Obviously, an accident at work is the greatest occupational risk for the worker, since he can lose his health and even literally his life. But what is not usually taken into account is that the employer can also lose his life, figuratively in this case, as a result of such an accident. Because the regulations establish that it was his responsibility to avoid such an accident, and because the means of enforcing this responsibility are acting with a forcefulness never seen before.

It should be remembered that the channels for demanding liability are basically administrative, through which sanctions can be imposed on the company, and criminal, since an accident at work is classified in the criminal code as a crime (reckless homicide due to lack of safety measures, culpa in vigilando, etc.), for which prison sentences can be imposed on the employer (in addition to the payment of compensation, although these can also be requested through social or civil proceedings).

The administrative route generates a very serious economic risk for the company when the worker suffers an incapacitating injury, given that in Spain (as a unique case at European level on this point) there is the sanction of surcharge of benefits, which entails an amount to be paid of between 30 and 50% of the benefits generated by the accident (simplifying the explanation, of the expense that the accident has produced for the mutual accident insurance company). If the benefit is a disability pension, and it is for a young person who will have to receive it until retirement age, the total amount can reach hundreds of thousands of euros. Therefore, the penalty will be of a very high amount, hundreds of thousands of Euros, which are unbearable for the great majority of Spanish companies, given that their turnover volume will not allow them to assume this payment (it should be remembered here that penalties are, by definition, uninsurable). The company will go bankrupt, and the company owner will lose his business life.

The criminal route generates an even more serious risk for the employer, since there is a possibility that he will be personally liable. Prison sentences can only be imposed on natural persons, who will be the ones who will even go to jail (the sentences imposed during the last years range from 6 months to 4 years of imprisonment, and it is well known that for sentences of more than two years the penalty must be served by going to prison). It is clear that the businessman will lose his life, both business and personal, in this case. But not only when a conviction is handed down: the whole process, from the citation as investigated by the investigating judge, the oral trial and waiting for the sentence, is very hard for anyone who would never have thought they could find themselves in this circumstance. Many lose their health due to the stress generated by all this. I will always remember the phrase of a businessman who, upon receiving the news that he had been convicted and the sentence was (only) 6 months, said: "I will finally be able to sleep, after 5 years without doing so".

All of the above used to go unnoticed by businessmen because the risk of suffering the consequences described was low. There were few cases, and very little known (there were no statistics, and the entrepreneurs themselves never publicize it, as is logical, no one ever acknowledges that they have had to pay huge fines, or that they are in criminal proceedings. But the situation is changing dramatically. The Public Prosecutor's Office has recently published data on cases via criminal proceedings, and some of them reflect the clear increase in demand. Some of them:

  • In 2021, 318 judgments were issued, corresponding to cases opened between 2014 and 2018 (we have already commented on how long these proceedings can be).
  • From 2020 to 2021, the last updated year, the proceedings increased from 865 to 1,037. Growth of more than 20%, which is a similar growth to previous years. This figure already clearly indicates that the sentences to be produced in the coming years will grow a lot, compared to the 318 produced in 2021.
  • Fatal accidents in 2022 reached highs in more than a decade (826 cases). Without having specific data, very serious accidents will have grown as much, and may also be due to a crime.
All this greatly increases the number of cases that may occur in the coming years. The employer's risk of being ruined, and of receiving a criminal conviction, is the highest of all the risks he assumes as an employer. Preventive measures to avoid this risk should be appropriate to such a high danger. To underestimate it would be a simple recklessness, which would not be in accordance with the criteria of good business management that any businessman should have.