DRAFT Mexican Official Standard PROY-NOM-037-STPS-2022

Home Office - Occupational Health and Safety Conditions

The NOM-37 Calendar

February 22, 2022 - submission of the proposal

July 15 - Publication in the DOF

September 13 - Deadline for comments (60 days after 07/15/2022)

If the proposal is approved, the standard becomes effective 180 days later. January-February 2023

For now, it is proposed that at least in a compliance assessment, the employer is in compliance with the regulation when:

-Has a telework policy.

-It has a list of teleworkers, including the agreed workspace.

-It has evidence that the workspace agreed with the worker has safety and health conditions at work.

-Informs its teleworkers about the risks related to the activity that develops.

-It verifies the conditions of safety and health of its remote collaborators.

-Documents the implementation of telework.

-Provides people with an ergonomic chair and the necessary accessories to perform their tasks.

-Establishes maintenance programs for work equipment.

-It trains at least once a year to the teleworkers in health and safety issues.

-Guarantees the reversibility of the modality.

-It follows up the notices of work accidents that, in its case, report the workers under the modality.

-It has attention mechanisms for cases of family violence.

On July 15, 2022 was published in the Official Gazette of the Federation the Draft Mexican Official Standard "PROY NOM 037 STPS 2022 Telework - Safety and health conditions at work", which aims to establish the risk prevention measures to be adopted in workplaces where workers under the telework modality carry out their activities, in order to prevent accidents and diseases, as well as to promote a safe and healthy environment in the environment in which they provide their services.

It is convenient to remember that, according to the provisions of article 330-A of the Federal Labor Law, telework is a new form of labor organization under which labor relations are developed more than 40%%% of the time at the worker's home or at the place of his/her choice and through the use of information technologies.

The draft of NOM 037 will be open to public consultation so that interested parties, within 60 calendar days from the date of its publication, may submit their comments to the National Constitutive Committee for Occupational Safety and Health Standardization.

Although the published version may undergo modifications as a result of the public consultation process, the most relevant points of this publication are detailed below:

New definitions relevant to teleworking are presented, such as: Ergonomic Risk Factors, Psychosocial Risk Factors, Teleworking Policy, Occupational Risks (for teleworkers), Digital Disconnection, among others.

New obligations are introduced for employers and work centers, highlighting the following:

To have an updated list of workers who provide their services under the modality of teleworking;

To implement, maintain and disseminate in the work center, a teleworking policy that, among other issues: (i) Promotes the culture of prevention of occupational hazards; (ii) Establishes mechanisms of participation in the workplace, in order to avoid the social isolation of the worker; (iii) Indicates the mechanisms and rules of contact and supervision for teleworking; (iv) Establishes the duration of the working hours or the distribution of the working day schedules; and (v) Indicates the rights of teleworkers, which must be equal to those of face-to-face workers.

To have the validation of a checklist of safety and health conditions in teleworking with the objective of compliance with safety and health conditions in teleworking.

Provide teleworkers: (i) An ergonomic chair or other, appropriate to the activities to be developed; (ii) The necessary inputs for proper performance; and (iii) The attachments, if any, to ensure ergonomic conditions, and postural, the worker in his working day.

Provide training at least once a year to teleworkers on the safety and health conditions that they must have and maintain in their workplace.

On the other hand, new obligations are included for the teleworkers, among others:

To provide the employer, the facilities in writing for a physical verification of the safety and health conditions at work in each workplace agreed with the employer.

To inform the employer any alteration of the conditions of safety and health at work, or case of force majeure, which constitutes a fundamental change in the circumstances that prevent the development of teleworking in the workplace agreed with the employer.

To guard and to conserve in good condition the equipment, materials, useful and ergonomic furniture that in its case and in agreement with the necessities of its position or activity.

The draft of NOM 037 consists of additional sections, which contain the requirements that employers must comply with regarding: (i) Safety and health conditions at work; and (ii) Training and education in relation to teleworking.

The Conformity Assessment Bodies are mentioned, which are in charge of inspecting safety and health conditions at work through the Conformity Assessment Procedures. Four important points are mentioned in this regard:

The employer will have the option of contracting the services of an accredited and approved Inspection Unit under the terms of the Quality Infrastructure Law and its Regulations, to evaluate conformity with this NOM 037.

Inspection units evaluating compliance with NOM 037 must apply the criteria set forth in the Conformity Evaluation Procedure contained in the published draft.

The accredited and approved inspection units that evaluate compliance with NOM 037 must issue, when the work center complies with the provisions of the same, an opinion that complies with several points, such as: (i) Identification data; (ii) approval number granted by the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare; (iii) and, if applicable, (iv) REPSE number, among others.

The validity of the rulings issued by the inspection units will be of two years, as long as the conditions of their issuance prevail.

Regarding the Procedure for the Evaluation of Conformity, it is important to mention that it will apply both to the inspection visits carried out by the labor authority and to the services rendered by the inspection units hired by the employer. The aspects to be verified during the evaluation of compliance with NOM 037 will be carried out at the domicile of the work center, as applicable, by means of physical verification, documentary review, records or interviews.

The Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare will be responsible for monitoring compliance with NOM 037.

Finally, NOM 037 contains five reference guides, the contents of which are summarized below:

Checklist of safety and health conditions in the workplace.

Selection of candidates for telework.

Recommendations of previous activities to telework.

Telework policy.

Recommendations to select an ergonomic chair.

This Mexican Official Standard is of general application throughout the Mexican Republic for all employers, centers and workplaces that have people working under the modality of teleworking.

Regardless of the popular consultation procedure to which NOM 037 will be subject, its final version will enter into force 180 calendar days after its publication in the Official Gazette of the Federation.

NOM-Project in Spanish: https://dof.gob.mx/nota_detalle.php?codigo=5658278&fecha=15/07/2022#gsc.tab=0