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Labor Office reiterates employers’ duty to protect workers in dangerous situations

Broadcast United News Desk
Labor Office reiterates employers’ duty to protect workers in dangerous situations

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this The Department of Labor (DT) this Friday reiterated the legal obligations of employers to protect workers in order to guarantee their health and safety.

The labor law supervision agency dealt with this issue On August 22, a temporary stoppage was declared at a location of the Salcobrand pharmaceutical chain in La Cisterna, after two “troubles” in the previous days (August 15 and 20), even during inspections, in which an attempted robbery of the mobile phone of a worker occurred at the door of the sales office. The company has now resumed normal operations after the suspension was lifted following health and safety measures were introduced for workers performing functions at the site in the following days.

The inspection by the Santiago South Community Labor Inspectorate was initiated at the request of Mauricio Acevedo, president of the Federation of Pharmacy Workers (Fenatrafar).

The inspection was carried out at the commercial premises located at Avenida José Miguel Carrera 6701, La Cisterna, The survey showed that the mood of the workers interviewed was affected due to two acts of sabotage within five days.

In view of this, after verifying that there was a risk to the life and health of workers, the employer was ordered to stop work and handle the situation because the employer had not taken all measures to effectively protect the life and health of workers at the time of the inspection. The employer was required to “take necessary measures to protect the life and integrity of workers in the workplace.”

The following day, August 23, the company requested the lifting of the suspension. However, the measure was upheld because the employer, due to its protection obligations, did not take the necessary measures stipulated by the Chilean Safety Institute, the mutual fund to which the company belongs.

Finally, on August 26, the suspension was lifted, following verification of compliance with the measures set by ACHS, in accordance with the company’s new requirements.

Legal principles

DT acted in this case on the basis of the powers provided for in Article 184, paragraph 1, of the Labour Code. It points out “The employer is obliged to take all necessary measures to effectively protect the life and health of workers, inform them of possible risks and maintain adequate hygienic and safe conditions at work and take the necessary measures to prevent accidents and diseases among professionals.”

This duty to protect has been discussed extensively in opinions published from 1993 to date.

Among others:

  • Opinion No. 4,443/262 of 25 August 1993 and Opinion No. 2,284/93 of 17 April 1996 show that there is no doubt that the services that workers are obliged to provide must be performed under conditions that safeguard their integrity and health.
  • Opinion No. 5,469/292 of September 12, 1997 stipulates that protection is a general obligation, “whose content is not limited to the explicit legal provisions on the matter, but also depends on the nature of the situation in which the employer finds himself.” Effectively safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of workers.
  • Likewise, Opinion No. 4,334/69 of 5 November 2014 considers that it is not necessary to verify that such violations cause damage to health, since “what is important is to put the worker in a dangerous situation” that could have been avoided, unnecessarily increasing the chances of a harmful event occurring to his or her person, that is, to prevent any risk that could endanger the life and health of the worker, guaranteeing maximum protection.

so, Antonella Cassi, Regional Director, Eastern Metropolitan Labor BureauThe company, which carried out inspections at Sarkobrand premises within its jurisdiction, insisted that “employers, when faced with different incidents affecting workers in the performance of their duties, must take all the necessary measures contained in the legislation in force in relation to the protection of the safety and health of their families.”

DT also pointed out that Article 184 bis of the Labor Code obliges employers, in cases of serious and imminent risk to life and health, to:

  1. Immediately inform all affected workers of the existence of the above risks and the measures taken to eliminate or mitigate the risks.
  2. b) Where the risk cannot be eliminated or mitigated, take measures to immediately suspend the affected tasks and evacuate personnel.

In these cases, the worker has the right to interrupt his work and, if necessary, leave the workplace when he believes, on reasonable grounds, that continuing to work means a serious and imminent risk to his life or health, and must inform your employer in the shortest possible time, who in turn informs the Labour Inspectorate.

In these types of situations, field inspectors have powers provided for in Article 2, Section 28 of the Labor Code, which states that “In the exercise of their supervisory functions, labor inspectors may order the immediate suspension of work when, in their judgment, it constitutes an imminent danger to the health or life of workers and when they verify that the work is being performed in violation of the labor code.”

In summary, said regional director Antonella Cassi, “the suspension of work during an inspection due to any incident that endangers the life and health of workers is justified by the reaffirmed institutional principles that have reinforced this power over the years, as well as by the current labor and work health and safety legislation.”



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