OHS regulations in Chile are centred on Law 16.744, which establishes mandatory social insurance against workplace accidents and occupational diseases. It is not merely a coverage mechanism: it defines employer obligations in prevention, the responsibilities of administering bodies, and workers’ rights when a workplace injury occurs. Complying in substance — not just in form — is what separates organisations that genuinely manage their risk from those that simply insure it.
Prevent before insuring: what the law requires of companies
Law 16.744 requires companies to implement measures to prevent workplace accidents and occupational diseases, inform workers about the risks of their role, train them, and coordinate with the relevant administering body — which may be a mutualidad such as ACHS, IST, or Mutual de Seguridad, or the ISL for public sector workers.
Effective accident prevention strategies are central to meeting these obligations.
When a company has more than 25 workers, the law requires the formation of a Joint Committee on Hygiene and Safety — the internal participation body between employer and workers for identifying risks, proposing improvements, and monitoring working conditions. In larger companies with one hundred or more workers, the obligation extends to having a dedicated Risk Prevention Department staffed by an accredited expert.
Mutualidades: a resource many companies underuse
Mutualidades are not simply accident coverage providers. They are required to advise affiliated companies on implementing their prevention programmes, deliver training, conduct technical site visits, and support accident investigations.
Activating that support systematically — not only after an incident — is a genuine operational advantage. Yet many companies limit their relationship with the mutualidad to managing sick leave and benefits, leaving the full preventive advisory support they are entitled to completely unused.
Why reactive prevention remains the dominant pattern
A company can have all its formal obligations up to date: the joint committee constituted, training sessions completed, records in order. And still manage safety reactively, responding to problems after they have already occurred rather than anticipating them.
The difference between real preventive management and documentary management lies in whether there is visibility over active risks, whether corrective measures are executed with follow-through, and whether information flows across different sites and levels of the organisation. When that is managed in a fragmented way, blind spots accumulate.
This is where the digitalization of occupational risk prevention makes the difference.
For the full detail on OHS regulations in Chile and how they compare with other international regulatory frameworks, you can explore our OHS regulations by country guide.
Sabentis is an OHS platform that centralises preventive management: risk identification, planning, measure tracking, document management, and coordination with administering bodies — with full traceability and ISO 27001 and ENS certification.
It works as comprehensive occupational health and safety management software.
