Like every April 28, the world commemorates Safety and Health at Work Day, an initiative of the International Labor Organization (ILO) in tribute to the 28 workers who lost their lives in 1987 as a result of a work accident. occurred at a construction site in Bridgeport (Connecticut, United States).
The issue of health and safety at work in Argentina began to have its normative correlate from 1915, with the sanction of Law 9,688, which created a special regime of coverage for work accidents and occupational diseases based on liability. individual of the employer, and focused exclusively on the reparatory aspect.
This law was in force during most of the 20th century, with several modifications as a result of the social, political and economic changes that our country suffered. It coexisted with Law 19,587, of 1972, and was reformed by Laws 23,643, in 1988, and 24,028, in 1991, until it was definitively replaced, in 1995, by Law 24,557 on occupational risks.
The issue of health and safety at work in Argentina began to have its regulatory correlation from 1915.
It was from the latter that a work risk system framed in social security began to govern in the country, similar to that which existed for example in the United States, Spain, France, Chile and Colombia, among others. From that moment on, legislation on occupational risks, occupational diseases and work accidents, benefits granted, prevention and rehabilitation, among other topics, began to be legislated. The results were progressive and encouraging: efficiency in coverage for workers and certainty for employers.
As is often the case when traveling any path, arriving at your destination is never without difficulties.
In the mid-2000s, the soundness of the Occupational Risk Law was severely questioned, as a consequence of some court rulings that considered some of its articles unconstitutional.
From there a period of increasing litigation ensued, to the point that the system itself was put in check. Measures needed to be taken. And these had to be urgent.
For this reason, and after the mature and consensual dialogue of the different actors, in 2017 Law 27,348 was promulgated, which granted the Medical Commissions of the Superintendence of Occupational Risks (SRT) the role of prior and mandatory administrative instance to the that a worker who had been the victim of a work accident or occupational disease had to resort to. This fact pursued two primary objectives:
- resolve – or attempt to do so – through administrative means any disputes that may exist in the determination of the damage and its consequent repair; and
- not least, achieve greater speed in the resolution of cases and their subsequent compensation. This is how it was achieved that files that took between 3 and 4 years to conclude with a sentence, had a ruling within 60 administrative business days.
The complexities of the modern world force us to rethink new methods and forms of management. The issue of worker safety and health can no longer be addressed with outdated or ineffective tools.
The issue of worker health and safety can no longer be addressed with outdated or ineffective tools.
When carrying out field work, different situations and contexts are perceived that affect, and in some cases make impossible, the normal execution of the tasks.
The geographical dispersion of the establishments, work centers or works, feasible to be visited on site; the communication problems in different locations, mostly associated with jobs located in inhospitable places, the inherent limitations of the available human and economic resources and the delays in the transfer of information between the different actors in the system were issues that constituted an obstacle to a correct performance of tasks and for the normal development of data communication.
It became imperative to incorporate new technologies to correct these deviations. And for this it was necessary to readjust the regulations. The SRT produced the “White Paper on digital technology in the prevention of risks derived from work”, a compendium that addresses the project called “Prevention 4.0”, which consists of the evaluation of technological tools available for implementation in the workplace. for the prevention of accidents and work-related illnesses.
Occupational risk prevention will, in the near future, be a hybrid management between procedures and good practices together with the adoption of digital technology in its most diverse forms. And this will be to facilitate, optimize and perfect prevention routines to the extreme.
Networked technological devices, decision management systems, robotization of control tasks and the generation of an extensive warehouse of evidence that clearly delimits objective responsibilities, will constitute the general basis of development and application. These changes are being put into practice progressively.
From the SRT, the Single Digital Act (ADU) was implemented, a public instrument that attests to the inspection task regarding compliance with the rules of prevention of occupational risks in employer establishments.
The SRT implemented the Single Digital Act (ADU), a public instrument that attests to the inspection task regarding compliance with occupational risk prevention standards.
Not only does it contribute to the reduction in paper use, but it also unifies the record system. Originally, this tool was loaded into the system after the inspection. Today, the ADU device has evolved into a mobile application that allows minutes to be drawn up on site, with geolocation, without the need for a permanent internet connection.
It enables loading in an intuitive and systematic way, and streamlines the data flow of the inspections carried out by all SRT inspectors and agents of the Local Labor Administrators (ATL).
On the other hand, currently, Occupational Risk Insurers (ART), Self-insured Employers (EA) and ART Mutuals can record the in-person visits they make to their establishments using digital certificates of visits (CDV), as long as have the necessary means to do so. They also have the possibility of incorporating images and complementary audiovisual material in the digital forms. They are just examples of the changes that modernity subjects us to.
The technological revolution that we are witnessing implies for States a series of challenges linked to the transparency of procedures, the speed and simplicity of procedures, the digitalization of processes and, ultimately, the proposal of efficient solutions for the benefit of the citizens.
This story suggests that we establish a direction in our management. A path that places us in a higher stage. The enactment of a Law on the Prevention of Occupational Risks constitutes that goal, which suggests us to return to the preliminary draft on which we worked in 2017, when we put its main guidelines, approved by it, for consideration by the then Permanent Advisory Committee of the Law on Occupational Risks. subsequently.
These guidelines are based on the guarantee of the right of every worker to have safe and healthy working conditions, adjusting specifically to each sector or activity through collective bargaining. It must also be a law that includes the guidelines issued by the main international instruments signed by Argentina and the international regulations linked to safety and health at work.
The author is Superintendent of Occupational Risks, a position he also held between 2015 and 2021.
