La protección de la seguridad y la salud en el trabajo autónomo común desde la vertiente preventiva

Abstract

Any economic or professional activity can be developed under the formula of self-employment. Even in times of crisis, this type of work allows a quick and flexible response to new social needs that the labor market demands and which, in addition, represent a business opportunity. This is, for example, the case of the care service for dependent and elderly people, teleworking on own account, the new commercial formulas that arise through the use of new technologies, autonomous work in the field of the collaborative economy, or self-employment on a coworking basis. This research aims to analyze critically, by means of the legal methodology, the current legal framework in the field of prevention of occupational hazards applicable to autonomous common work, and especially, that applies to those who work on their own account without salaried persons in their charge, figure to which this study refers to with the acronym TACSA. This analysis seeks to verify whether the LETA -framework standard in the matter- adequately guarantees the right to physical integrity and, in particular, the safety and health at work, recognized in the LETA itself, and its most relevant effects in the field of social protection. In the first chapter, the characteristics of decent work are studied in the terms defined by the ILO, with the understanding that they should be applied to self-employment, otherwise it will be relegated to the informal economy and classified as work vulnerable. The second chapter is devoted to the study of the delimitation of autonomous work and the regime of coverage of occupational contingencies applicable to it, as a starting point for the analysis that is carried out in the following chapters, regarding the need to set up a normative framework for those who develop a common autonomous work. The third chapter focuses on the analysis of the subjective elements of the concept of autonomous work, specifically on the intervention of the individual and on the main characteristics that, from the point of view of the prevention of occupational risks, account as potential risk factors to effectively guarantee the right to physical integrity and health and safety at work. Chapter four completes the analysis of those foundations that prevention regulations on self-employment should take into account, with the study of the characteristics or conditions in which this one is developed, and in particular, through the study of the objective elements of the concept of self-employment, that is, the characteristics of self-employment, as reflected in the LETA and the LGSS, as risk factors that require an adequate legal framework in terms of prevention of occupational hazards not only to guarantee the safety and health of those who carry out an autonomous work, but to avoid a preventive dumping between companies due to the application of preventive regulations. Once the study of the intervention of the individual and his / her personal characteristics is carried out, as part of the subjective element of the concept of autonomous work that is inferred from the LETA and the LGSS and from the objective elements of the concept of autonomous work, the fifth chapter of this research study critically analyzes the current legal framework in the field of prevention of occupational hazards applicable to common autonomous work, and in particular, to the figure of the person TACSA. The paper concludes by denouncing the insufficiency of the current legal framework in the field of prevention of occupational risks in the common autonomous work and the mismatches that this deficit causes in social security matters, and proposals for improvement are provided to guarantee the right to physical and mental integrity, in particular the safety and health at work of self-employed persons.