevention and that audit these tasks in other companies.
What changes the law
Other aspects depend entirely on the draft law, fully agreed upon, and are subject to the success of the initiative in Parliament. This is the case of the creation of territorial prevention agents, people designated by unions and employers who would monitor occupational risks in workplaces. In those tiny companies, the centrals denounce, that’s where they do the most.
If this ministry proposal is consolidated in the regulations, it would extend a figure that already applies in other autonomous communities, such as Asturias, Navarra, developed through agreements between the regional governments, unions and employers of the region.
This legislative project has already passed the public consultation process. In the accompanying document, the ministry specifies the objectives of this standard, among which stands out the intention to “make visible certain risks whose presence has been increasing, such as those linked to psychosocial factors, risks derived from climate change and remote work or those caused by deficiencies in digital disconnection.”
It also highlights the intention to “prevent work-related accidents and illnesses, promoting awareness and management of, among others, psychosocial and ergonomic risks, with greater presence in work environments due to the outsourcing and digitalization of the economy” and “strengthen the preventive organization of the company, among others, through a greater presence and weight of workers with preventive functions.” Along the same lines, it focuses on “reviewing the training required of people who carry out preventive functions at a basic, intermediate and higher level”, with a greater face-to-face nature. The project also tries to improve after a work accident.
The unions expect that these regulations will undergo changes during the parliamentary process, with the incorporation of amendments from the different political groups. The reduction in working hours failed in this process, due to the amendments to the totality added by PP, Vox and Junts
CEOE, against
It is foreseeable that these three parties will vote against the draft. Vox rejects all the Government’s initiatives and the PP has been consistent in recent months in its announcement that it will only support labor measures that have both union and employer support. Hence, he has already confirmed that he will reject the agreement to extend the death permit to ten days. Although Junts has not been so strict in this way of proceeding, its latest votes point to another negative vote.
At the prevention dialogue table, CEOE and Cepyme harshly attacked the Government. “The second vice president of the Government and Minister of Labor herself has even gone so far as to use the death of workers to accuse companies of putting them at risk, all for electoral purposes,” they said in a joint statement. Given this scenario, the business associations asked Labor to open “and effectively and discard the route of imposing measures only agreed upon with the unions, which will harm both companies and workers.”
