CLASSIFIED AREAS: REGULATORY STANDARD 09 (PART 2)
August 2, 2018 | Roque de Camargo Jr
As we saw in the previous post, the guarantee of the development of activities in a safe and healthy work environment is a legal determination, inscribed in our own Federal Constitution, according to article 7, item XXII.
As a consequence of this constitutional determination, we have a whole legal order that stipulates minimum parameters regarding occupational safety and health. Many state agencies have legislation relevant to regulating the direct or indirect consequences of human activities in the workplace.
Regulation comes in the form of legal consequences for misfortunes arising from work, for example, a duty to indemnify in the event of occupational accidents, or in the form of minimum acceptable prevention parameters, for example, Regulatory Standards of the Ministry of Labor.
In this brief article it is only the latter we will deal with.
At the outset, it should be noted that Brazil is a rule of law, that is, all state power is subordinated to the limits of legality. Our Federal Constitution contains the principle of legality that no one is obliged to do or fail to do anything except by virtue of law. (Article 5, item II).
The limitation of activities, goods and rights imposed by the Public Administration to individuals derives from the search for the common good, in which the collective interest overrides the individual. It is the already known "administrative police power". This limiting activity of the State finds a limit precisely in the principle of legality, because the Public Agent can not do what he wants.
It is well known that the individual is allowed to do everything that the law does not forbid, but the Public Agent is only allowed to do what the law determines or authorizes. Thus, the Public Administration, when supervising the private activity, finds support and limit in the principle of legality, because the Public Agent can only demand what is legally provided to him within the scope of his legal powers.
We will not go into the concepts of administrative act and its characteristics since it is not the core of these brief comments.
What is certain is that, in regulating the consequences of work activity, the State Administration, with regard to its preventive interest, prepares Regulatory Norms from which emanate the legal commands of minimum parameters to be applied. It should be made very clear that the determinations contained in the Regulatory Standards are minimum conditions stipulated to ensure human dignity in those situations.
Thus, it is very clear, beforehand, to the individual, all that will need to comply, within this preventive issue, if you develop any activity where risks arise.
It also establishes the limits of state “police power”, that is, what the Public Administration can enforce and demand that the individual comply.
The list of Regulatory Standards covers most human activities. Some of them are very specific to certain activities, eg NR-18, which regulates issues inherent in activities in the construction industry.
Other Regulatory Standards have the characteristic to apply without distinction to any activity, for example NR-09, which deals with the Environmental Risk Prevention Program. From this point, we will concisely explain the application of each of the Ministry of Labor's Regulatory Standards, emphasizing, whenever possible, their application specifically with respect to the risks inherent in hazardous areas and explosive atmospheres.