OHS in the Iberian Peninsula: Legal aspects and professional practice

How easy it would be for a Portuguese OHS professional to practice in Spain or for a Spanish to practice in Portugal? Regarding registration, Spain incorporated the Professional Qualifications Directive, 2005/36/EC by means of Real Decreto 1837/2008 whose Annex VIII lists a number of professions not particularly named in the Directive among which it can be found that of Tecnico de Prevencion de Riesgos (Nivel Superior) and in principle the Portuguese Tecnico Superior de Seguranca e Higiene do Trabalho certificate fully meets the corresponding education and training standards. On its part, Portugal's Decreto-Lei 110/2010 on training requirements and certification for OHS professionals does make a provision for the recognition of certificates issued by other EU countries. Irrespective of legal requirements, the need to have a good command of the host nation's language cannot be underemphasized because the practice involves preparing and signing documents that have legally binding value. As far as legislation is concerned and with the stricter control of recent years from Brussels to ensure that Directives are transposed as promulgated it might be stated that professionals of either country ought to be able to find their way into the other's OHS legislation, more so now that their respective official gazettes are available online (www.dre.pt and www.boe.es) complete with information on dates of coming into force and further, modifying or repealing legislation. However, the murky and treacherous aspect is to be found in safety regulations like Wiring, Building and Fire Safety Regulations that albeit benefiting from harmonised standards and sharing of information via the Technical Standards and Regulations Directive 98/48/EC remain very much a matter of national legislation and thus it can be stated that differences between the Portuguese and Spanish regulations while not extremely significant make it harder for professionals to easily trace them and also to have a prompt command of them. Last, it would be worth to note that Portugal's ACT (Autoridade para as Condicoes do Trabalho) allows for better liaising with the relevant authorities while in Spain enforcing powers are dispersed between the Direccion General de Trabajo del Ministerio de Trabajo; the Consejerias de Trabajo of each autonomous regions (17 in total); and the ITSS (Inspeccion de Trabajo y Seguridad Social); and on technical matters they are also dispersed between INSHT (Instituto Nacional de Seguridad e Higiene en el Trabajo) and the Instituto de Seguridad y Salud Laboral of autonomous region government.