Thirty years after its approval, the Occupational Risk Prevention Law is going to change. The Ministry of Labor opened the public hearing on the draft reform on March 16, 2026 — the participation period is extended until April 8.
It is not a cosmetic update. The text modifies Law 31/1995, the Workers' Statute and the Regulation of Prevention Services to adapt prevention to the risks of the 21st century. Here's what you need to know.
1. The biggest fundamental change: prevention is no longer just physical
Until now, ORP focused mainly on physical damage: accidents, occupational diseases, ergonomics. The new text expands the concept of damage derived from work to six dimensions:
Física
Fisiológica
Cognitiva
Emocional
Conductual
Social
Psychosocial risks become mandatory in preventive evaluation. Stress, mental load, harassment, pressure from algorithms — everything falls within the scope of prevention. The company can no longer legally ignore them.
Furthermore, digital disconnection is expressly integrated as a right to effective protection against occupational risks. And workplace violence and harassment — including that exercised through technology or algorithms — is explicitly recognized as risks that must be prevented.
2. Climate change and meteorological phenomena: new obligation
Another relevant development: companies must act preventively against disasters and adverse weather events. Heat waves, extreme storms, floods. Climate change officially enters the Prevention Plan.
For sectors such as construction, logistics or agriculture — where workers are exposed to the elements — this represents a new layer of documentary and operational obligations that did not exist before.
3. New obligations for companies according to their size
The draft redefines who can assume prevention internally and when it is mandatory to outsource:
Up to 10 workers: the employer can personally assume prevention (previously the limit was 25 or 50 depending on the activity)
From 150 to 300 workers in dangerous activities in Annex I: mandatory own prevention service
More than 300 workers: own prevention service in all cases
Up to 10 workers: mandatory prevention training may be subsidized
The risk assessment also changes: it will have to be reviewed whenever the work organization, processes or procedures vary, and carried out through in-person visits to the centers. Practical training will be in person unless justified.
4. More protection for specific groups
The text reinforces the protection of three groups that until now had insufficient coverage:
Minors under 18 years of age: new annexes with prohibited or restricted activities, including exposure to violent content or tasks that exceed their physical or psychological capabilities
Pregnant or breastfeeding workers: reinforced protection with more specific obligations for the company
Workers returning from sick leave: the company must provide for reinstatement procedures with adaptation of the position and updating of training when necessary
This last point is especially relevant for companies with high turnover or with workers in physically demanding positions: the return from a long leave can no longer be managed as if nothing had happened.
5. Gender and age perspective in preventive management
The reform introduces the obligation to incorporate gender and age perspective in risk assessment. This means that when evaluating jobs, choosing PPE and designing preventive measures, the company must take into account biological, physical and anthropometric differences between workers.
In practice: PPE, procedures and exposure limits cannot be the same for everyone if physical conditions are different. A change that directly affects how preventive measures are documented and justified.
6. What to do while the reform is approved
The draft is in public hearing until April 8. Then will come the parliamentary process — the law will take months to be definitively approved. But companies that wait for approval to adapt their prevention system are arriving late.
What makes sense to do now:
Review if the risk assessment includes psychosocial risks as a specific category
Verify if there are documented protocols for reincorporation after discharge
Analyze whether preventive training meets the new face-to-face requirements
Prepare a protocol for adverse weather phenomena if there are workers outdoors.
Check if the PPE and measures are differentiated according to worker profile
Companies that adapt their prevention system before the law is passed will not only be in compliance — they will be at an advantage against the inspections that will inevitably come as soon as it goes into effect.
Conclusion: the ORP of the future starts today
The reform of the Occupational Risk Law is not a threat to companies that already manage prevention rigorously. It is an opportunity for those who until now have treated it as an administrative procedure.
Technology can help fill the most difficult gaps: monitoring risk behaviors, recording incidents in real time, traceability of training and evaluations. What previously required large teams is now solved with artificial vision systems connected to preventive processes.
See how Safe helps meet new prevention requirements in real time