Royal Decree 893/2024, which regulates the new right of domestic workers to have professional risks assessed by their employers, establishes several deadlines that the Ministry of Labor has not respected. In March, eight months ago, the limit that Yolanda Díaz’s department had set itself to develop a training platform on risk prevention for domestic workers expired. Furthermore, it does not meet the deadline set for the development of an action protocol against situations of harassment and violence suffered by these professionals and for completing a technical guide for risk prevention. Both documents should have been available in September and there is no trace of them.
These delays occur despite the fact that from Friday families will be asked to assess the professional risks of their home, with the possibility of sanctions for those who fail to comply. The free site that allows you to carry out this risk assessment of domestic workers, available for six months, did not work at all yesterday afternoon, nor on the night from Wednesday to Thursday, nor does it work this morning.
Article five of the decree underlines that “workers will have the right to receive preventive training upon hiring”. “Such training will be unique, even if they provide services on behalf of different employers and will have to be focused on the risks associated with carrying out domestic work,” adds the text published in Official State Gazettewhich also specifies that said training “must be given, when possible, within the working day or, failing that, outside of it and compensated with rest times equivalent to those of the employee”. At the same time, it underlines that this training will be developed through “the training platform provided for by the fifth additional provision”.
This additional provision establishes that this training “will be developed through a training platform whose management will be the responsibility of the State Foundation for Vocational Training (Fundae)”. It is also specified that the State Public Employment Service (SEPE) had to prepare the resolution regulating this instrument, and that it had to be issued within six months of the entry into force of the decree. That is, at the latest in March, eight months ago. “Such training activities must include a self-evaluation process and will be certifiable”, adds the text of the Work.
The ministry acknowledges the delay, underlining that the Sepe resolution is ready and that the service will be operational at the beginning of the year.
The further provisions of the decree add other commitments which the Ministry has also not fulfilled. “Within a maximum period of one year (in September, two months ago) from the publication of this rule, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (INSST) will develop a protocol of action in situations of violence and harassment in family home care,” we read in the text. There is no trace of such a protocol, which should have been published on the websites of the Ministry of Labor and also of the Ministry of Equal Opportunities. “It will be available to employers and workers at the headquarters of the provincial labor and social security inspectorates”, adds the text.
The Ministry has given itself the same deadline, until September, for the INSST to prepare “a technical guide for the prevention of professional risks in home care”. The document, as well as the protocol against situations of violence and harassment, should now be available at the provincial Inspectorate headquarters.
The ministry confirms that neither the protocol nor the technical guide are available.
Risk assessment platform
On the other hand, this Friday 14 November six months have passed since Trabajo launched the site prevencion10.es. This is the “free and open access prevention tool” which, as the Ministry explained in its launch, “allows employers to comply with their new legal obligations”. That is, on this site people who hire domestic workers can complete the self-assessment of occupational risks in their homes. As this Friday marks a full half year since the website launched, what is expected in terms of prevention will be required of employers of domestic workers.
Failure to carry out the self-assessment or failure to inform domestic workers about the preventive measures adopted can be classified as a serious infringement. The highest penalty foreseen by the legislation in this regard is 49,180 euros at its maximum level. Yolanda Díaz’s department emphasizes that this type of sanctions will only be applied in the presence of aggravating circumstances. Without them, in most cases, non-compliance would be considered minor and the fine would be a maximum of 2,450 euros.
