This Tuesday, the Council of Ministers approved the Royal Decree that extends protection to domestic workers, an eminently feminized group whose labor rights have always lagged behind those of the rest of the working class. With the new regulations, the Labor Party aims to improve the health protection and working conditions of people who provide their services in the domestic field, some 360,000 registered with Social Security in August, with risk assessments of the addresses where they carry out their activity. , the guarantee of medical examinations, the provision of adequate equipment for the exercise of their functions or training in prevention. Nothing that is not already recognized in other activities.
“Thanks to domestic workers, they are the ones who have reached this level,” said the Second Vice President and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, who highlighted the historical discrimination that these women have suffered in the workplace. “45 years ago, not only did they not have rights, but the Spanish legislator took them away,” defended Díaz, who stressed that the standard meant complying with two articles of Convention 189 of the International Labor Organization, but that it has no equivalent in other environmental legislation. “There is no regulation to monitor, we are the first European country to take this step,” he said.
According to Labour data, the group of people employed in the domestic work sector is mainly women, more than 95% of whom are migrants. Most of them are between 40 and 50 years old and work mainly in Madrid and Catalonia.
An initial assessment of risks and protective equipment
According to the text approved this Tuesday, the employer must carry out a “first assessment of the risks to the safety and health” of the worker and adopt the necessary preventive measures to eliminate or reduce those detected. This must be updated at the frequency determined during this first analysis or when changes occur in working conditions.
The Royal Decree extends certain protections of the law on the prevention of occupational risks to domestic employees, mainly those concerning workers who are particularly sensitive to certain risks, those related to maternity, minors and temporary workers. But it also adds obligations to workers: they must ensure, “to the extent of their possibilities”, compliance with prevention measures, use protective equipment and materials correctly and report situations that, in their opinion, involve risks.
Families or employers will be required to provide employees free of charge with work equipment appropriate to the exercise of their activity, as well as personal protective equipment in cases where risks cannot be avoided or sufficiently limited by technical means.
Training for domestic workers
In order for workers to fulfil this duty, employers must ensure that they have all the necessary information about risks and protective measures, as well as allow them to participate “in all matters affecting their safety and health”.
The text is not just information. “Workers will have the right to receive prevention training when they are hired,” it specifies. If they provide services in several dwellings, this will be unique, unless a dwelling “involves exceptional risks.” In this case, “additional training must be provided at the employer’s expense.” In all cases, this must be considered as working time.
In the case of ordinary training, this will be carried out through a platform whose management will be entrusted to the National Foundation for Vocational Training (Fundae).
Preventive activity
Employers must comply with the duty to prevent occupational risks. Like any company, they can do this in two ways: by hiring a person to take charge of this task or by organizing this task with a company dedicated to these functions. There is a third way: that the employer himself has the training required by the Regulation on Prevention Services, which concerns issues related to occupational medicine, occupational safety, occupational hygiene and applied ergonomics and psychosociology.
However, employers will not be alone. The ministry is committed to ensuring that the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health will have, within 10 months of the publication of the standard, a tool that “facilitates compliance with obligations” related to the assessment and prevention of risks and protection equipment for employees. In addition, this body must develop, within a year, an action protocol in the event of situations of violence and harassment within the family home service.
Faced with serious risks, the work is abandoned
Another new feature introduced by the standard is that workers will be able to leave their jobs if they consider that the activity they are carrying out presents “a serious and imminent risk to their life or health, as well as leave their home if necessary”. In these cases, they must immediately inform the employer, who must reverse the dangerous situation. Furthermore, the adoption of this preventive measure cannot cause harm to employees, “unless they have acted in bad faith or committed serious negligence”, the text states.
Protection is also extended to situations of violence or harassment at work. Leaving the family home due to these circumstances “cannot be considered as a resignation or be grounds for dismissal.”
A medical examination every three years
Domestic workers will be entitled to a medical examination that will be carried out at least every three years. In any case, this will be voluntary and will be done “with guarantees of respect for your privacy”. This is where the Ministry of Health comes in, which must include the carrying out of these checks in the portfolio of common services of the national health system, so that there is no cost to the employer.
Entry into force
The Royal Decree will come into force the day after its publication in the Official State Gazette, scheduled for this Wednesday. However, the obligations it contains will only be enforceable six months after the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has activated the tools committed to supporting employers, within a period of 10 months, which extends the adoption of these rights until 2026.
