Occupational health and safety during Covid-19

Since March 2020, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has been calling on all the world's governments to address an imminent pandemic caused by the COVID-19 virus, which is spreading at great speed. This situation generated a state of alarm in Spain, with an urgency and duration unseen since the 1970s with the return of democracy. Similarly, with this new reality that severely affected Spain, a series of laws and regulations have been published with the intention of providing protection to citizens. Labour and Social Security law has been the main axis around which the royal decrees of alarm and ministerial orders have been published. However, the fleeting enactment of these legislations has brought consequences that citizens have had to accept temporarily, with the intention of maintaining order in the different scenarios that govern Spanish society and economy.

What is the right to health protection?

According to the concepts disseminated by the WHO, the right to health protection is the right of any individual, regardless of race, sex, social status, religion, ethnicity, ideology or economic situation, to obtain the highest attainable standard of health. It is a right that, because of its broad legal status, also protects other rights and freedoms:

• The right to access health systems where all citizens can obtain products and services that guarantee the highest possible level of health.
• Freedom over decisions related to personal health, i.e. free control over your sexual and reproductive freedom, possibility to refuse medical treatments and procedures, etc.

Because of the conditions posed by this set of rights and freedoms, the most efficient way for governments to provide or protect this right is by providing health care, favouring or facilitating access to housing, and promoting sources of employment that enable citizens to feed themselves and acquire products important to their health. In this sense, the right to health protection has a positive impact on the right to work.

Right to health protection in human rights

Like the WHO, other international bodies highlight the right to health protection as one of the essential rights of every person. Amnesty International values this right as one of the most important rights for the integrity, equality and security of the individual.

In the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, proclaimed at the United Nations General Assembly in Paris on 10 December 1948, article 25 reads:

"Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services".

Article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which is part of the International Bill of Human Rights, states that all states parties to the Covenant recognise the right of all citizens to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. The countries that have signed the covenant have a responsibility to create social and public health policies for the well-being of people at all stages of their lives, from birth to old age.

The right to health protection is part of the Constitution or Magna Carta of most countries in the European Union and the world, including Spain. In general terms, this right is not fulfilled in many underdeveloped countries, although it is a right that has created new guidelines in the way of governing and creating social policies. In many countries with high poverty rates, there has been a significant increase in life expectancy.

What to do to defend the right to health?

In Spain, the new legislation published during the state of emergency has been one of the most efficient in the European Union. It guarantees citizens access to social security, including sick leave, health care and leave in case they need to take care of their dependents.

Article 2 of Royal Decree-Law 9/2020 of 27 March states that force majeure and objective causes that safeguard the interruption of contracts and reduction of working hours, as set out in Articles 22 and 23 of Royal Decree-Law 8/2020 of 17 March, may not be considered as just cause for dismissal or termination of employment contracts. The validity of this article was extended until 31 January 2021 by means of an agreement published in Article 6 of Royal Decree-Law 30/2020 of 29 September.

These measures may exceptionally benefit people who traditionally work for companies and public institutions, however, these legislations published with the intention of improving the occupational health of Spaniards may severely harm the right to work of the most vulnerable classes, migrant populations and self-employed people. It is common to see how many companies have temporarily terminated service contracts with self-employed professionals, and many of them are even having difficulty collecting invoices for services rendered.

So far two cases of dismissals due to occupational hazards and Covid-19 have been made public and have gained great prominence in the Spanish news. Both cases went to trial under article 2 of Royal Decree-Law 9/2020 of 27 March. One took place in the Social Court No. 3 of Sabadell, in which a judgement of dismissal without cause was issued on 6 July 2020, in case no. 316/2020. The other trial was held in the 29th Social Court of Barcelona, which issued a ruling of unfair dismissal on 28 July 2020, in case no. 349/2020). In both cases the state gave priority to the right to work over occupational risks and Covid-19 as well as other economic factors.