El marco jurídico en la prevención de riesgos laborales en el sector de la construcciónsubcontratación y coordinación de actividades en las obras

Abstract

OBJECTIVES If there is a particularly critical area which is worth mentioning when discussing workplace accidents, it certainly is the construction sector. Determining factors such as a poor risk-prevention training affecting many of the actors involved in the building process, systematic outsourcing of specific tasks and services, or the endemic short-term nature and labour instability affecting the sector have a fateful bearing on accident rates which, despite having declined in recent years, still remain well above the average of other economic sectors. Reducing this unacceptable indexes would involve the implementation of a proper legal regulation, easy to understand, practical and feasible, along with formal commitments between Government, employers and workers representatives, but above all, it would require a definitive integration of occupational risk-prevention principles in the business organization culture. This paper attempts to offer an overview on the applicable regulations concerning the construction industry, focusing particularly on three key issues: 1- Firstly, on the legal analysis of what has been called the "building process agents": developers, coordinators, contractors, self-employed workers¿ We discuss the different concepts as well as their individual responsibilities, skills and professional profiles, but focusing mainly on their legal status, specifically in the light of the most relevant doctrinal opinions and abundant case law on the matter. 2-Secondly, outsourcing is analyzed. Its relevance is hardly disputable in a scenario in which more and more often big, strong companies divert responsibilities to small firms "at the end of the chain". Specifically, the following issues are discussed: the need to monitor compliance with prevention legislation by the various subcontractors; the different levels of outsourcing; the necessary training of the companies involved; the role of collective bargaining; and the need to strengthen workers participation mechanisms. 3-And thirdly, considering its major legal importance, we analyze the question of coordination between the different agents relevant to the building process. Such coordination is especially necessary in an environment in which, precisely because of the systematic use of subcontracting, it is not unusual the confluence in the same workplace of different subjects from different companies, an environment in which incorrect or negligent actions from any of the participants, or poor planning from any of the different managements involved might cause damage to the rest of the workers. 4.- Finally, we discuss Public Administrations, their role as promoters of public work. Since these authorities are not only the recipients of works executed by external, private companies, but also take on the role of promoters, we consider the legal consequences that this double capacity entails. A particularly complex task, since they are forced to take into account both public work contracting normative and civil common law, as well as labour regulation. In order to achieve these objectives, an eminently theoretical research has been chosen starting with the most general and getting to the most specific and concrete. Stemming from an initial scheme based on other subject-related manuals, its contents have been developed with the support of articles from different sources such as universities, specialized magazines, manuals, books, databases and, above all, both social and administrative jurisprudence. Some particularly interesting articles on the issue have let us carried on with this line of research taking advantage of other authors' references, sentences or comments leading us to a more complete and reinforced sight of the question. In our opinion, we have been able to make a serious survey, well-founded and verified by trustworthy opinions. Finally, this methodology let us get to some valid conclusions which open future new options of study and investigation starting from the necessary simplification and rationalization of the existing rules concerning occupational hazard prevention. These rules sometimes become part of the problem because of their different origins and complexity. Some of the conclusions derived from the present work are the necessary professional training of the different agents involved in the building process, to deepen in the coordination of activities at the workplace itself as well as the reinforcement of the mechanisms which control outsourcing and the participation of Public Administrations as promoters of public work.