Author: zone_admin

The Government extends the term of concessions and permits for DISCHARGES that expire in 2020, THROUGH RESOLUTION R-0080-MINAE:

1. The terms granted in those exploitation concessions and discharge permits are extended for one year.
2. This measure seeks to support the productive sector in the face of the COVID-19 emergency, extending the term of water use concessions and discharge permits that expire in 2020.
3. The original conditions of the concessions, as well as the discharge permits, must be respected by the administrators.
4. Resolution R-0080-MINAE (see Here )
5. List of Beneficiaries (see Here )

The validity of the Sanitary Operating Permits, Qualification Certificates, Licenses and Authorizations is EXTENDED , THROUGH RESOLUTION DM-RM-0748-2020 

1. The validity of the Sanitary Operating Permits, Qualification Certificates, Licenses and Authorizations of the establishments and people who have them and that are between March 23 and September 30, 2020 is extended until September 30, 2020. .
2. Requests for the renewal of Sanitary Operating Permits, Qualification Certificates, Licenses and Authorizations that are in the previous situation, must be processed in the respective offices responsible for management, during the month of September 2020, and not before. When they are renewed, the validity will be established from the original expiration date.
3. New applications and modifications of Sanitary Operating Permits and Qualification Certificates, Licenses and Authorizations, required before September 30, 2020, must be processed by email, as long as there is no virtual system, the mailing list Electronic documents are available on the website of the Ministry of Health at the following link: https://www.ministeriodesalud.go.cr/index.php/tramites-ms/permisos-a-establecimientosms
4. Requests submitted via email must be digitally signed by the interested party, indicate an email for notifications and provide all the requirements established by the regulations in force for each case.

MINAE grants an extension to fuel suppliers that expire in 2020 (see Here )

1. An automatic extension is granted to gas stations, transport units, peddler (house-to-house sale).
2. It is extended for a period of three months and begins to take effect from the expiration date between April and June of this year.
3. This measure seeks to help service stations, transport units and fuel self-consumption tanks in the face of the national emergency caused by COVID-19.
4. The Concession may be extended depending on the evolution of the virus in the country. For this, the interested parties must present the application for renewal or updated Central American technical proof.

The Government of Costa Rica issued the Guide for the prevention, mitigation and business continuity due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the workplace , which establishes a series of guidelines aimed at promoting the continuity of companies as a means of livelihood of society, while ensuring that the reactivation of economic activities does not imply an increase in cases of COVID-19.

According to article 148 of the General Health Law, every person must be diligent in preventing the infestation and contamination of movable and immovable property and the formation of sources of infection. Additionally, article 147 of the same law establishes that every person must comply with the practices aimed at preventing the appearance and spread of communicable diseases. This Guide must be considered precisely as a diligent action to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

The Guide issued by the Government establishes as mandatory a series of actions and preventions that all companies must follow to continue their operations, among them we find:

• Update your Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan with the pandemic scenario if it is not covered.
• Be clear about the policy or protocols to be followed in possible emergency scenarios, managers, communication channels and disseminate this to all workers.
• Keep updated contact and forms of timely communication with the Health Governing Area with jurisdiction in the locality.
• Immediately notify the Health Governing Area of ​​the confirmation of a COVID-19 case in a worker under their charge.
• Officialize through an internal communication to your staff the obligation to comply with the general guidelines, as well as the specific ones issued by the company for care, prevention and care in the event of a confirmed case.
• Prepare and disseminate messages on healthy practices issued by the Ministry of Health and the Costa Rican Social Security Fund, through informative talks, enabling information points, distribution of informative material and reminders such as posters or electronic means
• Inform by means of a sworn statement to the Governing Area of ​​Health of the locality about the company’s plans in accordance with the general guidelines.
• Carry out a series of preparatory measures that are included in section 3.12 of the Guide and submit to the Occupational Health Council a sworn statement indicating compliance and the application of the Decision Tool for Operational Continuity . The Decision Tool and the model of the affidavit are included in the Guide and must be presented virtually, however, the web portal has not yet been enabled.
• If one of the company’s collaborators is diagnosed as a positive case of COVID-19, the measures described in the section “Rehabilitation actions in case of a positive for Covid-19” of the Guide must be carried out and their compliance must be reported. through a sworn statement addressed to the local Health Governing Area .

Although the Guide does not mention any specific sanction for non-compliance with its guidelines, its compliance would certainly reduce the risks of all members of the organization, while promoting its continuity.

With these requirements, the authorities seek to guide the 113,000 companies that make up the Costa Rican business park towards a culture of prevention in their work centers that allows the necessary reactivation of the productive sector, minimizing to the maximum the risk of spreading the virus, both from preventive and immediate response point of view. Turning the business sector into a key piece for the economic and health recovery of the country.

COVID  -19 came to change the reality of the world as we currently know it and therefore the way companies operate.  It is difficult to think that after this crisis that organizations will return to where they were before, to operate as before, in a way in which prevention is usually seen as an expense and not an investment.

Actions aimed at preventing the health of workers are key to being able to face the new challenges that this century has in store for us, but they are also necessary to comply with the legal mandate of guaranteeing an adequate level of protection for the health and safety of workers. workers, required by the General Law on Prevention of Occupational Risks.

These preventive actions are becoming increasingly important in an overpopulated world in the process of climate change, where it is warned that events will frequently occur that test our emergency response systems and our ability to adapt. From now on, COVID-19 provides important lessons to organizations, one of them is that there were no protocols or emergency plans to deal with situations like this, so it is important to learn from the crisis and evolve. From now on, organizations, regardless of their size, have valuable experience that gives them the opportunity to develop a culture of prevention that allows them to survive over time and develop the necessary mechanisms to face a pandemic of this nature or any other. another future situation.

In accordance with the Principle of Prevention and the purposes of the aforementioned General Law on the Prevention of Occupational Risks, prior to the reincorporation of the activities of each organization, they must carry out a detailed analysis of all the risks to which the collaborators will be exposed. Due to the difficulty of foreseeing all the risks involved, it is recommended that the resumption of activities be done in an orderly and staggered manner, guaranteeing the safety and health of the workers, with especially sensitive groups being the last to rejoin, when the virus is fully controlled. This approach of taking preventive actions before resuming any economic activity is being taken as a mandatory measure by other countries in the region.

In the case of El Salvador, the result of the detailed risk analysis must be incorporated into the Occupational Risk Prevention Management Program (PGPRO), which is already established in article 8 of the General Law on Risk Prevention in the Workplaces, whose creation and implementation corresponds to the employer. Thus, the program described must be updated to include the risks of a pandemic that, until today, very few companies had foreseen as a real risk for their organization.

For this reason, even when there is no specific guide or guidelines issued by the Government, the prevention actions to be taken have been established in the principles and the very object of the General Law on Risk Prevention, and therefore they must be incorporated. and be implemented within companies, updating the PGPRO.

Failure to comply with the duty to guarantee an adequate level of protection of the health and safety of workers can be considered a very serious infraction established in article 80 of the Law in reference, for not adopting the applicable preventive measures in matters of Safety and Health. Occupational, when said omission results in a serious and imminent risk to the health of the workers, whose fine will be established between twenty-two to twenty-eight monthly minimum wages, depending on the capacity of the offender, in addition to the sanctions that may be imposed as soon as the regulations are issued. specific guidelines for each activity.

With this we conclude that for the return to the operation of each organization, it is essential that each one evaluates its risks, according to its size and activity, establishing clear, simple measures that expose the commitment of the organization and the workers to avoid risk of contagion from this or another type of future virus, always under an adaptive approach that allows the organization to evolve and survive in a new culture where prevention and resilience are key.

Recently, guideline number 085-MIDEPLAN-MEIC was issued to reduce procedures in Central Government entities, decentralized institutions and municipalities in search of the economic recovery of the country. With this, the Public Administration has 3 ways to process the issuance of permits necessary for the development of economic activities, which we detail:

Affidavit:
It seeks to streamline 119 procedures within a period of 3 months, 6 months and the first quarter of 2021, according to Executive Decree No. 41795-P-MEIC of June 19, 2019 in which it was arranged to promote the use of the affidavit as a measure to speed up the procedures.

Single Window for Investment:
It is planned to speed up the Single Window for Investment platform, under the principles of efficiency and effectiveness of the Public Administration, with the digitization and simplification of 69 procedures.

Regulatory Improvement Plan:
The heads of the Centralized Public Administration are instructed and the heads of the Decentralized Public Administration are urged to execute the following percentages of improvement according to the deadlines for progress in the defined regulatory improvement plans: Advance:

1. 50% advance as of June 10, 2020.
2. 75% progress as of September 10, 2020.
3. 100% compliance as of December 10, 2020, of all the procedures contained in the duly simplified regulatory improvement plan. 

Some of the procedures that will be streamlined are:

1. D2 (low environmental impact) before SETENA. Within a maximum granting period of 2 business days
2. Sanitary operating permit Category A and B granted by the Ministry of Health. Within a maximum period of 7 business days
3. Issuance of the municipal land use certificate . Within 5 business days
4. Environmental viability D1+DJCA issued by SETENA . Within 49 business days
5. Environmental viability D1+PGA granted by SETENA . Within 63 business days
6. Environmental viability D1+ESIA issued by SETENA . Within 126 business days
7. Authorization for self-consumption hydrocarbon tanks issued by MINAE. Within 7 business days
8. Boiler permit from the Ministry of Health. Within 7 business days
9. Wastewater treatment plant location permit issued by the Ministry of Health. Within 10 business days

To see the complete Guideline 085, click on this link.

For more information or if you require advice on any of the procedures mentioned, ZONE is at your disposal. You can contact us at [email protected]

According to the World Health Organization, Occupational Health and Safety management is a multidisciplinary activity that promotes the protection of health, physical, mental and social well-being of workers.

Costa Rica is a country that has been characterized by its achievements in terms of Health and Social Security, with which over time it has managed to guarantee the working population better working conditions. To achieve constant improvement, every employer must adopt the necessary measures for hygiene and safety at work in their company.

For its part, the State is in charge of establishing the minimum standards of Health and Safety at Work, as well as supervising and controlling their compliance. The legislation on Health and Safety at Work in Costa Rica is extensive and begins with general regulations of the Political Constitution or the Labor Code, to regulate precise situations through Decrees and Guidelines issued and constantly updated by the Ministry of Health.

With the aim of enforcing the applicable legislation on Occupational Health, the Occupational Health Council is created as a technical entity attached to the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, which performs various functions such as:

1. Promote the best Occupational Health conditions in all work centers in the country.
2. Carry out studies and research in the field of their competence.
3. Promote the necessary regulations to guarantee optimal Occupational Health conditions in all workplaces.
4. Promote by all possible means, the training of technical people, specialized in the various branches of Occupational Health and the training of employers and workers in Occupational Health.
5. Carry out the dissemination of all conventions with the ILO, laws, decrees, regulations, guidelines, technical legal criteria, technical standards, guides, manuals and methods of prevention of work risk and technical systems of prevention of work risk.
6. Prepare manuals, catalogs and lists of safety devices and personal protection equipment for workers, for the different activities.
7. Prepare bills and regulations on their organic specialty, as well as issue essential criteria on the laws that are processed regarding occupational health.
8. Propose to the Executive Power the list of equipment and personal protection items for workers, which can be imported and brought into the country with exemption from taxes, fees and surcharges.
9. Carry out or coordinate national or local occupational health campaigns, on their own initiative or in collaboration with public or private entities; Carry out all kinds of statistical and economic studies related to the matter of its competence.

For their part, companies, depending on the number of workers, must register an Occupational Health Commission and an Occupational Health Office, with which they come to collaborate in the prevention of work risks. Through the development and implementation of occupational health programs, safety plans and preventive medicine plans.

Work centers must register the Occupational Health Commissions when they permanently employ ten or more workers; and these must be made up of an equal number of representatives from the employer and from workers.

The purpose of the Occupational Health Commissions is to investigate the causes of occupational hazards, recommend prevention measures, monitor compliance with Occupational Health provisions, promote training in this area for employers and workers, form emergency and fire brigades. and coordinate the purchase of equipment.

As for the Occupational Health offices, they must be formed when they permanently occupy more than fifty workers. Some of its functions are:

1. Manage the occupational health of people in the workplace, based on a prevention approach, with comprehensive management of hygiene, safety and psychological risks and emerging and re-emerging risks, depending on the nature of each company.
2. Intervene on the risk factors of work activity, through a diagnosis to address through an intervention strategy.
3. Keep a statistical record of accidents and illnesses as a result of work.
4. Submit to the Council a report on cases of accidents or illnesses.
5. Carry out occupational health prevention and promotion activities through training and raising awareness among workers.

In 2015, through Executive Decree No. 39321-MTSS, the National Occupational Health Policy of Costa Rica is promulgated, which defines the national guidelines that guide state action in matters of Health and Safety at Work.

The objective of the policy is to establish the general guidelines for the improvement of working conditions and environment and a culture of prevention in labor harmony, which promotes a healthy style and quality of life for working people. Consolidate the National Occupational Health System. Review and update the regulatory framework in Occupational Health and develop strategies that allow the promotion of health, prevention, protection, labor adaptation of workers and healthy workplaces.