Royal Decree 893/2024 regulates new rights for domestic workers to have their occupational risks assessed by their employers and sets out several deadlines that the Ministry of Labor has failed to meet. Eight months ago, in March, the restrictions that Yolanda Díaz’s department imposed on itself to develop a risk prevention training platform for domestic workers ended. Also, deadlines given for the development of action procedures for situations of harassment and violence experienced by these professionals and the completion of technical guides for risk prevention have not been met. Both documents should have been available in September, but there is no trace of them.
The delays come despite the fact that from Friday this week, households will be required to assess the occupational risks of their homes, with potential sanctions for parties who do not comply. The free website that allows you to carry out this risk assessment for domestic workers has been available for six months, but it was not operational yesterday afternoon, overnight from Wednesday to Thursday, and again this morning.
Article 5 of this Decree emphasizes that “workers have the right to receive training on preventive matters at the time of employment.” “Such training, although providing services on behalf of multiple employers, will be unique and must focus on the risks associated with performing household chores,” the article published in the magazine added. official gazetteIt also stipulates that this training “must be conducted as much as possible during the working day or, if this is not possible, outside of working hours and compensated for by equivalent rest periods for employees.” At the same time, it also emphasizes that this training will be carried out through the “training platform specified in the Fifth Addendum”.
The addendum provides that this training “will be developed through a training platform managed by the National Employment and Training Foundation (Fundae).” It also states that the State Department of Public Employment (SEPE) must draw up a resolution regulating this tool and must issue it within six months of the entry into force of the Decree. That is, at the latest in March, eight months in advance. “These training activities include a self-assessment process and must be certifiable,” added working text.
The ministry acknowledged the delay and noted that the SEPE resolution is ready and the service is expected to be operational by the beginning of the year.
Additional provisions in the Decree also included other commitments that the Ministry has not fulfilled. “Within a maximum of one year from the publication of this standard (two months ago in September), the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (INSST) will develop procedures for action in situations of violence and harassment in family services,” the text indicates. There is no trace of such a protocol, which should have been published on the Department for Labor or Equality websites. “This document will be made available to employers and workers at the State Labor and Social Security Inspection Headquarters,” the text adds.
The ministry also gave INSST a deadline of September to produce a “Technical Guide to Preventing Occupational Risks in Family Services.” This document, as well as protocols for situations of violence and harassment, should now be available at state inspection headquarters.
The Ministry has confirmed that neither protocols nor technical guides are available.
Risk assessment platform
Meanwhile, this Friday, November 14th, marks six months since Trabajo launched the website prevencion10.es. As the ministry explained at its launch, the tool is a “free and open-access preventive measure” that “enables employers to comply with new legal obligations.” In other words, this website allows people who employ domestic workers to complete an occupational risk self-assessment at home. This Friday marks a full semester since the website was launched, meaning employers of domestic workers will be required to be thinking from a preventive perspective.
Failure to carry out a self-assessment or to notify domestic workers of the precautions being taken may be classified as a serious violation. With this in mind, the maximum penalty included in the bill is a maximum penalty of 49,180 euros. Yolanda Díaz’s department has stressed that this type of sanction can only be given if the situation worsens. Without these, violations will most commonly be considered minor, with fines of up to €2,450.
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