Agreement for the effective and rapid investigation of crimes against the physical integrity of workers between the different administrations involved
Last Friday, January 27, the resolution of January 20, 2023 was published in the BOE, which includes the Agreement between the General Council of the Judiciary, the Public Prosecutor's Office, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Justice, and the Ministry of Labor and Social Economy, for the effective and rapid investigation of crimes against the life, health and physical integrity of workers and the execution of convictions, and for raising social awareness of this problem.
With the signing of this agreement, the commitment acquired with the collaboration framework protocol signed in 2007 is renewed, with the purpose of strengthening the general framework of collaboration between the Administrations involved in the fight against workplace accidents to achieve the following basic objectives:
- Expedite detection and alert in the event of a serious work accident
- Ensure that the accident investigation is carried out in the most effective manner possible.
- Identify criminally relevant cases from the first moment.
- Enable criminal prosecution of high-risk crimes for violation of occupational risk prevention regulations
- Improve communication between the Administration of Justice and the competent administrative bodies in order to guarantee the principle of non bis in idem and, reciprocally, ensure that, if the judicial file of the proceedings is agreed upon, the administrative processing of the corresponding sanctioning file can continue.
- Expedite the process of executing convictions and prevent company owners or administrators from evading responsibilities by establishing corporate concealment schemes or by transferring their activity to new business structures.
The parties undertake to respect the provisions of the following annexes:
- Annex I: Protocol for action in the case of accidents resulting in death or serious or very serious injuries. Accidents in itinere and traumatic pathologies are excluded and the intervention of the health administration, the Judicial Police, the Labor and Social Security Inspection, the Public Prosecutor's Office and the Investigative Court, forensic doctors and the courts and tribunals of the social jurisdictional order are articulated.
- Annex II: Action protocol for the investigation of high-risk crimes. Guidelines for action are defined in cases of serious or very serious violations of occupational risk prevention regulations that do not result in the production of a harmful result.
- Annex III: Protocol of action for the execution of convictions. Collaboration is established to execute what is judged and prevent the businessman from being able to evade it by leaving the company inactive and establishing another that is dedicated to the same commercial traffic.
