As the end of the year approaches, it is advisable to review some of the employer’s responsibilities in the area of prevention. Reviewing these responsibilities will help us plan the work and address the preventive activities for the coming year. One of the actions that requires planning is mandatory Safety and Health training. In this regard, it is worth recalling one of the most important regulatory developments in Occupational Risk Prevention. This is the publication, in June 2017, of the 2nd Statewide Collective Agreement for Industry, Technology and Services in the Metal Sector (CEM).
In this regard, we must bear in mind that one of the new developments included in this regulation is the implementation of Article 19 of the Occupational Risk Prevention Act, which sets out the requirements for mandatory Occupational Risk Prevention training within the scope of the Metal sector.
Consequences of the reform for the employer
As the main consequence of the new provisions set out in the agreement, we have those related to the mandatory prevention training that the employer must provide to workers. The Agreement distinguishes between metal-sector companies that provide services in construction and those that do not.
In this case, we will focus on how the reform of the agreement affects companies that provide services in the construction sector.
First of all, it should be noted that, according to Royal Decree 1627/97 a construction project is understood to be any project, public or, as indicated in the agreement, private, in which construction or civil engineering work is carried out. You may find useful the non-exhaustive list set out in Annex I of the aforementioned royal decree. However, as indicated in Annex XVIII of the 2nd Metal Sector Agreement, these activities would correspond to CNAE codes 4211, 4221, 4222, 4299, 4321, 4322, 4329, 4332 and 4399, and any other activities in the Sector involving installation, repair or maintenance on construction projects.
Affected employers must provide training that meets the following requirements, distinguishing between training for managers, training for office workers, and training for production or maintenance workers. Below, we will briefly summarise the most relevant aspects in this regard.
Mandatory training for managers
For management positions, Safety and Health at Work training must be at least 10 hours and may be in-person or online training.
Training for office workers
Administrative roles will require a minimum of 6 hours of prevention training, which may be in-person or online training.
Training for production or maintenance workers
For production or maintenance workers, job- or trade-specific training will be 20 hours. Of those 20 hours, 14 are core hours and 6 correspond to job-specific hours. This training also includes 8 hours of Permanent Classroom training. This training must be in-person.
Refresher training
The validity of the aforementioned Safety and Health training will be three years. Therefore, within that period, a 4-hour refresher training must be delivered. This mandatory refresher training must be in-person for production or maintenance workersand may be delivered as online training for managers and office workers.
Timeframe for adapting to the regulations
As we have already mentioned, the regulations have been in force since June 2017. However, in general terms, companies should comply with the requirements set out in the agreement within a maximum period of three years.
Please note that these are general considerations and that applying the legislation currently in force always involves specific cases that should be analysed in each situation. For this reason, it is important to have expert advice.
