19/04/21
The Government may, within its competences, establish mandatory measures for the use of masks by the general population in certain situations: For workers, the employer or the administration for the staff at his service must provide them, in accordance with article 14 of the Law on the Prevention of Occupational Risks by the Duty of the Employer and the Administration of Protecting Workers from Occupational Risks. According to the procedure for action for occupational risk prevention services against exposure to sars-cov-2 as they must adapt the prevention to the covid-19 situation.
- It must be the employer, for centres of private or concerted ownership, and the Administration, for publicly owned centres, who facilitate and assume the cost of the masks of their workers, because they are considered as personal protective equipment or EPI'S.
- It is necessary to take into account the Law on the Prevention of Occupational Risks, which article 14 speaks of the right to the protection of workers against occupational risks, indicating that that right implies the existence of a correlative duty of the employer to guarantee such protection. This duty of protection is also a duty of public administrations to staff at their service.
In fact, with the onset of the pandemic, the ministry developed an action procedure for occupational risk prevention services against exposure to sars-cov-2 indicating that the intervention of companies' prevention services (SPRLs) against covid exposure is crucial and that they must adapt their activity with up-to-date recommendations and measures against covid. Therefore, each undertaking, in the case of private and concerted centres, and the Administration, with respect to publicly owned centres, with respect to covid-19 must:
- Assess the risks of each professional activity.
- Take the necessary preventive measures, including: basic hygiene measures, organizational measures, and provide personal protective equipment, in this case masks.
Masks (EPI) must be: approved, for individual use, renewed according to their service life and adapted to risk.
According to measures of prevention, hygiene and promotion of health against covid-19 for schools in the 2020-2021 academic year. It states that educational administrations should provide schools with the means to ensure that their workers have adequate protective equipment for the performance of their duties.
In the case of schools, it has established the mandatory use of masks in schoolchildren from the age of 6. In this case, the cost of such masks must be borne by the users, i.e. by the families of the students. For students:
- Mandatory use from the age of 6 (use of surgical mask for normal situations and use of FFP2 if you have to attend to a suspicious case)
- The cost falls on the user.