Is CAE required for external visits?

In my first contact with occupational risk prevention legislation, I was surprised by the practical difficulty of complying with its requirements in the different cases in which "workers from two or more companies carry out activities in the same workplace", "whether or not there are legal relationships between them". I asked, as a good engineer, if there were computer applications to facilitate compliance and achieve the final objective of the legislation in an efficient way. At that time the trainer did not know of any. I said at the time that it seemed to me that it was almost impossible to comply with the law. I'm sure you can imagine the grimace I got as my only response.

Fortunately, we have come a long way since then.

In this article I deal with a particular case in this respect: what we can call "external visits".

CAE and external visits

Companies usually establish the requirement to carry out CAE based on the existence or not of a contract with the company of the external employee or freelancer who accesses their workplaces. Without going into detail about the conceptual correctness of this statement, we are obliged to comply with prevention legislation and its objectives in all circumstances, regardless of the activity carried out or the legal relationships between the parties.

We are also clear about the duty of care of a main company that subcontracts its own activity.

In the case of visits, each company will define the preventive measures to be taken. There are companies that at least provide external visitors with the centre's emergency plan or establish the obligation for a visitor to be accompanied by an employee at all times. We have all been to visit companies where we have not been given any information on prevention. From those where a visitor is quizzed on a video to be viewed, to those at the other extreme, we have encountered different situations.

A CAE - non-CAE classification

I often come across companies that make a three-case classification for the management of prevention related to the entry of external people into their workplaces. The first case would be a visit (there is no contract and no service is provided, for example a salesperson), in the second case the company is an owner company (contract for non-internal activity) and the third is the main company (contract for internal activity). The management of the first case is not usually considered CAE and clearly is in the other two. But as we can see, the management of all three cases is included in a single procedure.

An IT solution is essential

At dokify we have a visitor management module in our CAE platform. At first glance, it might seem that a relatively small application would be sufficient to manage them. However, it is necessary to take into account a large number of situations in order to offer a practical and user-friendly solution. In the absence of a service contract, the management in dokify is different from the case of the CAE. Here are some relevant aspects:

• Compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) must be taken into account. In the case of the CAE, this is managed by registering the company or freelancer with dokify. In the case of the visit, the procedure is different.
• The visit can access different areas of a workplace with different prevention requirements. Accessing the offices is not the same as accessing a production plant or a warehouse.
• In dokify, each type of visit can be provided with a different prevention document and the visit can be confirmed by the visitor.
• Using dokify's visitor module allows you to identify all visitors to your workplaces in real time.

Our visits module integrates with the CAE operation and takes into account whether the visitor is already doing the CAE with another company or may in the future provide a contracted service with the company they are visiting. In this way, we guarantee total consistency and greater efficiency.

We continuously improve our CAE platform to make the coordination of business activities and requirements management faster, more efficient and easier.

dokify is the easiest platform for the coordination of business activities (CAE), we create a collaborative network of companies.

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Excerpts from the legislation on coordination of business activities

In case you are interested, here are some extracts from the legislation applicable to visitor management - it never hurts to brush up on concepts!

Law 31/1995, of 8 November 1995, on the prevention of occupational hazards.

Article 20. Emergency measures.

"The employer, taking into account the size and activity of the undertaking and the possible presence of outsiders, shall analyse possible emergency situations and take the necessary measures for first aid, fire-fighting and evacuation of workers".

Article 24. Coordination of business activities.

"The employer in charge of the workplace shall take the necessary measures to ensure that other employers who carry out activities in the workplace receive adequate information and instructions regarding the risks existing in the workplace and the corresponding protection and prevention measures, as well as the emergency measures to be applied, to be passed on to their respective workers.

Companies that contract or subcontract with other companies for the execution of works or services corresponding to their own activity and which are carried out in their own work centres must monitor compliance by said contractors and subcontractors with occupational risk prevention regulations".

Royal Decree 171/2004, of 30 January 2004, which implements article 24 of Law 31/1995, of 8 November 1995, on the Prevention of Occupational Risks, on the coordination of business activities.

Article 4. Duty to cooperate.

"1. When workers from two or more companies carry out activities in the same workplace, they shall cooperate in the application of the regulations on the prevention of occupational hazards in the manner established in this chapter.

The duty to cooperate shall apply to all undertakings and self-employed workers present at the workplace, whether or not there is a legal relationship between them".