Preventive resource (recurso preventivo)

What is a preventive resource?

The provision was introduced by Law 54/2003 in Article 32 bis of Law 31/1995 to strengthen oversight in high-risk situations. This provision establishes that the presence of preventive resources at the workplace, regardless of their organizational structure, is required in three cases: when risks may be aggravated or modified during the process or activity due to the concurrence of various operations carried out successively or simultaneously; when activities or processes are performed that are legally considered hazardous or involve special risks; and when such presence is required by the Labor and Social Security Inspectorate due to detected working conditions.

Preventive resources may consist of one or more designated employees of the company, one or more members of the company’s own prevention service, or one or more members of an external contracted prevention service. The employer may also assign this responsibility to company employees who, while not part of the prevention service or designated employees, possess the necessary knowledge, qualifications, and experience, and have received at least basic-level preventive training.

Article 22 bis of Royal Decree 39/1997 specifies the hazardous activities that require the presence of a safety officer: work with particularly serious risks of falls from heights, work with a risk of burial or collapse, work with machinery that lacks a CE Declaration of Conformity because its date of sale predates the requirement for such a declaration and that involves a risk of entrapment, work in confined spaces, and work with a risk of drowning, in addition to those determined by sector-specific regulations. In construction projects, the fourteenth additional provision of Law 31/1995 extends this requirement to the contractor.

Differences between preventive resource, designated worker and coordinator

Three distinct figures are often confused in the practice of construction and industrial plants.

• Preventive resource. A person present at the site to monitor compliance with measures in situations of special risk. Their role is one of monitoring and communication, not directing the work.
• Designated worker. Preventive organization method: a person to whom the company entrusts preventive activities on a permanent basis, with the appropriate resources and training. They may also act as a preventive resource when required by law.
• Preventive activities coordinator or health and safety coordinator . These roles are part of the coordination of business activities and construction projects, responsible for organizing interaction between companies. They do not replace the presence of each contractor’s designated preventive resource.

Practical rule: the prevention officer monitors a specific situation and reports on it; the designated worker manages the company’s prevention efforts; the coordinator coordinates inter-company involvement. The same person can only hold multiple roles if they have the capacity, training, and availability to perform them effectively.

How is the preventive resource designated and how does it operate?

The designation must be prior, formal, and public. The Regulation requires that preventive resources have sufficient capacity, the necessary means, and be sufficient in number to monitor compliance with preventive activities, and must remain at the center for as long as the situation that necessitates their presence persists.

The usual procedure follows these steps:

1. Identify in the risk assessment and planning the activities and situations that require the presence of preventive resources, and the number of people needed.
2. Designate in writing the people who will act as a preventive resource, check their training (at least basic level) and provide them with the means and information about the task.
3. Communicate the designation to the affected workers and, in works or centers with concurrency, to the other companies and the coordinator.
4. During the activity, monitor compliance with the planned measures, verify their effectiveness and give the necessary instructions for their correct and immediate implementation.
5. If poor compliance or an absence, insufficiency or lack of suitability of the measures is observed, inform the employer so that they can take the necessary measures and, where appropriate, modify the assessment.
6. Record presence, checks and incidents, as evidence for the Labor Inspectorate and for the improvement of planning.

The presence of a preventive resource does not exempt employers from other obligations: assessment, planning, training, and collective protection measures remain mandatory. A preventive resource cannot make work acceptable without the necessary prior measures.

Situations that require the presence of the preventive resource

The three legal assumptions materialize in practice in situations like these:

• Concurrent operations. Tasks from different companies or teams that are carried out simultaneously or successively in the same space and that, combined, aggravate or modify the risks: assembly and maintenance in the same area, work at height over passage areas, use of machinery alongside manual operations.
• Regulatory hazardous activities. Work with a particularly serious risk of falling from heights, burial or sinking, machines without CE marking with a risk of entrapment, confined spaces, risk of drowning by immersion, and activities that sector regulations add, such as certain phases of work or work with exposure to hazardous agents.
• Labor Inspection Requirement. When the Inspection, in view of the working conditions detected, requires the presence of preventive resources during certain activities.
• Construction works. The health and safety plan must identify the phases that require the presence of a preventive resource from the contractor, and the health and safety coordinator must verify this.
• Specific regulations. Other regulations, such as those for confined spaces in certain sectors or for explosive atmospheres, may require continuous external monitoring, which is also carried out through this role.

The specific determination of when presence is necessary corresponds to risk assessment and preventive planning, which must identify the situations and the number of preventive resources required.

Common mistakes and effectiveness criteria

Among the violations most frequently noted by the Labor Inspectorate and the audits are:

1. Designating preventive resources without accredited training or without knowledge of the task they are to monitor.
2. Assigning the function to people who simultaneously perform the monitored work, without real ability to observe and stop the activity.
3. To name a single preventive resource for several simultaneous situations in different locations.
4. Failure to document the designation or presence prevents verification of compliance.
5. Confusing the role with the safety and health coordinator of the construction site or with the external prevention service.
6. Failure to communicate the observed deficiencies to the employer or to update the assessment when the preventive resource detects insufficient measures.

The preventive resource is effective when it knows the task and the planned measures, is present throughout the risk situation, has the authority to stop the work in case of a serious breach, and keeps a record of its actions.

Regulatory framework in Spain

• Law 31/1995, article 32 bis . Regulates the presence of preventive resources: assumptions, who can be, minimum basic level training and application in construction works through the fourteenth additional provision.
• Royal Decree 39/1997, article 22 bis . It develops the figure: dangerous activities that require the presence, capacity and means of preventive resources, identification in the evaluation and planning, and obligation to communicate the deficiencies observed.
• Law 54/2003 . Reform that introduced article 32 bis in Law 31/1995 to strengthen surveillance in situations of greater risk.
• Royal Decree 1627/1997 . In construction works, the safety and health plan must identify the situations that require the presence of preventive resources from the contractor and the coordinator must verify it.

The figure is specific to the Spanish legal system and has no exact equivalent in Directive 89/391/EEC or in most Ibero-American frameworks, where similar functions are attributed to safety supervisors or watchmen in confined spaces with requirements specific to each country.