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Guide to the Coordination of Business Activities

Everything you need to know to coordinate in a practical and effective way with your customers and contracts. Clarify your doubts with legal references, real examples and CAE judgments commented by CTAIMA experts, with more than 15 years of experience in the sector.

Outsourcing the coordination of business activities
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What is Business Activities Coordination?

The Coordination of Business Activities obliges companies to comply with Actual Decree 171/2004 in order to control the activities that originate from the confluence of several workers from different companies in the same workplace, emphasizing the most critical aspects to ensure good coordination (duties, obligations, means, document management and jurisprudence).

In general, most companies resort to the procurement of various services, whether their own or auxiliary, necessary for the development of businessactivity; being a commonly widespread practice that is currently taking on a huge dimension.

All this inevitably implies an understanding between contracting company and contractor, not only in relation to the activity itself, but also in preventive matter, to minimize and eliminate risks and to comply with the requirements that the legislation and regulations mark.

Por lo tanto, podriamos definir a la Coordinación de Actividades Empresariales también conocida como(CAE) como las acciones de control que debe llevar a cabo una empresa, con el fin de prevenir riesgos laborales derivados de la contratación y subcontratación empresarial de trabajadores o empresas que confluyen en mismo centro de trabajo.

Outsourcing the coordination of business activities




Basic concepts of Business Activities Coordination

Royal Decree 171/2004, in Article 2, lays down three definitions of key concepts in business coordination: workplace, incumbent entrepreneur and principal employer.

Despite this section, the terms of common use in the employment relations to be coordinated that need to be defined are diverse.
We are talking about concepts such as "own activity", "authorized worker", "work center", "concurrence", "surveillance", "necessary information", "solidarity responsibility", "subsidiary responsibility", "special work".

Definition of work center

Any area, built or not, in which workers must remain or which they must access because of their work. It is the area defined in the contract, where the contracting company will carry out the activity that is contracted to it.

Definition of concurrency

The concurrency of companies occurs when in the same workplace, there are one or more companies developing jobs simultaneously or successively, three assumptions defined by RD 171/2004.

Definition of own activity

Defining the center's own activity is the way to know what the obligations are in Coordination of Business Activities. On this basis, the employer shall take on the role of owner or principal employer.

Figures of the Coordination of Business Activities

In the Coordination of Business Activities it is worth taking into account that different companies are involved with their corresponding obligations. There are three types of classifications according to typology to define and resources

Depending on the position in attendance

Depending on the position in competition, RD 171/2004 defines three situations for the employer, where it may be: concurrent, incumbent or principal employer.

According to the employment relationship established

According to the employment relationship established in the status of workers, business figures can be divided into: contractor, contractor, subcontratist and self-employed.

According to preventive competencies in CAE

Preventive figures of importance in the field of CAE are: Safety and Health committee, prevention delegates, preventive resource and coordinator of business activities.

Outsourcing the coordination of business activities

Means of Coordinating Business Activities

Known the figures involved in the relationship in business concurrence, rights and duties according to the scenario, it is necessary to know the means of coordination that are available to comply with the legal framework, as well as that it is the most suitable to carry out preventive management.

In itself means of coordination should be understood as any measure, introduced at any stage of the process, aimed at ensuring the efficient coordination. In other words, these means should promote the smooth exchange of information between concurrent companies and facilitate good practices.

Types of responsibilities in Business Activities Coordination

The concurrent employer will have various types of responsibilities in tax, labour and prevention of occupational risks.
The criminalization of the degree of violations and sanctions appears in the Actual Decree Law 5/2000 of August 4 of the Law on Offences and Sanctions in the Social Order. The concepts of Solidarity and Subsidiary Responsibility are often mixed.

Outsourcing the coordination of business activities

Documentary control in Business Activities Coordination

In a preventive environment increasingly focused on reducing the high rates of accidents and avoiding concurrent risks when outsourcing jobs, the health and safety departments of companies have to face, in general, a series of situations that make today the document management of contracts one of the aspects that companies devote the most resources to.

Company documents

These are documents detailing employment or preventive type information relating to the contractor/subcontractor company.
This documentation will depend on the activity of the company, the work center where the activity takes place, the concurrence that it may present with other companies, the role that the company has in the scenario of the CAE, the activity itself, that is, there are multiple factors that influence when requesting documentation.

To help us better understand this documentation, we proceed to classify it into two large groups:

Administrative documentation
It is that documentation of social / labor body. The list of documents that are included in this group is:

  • Certificado de estar al corriente de pagos con la Seguridad Social
  • Certificado de estar al corriente de pagos con la Agencia Tributaria
  • Modelo TC1 o antiguo RLC + Justificante de pago
  • Póliza de Responsabilidad Civil + Justificante de pago



Preventive documentation
Specific documentation regarding the preventive activity of the company. The list of documents that are included in this group is:

  • Modalidad preventiva adoptada + Justificante de pago
  • Evaluación de riesgos y medidas preventivas
  • Planificación de la actividad preventiva
  • Mutua de accidentes
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