Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2000, published 89th ILC session (2001)

Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 1981 (No. 155) - Spain (Ratification: 1985)

1.  The Committee notes the comments made by the General Union of Workers (UGT) regarding the situation of occupational accidents in Spain. The union states that each time a greater number of people lose their lives as a result of accidents at work. Currently 4.22 such deaths are registered per day. Spain has the highest number of occupational accidents in Europe. Between January and September 1999 a 17 per cent increase in the number of accidents was recorded compared to the same period in 1998 and mortal accidents increased by 4 per cent. From January to September 1999, 1,235,659 accidents were recorded (688,341 involved loss of work days while 547,318 did not), of which 1,103 were mortal ones. This situation is a clear sign that the Government of Spain is in violation of Convention No. 155. The Government of Spain continues not to take the measures foreseen by the action plan against occupational accidents as well as those called for by the law on the prevention of occupational risks itself, and employers continue not to comply with the law. More than 53 per cent of enterprises do not carry out risk assessment. In fact since the entry into force of this law on risk prevention in 1996, and up to 1998, accidents resulting in loss of working days grew by 22.17 per cent and those resulting in death grew by 9.06 per cent.

The UGT considers the main causes of the increase of accidents at work to be the precarious nature of conditions of work, the failure of employers to fulfil their responsibilities, and the disinterest shown by the Government. In its view, during the preceding year, the Government limited itself to announcing future measures and taking bureaucratic steps to establish some kind of institution already foreseen in the action plan as well as in the law on prevention of occupational risks, such as the Foundation for the Prevention of Occupational Risks, but nothing has started functioning. Neither was the National Plan for Training in Occupational Accidents Prevention developed during this period, nor did the meeting foreseen between the Auditor-General of the State and the Office of the Presidency of the National Commission on Occupational Safety and Health take place. This lack of coordination between the various administrations to facilitate the implementation of the plan is provoking a slowdown in the attainment of its objectives.

The UGT states that labour inspection should have increased its activities and the quality of these activities in order to ensure the implementation of the law by the employers and the Auditor-General of the State should have pursued infractions of standards on the safety and health of workers. Currently there is no efficient planning being done regarding the tasks of labour inspection.

Many of the occupational accidents result from the non-fulfilment of their responsibility on the part of management that could fall under penal responsibility. The Penal Code of Spain labels such behaviour as penal offences (sections 316, 317 and 318). However, the representatives of the auditors emphasize that such misconduct remain unpunished because they are usually dealt with by the system of justice for offences or misdemeanours (Justicio de Faltas) and do not have "the required guarantees, time limit, expertise and counter expertise required to provide evidence of the facts" and that furthermore, "if the labour inspection has not fulfilled its assignment, the Auditor-General’s Office cannot function because it is deprived of the most abundant and the most reliable source of information.

The Committee would be grateful if the Government would address the questions raised by the UGT in order to permit the Committee to assess the situation in a more complete way.

2.  The Committee notes the comments made by the Democratic Confederation of Labour (CDT-Morocco) evoking the context of the attack against migrant Moroccan workers and their families in El Ejido in an atmosphere of xenophobia, racism and intolerance. It then recalls that Convention No. 155 provides for the elaboration and implementation of a national policy that has as its aim the prevention of accidents and injury to health arising out of, linked with or occurring in the course of work, by minimizing the causes of hazards inherent in the working environment. It indicates that 13,000 Moroccan workers work in the Province of Almeria in Spain, and 95 per cent of them are engaged in the agricultural sector. The owners of the farms employ these migrant workers in greenhouse plantations where the temperatures reach 50 degrees centigrade and the use of pesticides results in lung ailments and skin diseases among the workers. Press coverage of the incidents referred to the fear shown by some of these workers to openly complain about their working and living conditions for fear that their irregular status would be discovered.

The Government in its reply to these comments indicates that 13,422 Moroccan residents have been regularized up to 31 March 2000, and that they, along with the rest of the migrant workers of 112 different nationalities, enjoy the same legal labour rights and the same protection under the laws and collective agreements regarding labour and social security rights as Spanish citizens.

The Government further indicates that, although it recognizes that working conditions in the greenhouses are difficult due to high temperatures and the handling of pesticides, it maintains that all Moroccan and Spanish workers are protected by occupational safety and health standards as well as the provision of the required personal protective equipment which, if not provided, can be reported to the provincial labour inspection or the labour court. Furthermore, the Government adds that these same harsh conditions due to intensive greenhouse cultivation practices have been faced and shared by the Spanish workers and all workers of other nationalities for over 20 years. In relation to the application of collective agreements, the Government states that there is a firm agreement between the agricultural organizations and the trade unions to ensure the scrupulous implementation of this agreement and that labour and social security inspectors will contribute to this.

The Committee welcomes the regularization of the rest of the migrant workers in question which it hopes will permit their inclusion in all the measures the Committee hopes the Government will soon take to ensure that the admittedly harsh conditions of work and the precarious occupational safety and health conditions will be improved. It hopes the Government will continue to follow up the situation closely and that it will keep the Office informed of all developments in this regard.