What workplace safety (SST) obligations does your employer have in Peru?

What it is and who it applies to

Law N.° 29783, the Workplace Safety and Health Law (SST, for its Spanish initials), is the general rule requiring every private-sector employer — regardless of industry, company size, or whether your contract is fixed-term or open-ended — to prevent work-related accidents and illnesses. Your company doesn’t need to be in a “dangerous” industry for this law to apply: it covers everything from an administrative office to a construction site.

This is different from the SCTR (Complementary Work-Risk Insurance), which is a separate obligation that only applies to the activities listed in Annex 5 (mining, fishing, construction, and others). If your company does one of those activities, the general SST obligations covered on this page apply on top of the SCTR.

The employer’s core obligations

Article 48 of the law places the responsibility on the employer: it must exercise firm leadership on safety and health matters and commit to maintaining a safe working environment. Article 49 turns that into concrete obligations, among others:

• Guaranteeing your safety and health in every aspect related to your job.
• Identifying changes in working conditions and preventing the risks they create.
• Conducting medical exams before, during, and at the end of the employment relationship, at the employer’s expense.
• Ensuring that elections of your SST representatives are democratic or run through the union.
• Assigning the resources needed for the safety committee to actually function.
• Giving you SST training when you’re hired, during your employment, and whenever your role, position, or the technology you use changes.

Committee or supervisor, depending on company size

How these obligations are organized depends on how many workers the company has. With 20 or more workers, a safety and health committee is formed, made up equally of company and worker representatives (article 29). With fewer than 20 workers, no committee is needed: the workers themselves directly elect a safety and health supervisor instead (article 30). Either way, this person or committee’s role is to oversee compliance — not to take on the responsibility, which stays with the employer.

The IPERC matrix: identifying and updating risks

Article 57 requires the employer to assess the risks of each job position and update that assessment — known in practice as the IPERC matrix (Hazard Identification, Risk Assessment, and Determination of Controls) — at least once a year, or sooner if working conditions change or a worker’s health has already been harmed. Sunafil has flagged this in its own guidance notes to employers: failing to update the risk matrix within that deadline is, on its own, grounds for inspection.

Your right to stop work facing an imminent danger

One of the law’s lesser-known rights is in article 63: if you face an imminent danger that is an important or intolerable risk to your safety or health, you can stop your activities immediately — and even leave the physical workplace — without waiting for authorization. The company cannot require you to resume work until that risk has been reduced or controlled. This right is meant for serious dangers, not for any minor annoyance: the law itself sets the standard at an “important or intolerable” risk.

What happens if your company doesn’t comply

The Regulation of the General Labor Inspection Law (D.S. 019-2006-TR) classifies as serious infractions, among others: failing to carry out risk assessments and periodic reviews of working conditions; generally failing to comply with SST rules when that creates a serious risk; and failing to form the committee or appoint the SST supervisor. Sunafil can inspect and penalize these infractions; the exact fine amount depends on the severity, the company’s size, and the number of workers affected, following a table that Sunafil updates every year based on the current UIT value.

What this page doesn’t resolve

This page doesn’t cover the sector-specific SST regulations that layer on top of Law 29783 for particular activities — mining, construction, electricity, among others — which are usually stricter than the general rules. It also doesn’t calculate the exact amount of a Sunafil fine for an SST violation: for that, check the Sunafil fine table. And if you think you were fired for refusing to work in a hazardous situation or for filing a complaint against your company, that’s a different question about protection against dismissal, not about SST itself.

Where to file a complaint

If your company doesn’t assess the risks of your job, has no SST committee or supervisor, or doesn’t give you the medical exams it owes you, you can file a complaint with Sunafil, the authority responsible for enforcing compliance with Law 29783.