[co-authors: Marcela Salazar, Catalina González]*
A new regulation on the prevention of occupational risks for a safe and healthy work environment comes into force in Chile on 1 February 2025.
This new regulation updates the responsibilities of employers, focusing on the prevention of risks in the workplace. It also synthesizes the rules on this subject, which had been dispersed in several separate legislative decrees. It repeals a prior regulation on the prevention of occupational risks, along with a prior regulation on the establishment and operation of Joint Health and Safety Committees.
In general terms, the new regulation requires employers to adopt a comprehensive approach to managing occupational risks, from planning to implementation and continuous evaluation of preventive measures in the workplace. It establishes new obligations for employers and new requirements regarding existing obligations.
The new regulation differs from the prior occupational risk regulation in several important ways.
The prior regulation established basic standards for the prevention of occupational risks, including the obligation to inform workers about occupational risks and to implement measures to prevent work accidents and occupational diseases. However, this regulation took a more reactive than preventive approach.
The new regulation goes further, as its focus is on ‘effective’ prevention, by establishing a complete occupational risk prevention management system. This system not only identifies hazards, but also introduces the obligation to create a matrix that detects and evaluates risks. This matrix must be updated regularly: at least once a year, or when an accident occurs, an occupational disease is diagnosed, or a substantial change in working conditions is made. In this way, the regulation seeks to ensure continuous and systematic preventive control.
Along with the risk matrix, the employer must implement a preventive work program that includes measures to control and reduce the risks detected. This program must be updated periodically and must be developed by applying a priority of preventive measures, giving highest priority to those that tend to avoid or eliminate the risk.
The new regulation also imposes the obligation on the employer to carry out at least an annual evaluation of compliance with the preventive work program, which reflects a continuous improvement approach that goes beyond the requirements of the previous regulation.
It also introduces a gender perspective in the prevention of occupational risks, ensuring that preventive measures take into account differences in exposure to risks based on the sex or gender of workers.
Another obligation for employers introduced by the new regulation is to draw up a plan to control emergencies and situations of serious and imminent risk. The plan must be updated regularly and tested at least once a year through drills.
Additionally, the new regulation provides that the employer will be responsible for reviewing the Internal Regulations on Order, Hygiene and Safety at least once a year.
Finally, the new regulation introduces greater responsibility in the training and education of workers. It establishes that these training sessions must be carried out at least every two years, and that they must address issues such as the specific risks of the job, preventive measures, and conditions in the case of emergencies. Records of these training sessions must be kept.
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Takeaway for Employers
The new decree of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security introduces a series of significant changes to the responsibilities of employers in the area of occupational risk prevention in Chile. The new regulation requires employers to approach the issue of risk prevention in a more active and thorough manner, and also imposes on employers a duty to undertake continuous and systematic review of these responsibilities.
*Munita & Olavarría
