Thirty years after its enactment, Spain's Occupational Risk Prevention Law is changing. The Ministry of Labour opened the public consultation on the draft reform bill on 16 March 2026 — the participation period runs until 8 April.
This is not a cosmetic update. The text amends Law 31/1995, the Workers' Statute, and the Prevention Services Regulation to adapt prevention to twenty-first-century risks. Here is what you need to know.
1. The biggest structural change: prevention is no longer just physical
Until now, OHS focused primarily on physical harm: accidents, occupational diseases, ergonomics. The new text expands the concept of work-related harm to six dimensions:
Physical
Physiological
Cognitive
Emotional
Behavioural
Social
Psychosocial risks become mandatory in preventive assessment. Stress, mental load, harassment, algorithmic pressure — all fall within the scope of prevention. The company can no longer legally ignore them.
Furthermore, digital disconnection is explicitly integrated as a right to effective protection against occupational risks. And violence and workplace harassment — including that exercised through technology or algorithms — is explicitly recognised as a risk that must be prevented.
2. Climate change and extreme weather events: new obligation
Another significant development: companies must take preventive action against catastrophes and adverse weather events. Heatwaves, extreme storms, flooding. Climate change officially enters the Prevention Plan.
For sectors such as construction, logistics, or agriculture — where workers are exposed to the elements — this represents a new layer of documentary and operational obligations that did not previously exist.
3. New obligations for companies based on size
The draft bill redefines who can take on prevention internally and when outsourcing is mandatory:
Up to 10 workers: the employer can personally take on prevention (previously the limit was 25 or 50 depending on the activity)
150 to 300 workers in high-risk activities listed in Annex I: own prevention service mandatory
More than 300 workers: own prevention service in all cases
Up to 10 workers: mandatory prevention training may be subsidised
The risk assessment also changes: it must be reviewed whenever the work organisation, processes, or procedures change, and must be conducted through on-site visits. Practical training will be in-person unless there is justified cause otherwise.
4. Stronger protection for specific groups
The text strengthens protection for three groups that until now had insufficient coverage:
Under-18s: new annexes with prohibited or restricted activities, including exposure to violent content or tasks beyond their physical or psychological capacities
Pregnant or breastfeeding workers: strengthened protection with more specific obligations for the company
Workers returning from sick leave: the company must provide return-to-work procedures including role adaptation and training updates where necessary
This last point is especially relevant for companies with high turnover or workers in physically demanding roles: returning from a long absence can no longer be managed as if nothing has happened.
5. Gender and age perspective in preventive management
The reform introduces the obligation to incorporate gender and age perspectives into the risk assessment. This means that when assessing roles, selecting PPE, and designing preventive measures, the company must take into account biological, physical, and anthropometric differences between workers.
In practice: PPE, procedures, and exposure limits cannot be the same for everyone if physical conditions differ. A change that directly affects how preventive measures are documented and justified.
6. What to do while the reform is being approved
The draft bill is in public consultation until 8 April. Parliamentary proceedings will follow — the law will take months to be definitively approved. But companies that wait for approval to adapt their prevention system will arrive too late.
What makes sense to do now:
Review whether the risk assessment includes psychosocial risks as a specific category
Verify whether documented return-to-work protocols exist
Analyse whether preventive training meets the new in-person requirements
Prepare a protocol for adverse weather events if there are workers outdoors
Review whether PPE and measures are differentiated according to worker profile
Companies that adapt their prevention system before the law is approved will not only be in compliance — they will be ahead of the inspections that will inevitably follow once it comes into force.
Conclusion: the OHS of the future starts today
The OHS Law reform is not a threat for companies that already manage prevention rigorously. It is an opportunity for those who have until now treated it as a bureaucratic formality.
Technology can help close the hardest gaps: monitoring risk behaviours, recording incidents in real time, tracking training and assessments. What previously required large teams can today be handled with computer vision systems connected to preventive processes.
See how Safe helps meet the new prevention requirements in real time