Alexander Manuel Salcedo Fuentes 

María Valentina Mesa  

Wilson Molano Agudelo 
Kerly Eliana Rodríguez 

Good morning classmates

Here is our contribution to the forum

1. What is the importance of the worker's entry or exit medical examination in

establishing the origin of the accident or illness?

In general, companies send their workers to undergo occupational medical examinations in

order to comply with the regulations that govern the performance of the same, such as: the
Resolution 2346 of 2007, Resolution 1918 of 2009 and Decree 1443 of 2014 for the
implementation of the Occupational Safety and Health Management System (SG-SST),
The performance of occupational medical evaluations allows companies to obtain a Health
Diagnosis of their workers, where they can visualize the risks to which they are exposed
and the pathologies found in them; whether or not they are work-related.
The entrance examination is intended to determine different conditions that the patient may
have had before joining the new company, as well as to evaluate the physical and mental
conditions of the workers who are going to join the company. It also allows to detect if they
adapt to the working conditions, the job profile, the job manual and the environment in
which the work will be performed.
The physician must respect the confidentiality of the occupational medical history and will
only send the employer the medical certificate, indicating the existing restrictions and the
recommendations or conditions that need to be adapted so that the worker can perform the
job.
Exit examinations, workers who terminate their labor contract, the employer may
voluntarily carry out routine medical examinations that allow him to establish the health
status of its employees, which allows him to establish if because of their activity an
alteration may have occurred as a result of the work environment where they worked. Such
examinations must be performed no later than 5 days after the termination of the contract.
 If upon performing the occupational medical evaluation upon leaving the company, a
presumed occupational disease or sequelae of undiagnosed occupational events that
occurred during the time the person worked are found, the employer will prepare and
submit the corresponding report to the administrative entities, which must initiate the
determination of the origin of the disease.
The great importance of performing these examinations in case of evaluating a possible
accident or disease, is to determine the origin of the same, if it is pre-existing or generated
by the work environment or the performance of their duties during the time they were hired.

2. What is the importance of COPASST in the analysis of an accident or illness of a

person who has a service contract?

The Joint Committee for Occupational Safety and Health is a body that promotes and
monitors the rules and regulations on occupational safety and health within the Institution,
through promotion, information and dissemination activities. The COPASST must ensure
that the risks of illness and accidents arising from work are reduced to the minimum
possible.
The COPASST is an important support committee for the implementation of the
Occupational Health and Safety management system, since its management can promote
promotion and prevention activities to support intervention in risk reduction. It also
acquires great importance to the extent that they listen to and process requests from workers
on issues that may affect their health and safety at work.
A service contract is an agreement between a company and an individual to provide a
service for a specific period of time. These contracts usually specify the terms and
conditions of the relationship between the company and the worker, including the payment
and duration of the contract.
In the event of an accident or occupational disease of a person who has a service contract,
the investigation in the first instance is carried out by the contracting company, which is
responsible for gathering all the information associated with the event to identify the causes
of the facts.
The Copasst of the contracting company will provide the necessary support for the
investigation to be carried out in the best way and under the guidelines established by law,
but will not be responsible for the investigative process.
Once the investigation process of the accident or occupational disease has been completed,
the contractor company will submit a report to the Copasst of the contracting company,
where the lessons learned will be made known.
3. Does the epidemiological profile of a country have any impact on the company's
employees?
The epidemiological profile refers to the burden of disease suffered by the population and
the economic, social and environmental risk factors, taking into account the geographical
characteristics of the population and analyzing the information on factors to which the
working population may be exposed.
Therefore, the repercussions on workers can be seen as follows

Negative

 Changes in the labor market reduced employability and changes in the benefits
offered to employees.
 Environmental or hygienic factors are also considered important variables that can
have a negative impact on the workers of a company, among these are
environmental pollution, climate changes, high percentages of road accidents.
 Deficiency in the health sector, difficulty to have timely access to treatments and
medicines of immediate need.
Positive
 Companies begin to determine negative and positive external effects that may be
affecting the work environment, taking actions to minimize them in order to
improve health conditions and risks in the work environment.
 The employer becomes aware and evaluates strategies to make work environments
and the development of activities safer for each employee, taking into account
social, economic and environmental variables.
4. How is the analysis of a worker who has rotated through more than two companies
in a period of less than three years, when he/she has a work-related accident or
illness?
Remember that accidents or occupational diseases are never fortuitous, in which
controllable actions can be implemented to minimize the risk of occurrence, therefore it
is necessary to carry out an investigation in which each of the facts, circumstances and
events that led to the accident or occupational disease are detailed and likewise inquire
about the events which have not generated injuries to the person, but that could cause
them.
Within the investigation of an occupational accident it is necessary to take into account
which was the work activity that generated the disease in the worker, since there may be
sequelae caused in their previous jobs. For this purpose, the following steps should be
implemented.
 Step 1:
Collect data: At the place where the accident occurred, data should be collected and
recorded as soon as possible, analyzing the material conditions of the work, the
methodologies and the characteristics of their work.
Step 2:
Data integration: Carefully assess the collected data.
Step 3:
Analysis of causes: Each of the causes that led to the accident is investigated. This is
the step to evaluate preventive measures that minimize or eliminate the risks of another
occupational accident event.

Step 4:
Selection of the main causes: those causes that if eliminated, will result in the
disappearance of the accident will be selected.
Step 5:
Ordering of results: data and causes will be ordered with preventive action criteria.
Step 6:
Report: All aspects of the accident must be collected (date and authors of the
investigation, persons interviewed, photographs, plans and preventive measures, etc.).
Article 41 of Law 100 of 1993, modified by Article 52 of Law 962 of 2005. It indicates
that the following institutions are responsible for qualifying and establishing the state of
disability, where the loss of working capacity will be determined and for qualifying the
degree of disability and the origin of these contingencies. (Likewise, it is also the
responsibility of the contracting companies or employers)
5. For the qualification of an illness or accident of occupational origin, with a loss of
work or occupational capacity of more than 50%, the worker's rotation in more than
one company during the last period has an impact.
The worker may lose part of his labor capacity due to an occupational disease or accident,
and that loss must be measured and qualified, for the effect of the recognition of the
worker's rights, the company in charge may be the EPS, ARL or PENSION FUND.
The loss of working capacity may structure a partial permanent disability or a state of
disability, and in this regard states Article 2 of Decree 1507 of 2014:
Partial permanent disability: it is the definitive decrease, equal or higher than five percent
(5%) and lower than fifty percent (50%) of the work or occupational capacity of a person,
as a consequence of an accident or disease of any origin.
Disability: It is the loss of labor or occupational capacity equal to or greater than fifty
percent (50%)".
The situations that cause the loss of working capacity may be associated with diseases or
accidents of occupational origin. For this reason, if it is determined that it is of labor origin,
the payment will be in charge of the labor risk administrator -ARL.
In the case of a worker who has rotated in more than one company during the last year, the
one in charge of assuming responsibility corresponds to the last company the worker
worked for, which should have performed entrance exams to determine the state of health
with which he/she was admitted to work, having knowledge of the sequels he/she presented
at the time of entering the company.

BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES

 Principles of Epidemiology for Disease Control (MOPECE) Second Revised

Edition (PAN AMERICAN HEALTH ORGANIZATION 2022)
https://www3.paho.org/col/dmdocuments/MOPECE2.pdf 
 Occupational Medicine and Safety 2013 version Health-disease profile of a
company's workers.
https://scielo.isciii.es/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0465-546X2013000400005 
 The Epidemiological Profile of Latin America and the Caribbean: Challenges,
Limits and Actions Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean
(ECLAC)2011
https://www.cepal.org/sites/default/files/publication/files/3852/S2011938.pdf 
 Collaborator, M. (2023). What steps to take in an occupational accident investigation.
Mutua colaboradora con la Seguridad Social.
https://www.mutua-intercomarcal.com/portal/noticia/1663/Que-pasos-hay-que-realizar-
en-una-investigacion-de-accidentes-laborales 
 LAW NUMBER 100 OF 1993 (December 23). Whereby the comprehensive social security
system is created and other provisions are enacted.
https://www.minsalud.gov.co/sites/rid/Lists/BibliotecaDigital/RIDE/DE/DIJ/ley-100-de-
1993.pdf
 Social, M. D. (2007). Ministry of Social Protection. Retrieved from Ministerio de Protección
Social:
www. minproteccionsocial. gov. Co.
 Uniagraria. Safety and health at work (n.d.)
https://www.uniagraria.edu.co/que-es-el-copasst/#:~:text=El%20Copasst%20(Comit
%C3%A9%20Paritario%20de,las%20empresas%20p%C3%BAblicas%20y%20privadas . 
 Ministry of Labor. Decree 1443 of 2014 Whereby provisions are issued for the
implementation of the Occupational Health and Safety Management System.

https://www.funcionpublica.gov.co/eva/gestornormativo/norma.php?i=58841  

 Ministry of Labor. Decree 1072 of 2015 Whereby the Sole Regulatory Decree of the Labor
Sector is issued.
20147/0/DUR+1072+Sector+Trabajo+Actualizado+a+Diciembre+20+de+2021.pdf/
f1f86400-2b37-0582-5557-87a5d3ea8227?t=1640204850717