Challenges and proposals to implement the occupational safety and health on micro, small and medium enterprises. Legal analysis from the european and spanish's perspective

Abstract

Recent reports published by the European Agency for Occupational Safety and Health and by the Spanish Foundation for Occupational Safety and Health indicate a high rate of accidents among workers employed in SMEs and micro-enterprises, whose number also it is in an unprecedented growth both in Spain and Europe as a whole.
Undoubtedly, this justifies the interest of the Labour legal perspective in the study of this subject, especially when we consider whether both trends could be constituting clear signs of the new production paradigm in which the Age of Digital-Robotization takes us into, according to which it would be producing an abandonment –voluntary or not– of the subordinated productive relationship traditionally elected by the citizens, in favour of self-employment or entrepreneurship. If this were the case, Labor Law, and therefore the prevention of occupational risks, are required to meet and adapt to these new realities to continue to seek both protection of the citizen and promoting the good life.
In this process of adaptation it is to be observed, as will be seen in the study, replacement of the mandatory rules by volitional ones that neoliberal currents have implemented as a natural prerequisite for prosperity of markets and SMEs, so that the attitude of the owner of the company, workers and their representatives, as well as the government, comes to assume the role before the laws intended. The «culture of prevention» to the extent that it is called to awaken those attitudes, now plays a major role in modulating and management behaviours. However few are even the public policies related to occupational safety and health, which want or are able to recognize this alteration.