Transnational companies and the protection of worker’s life and health. A criminal policy proposal for the global persecution of occupational risks crime.

Abstract

The impacts of globalization have generated that companies can operate in several countries at the same time, 
both through subsidiaries and through production centers called “transnational companies”. In this paper, the impact 
of this context on workplace security is analyzed, where the lack of binding commitments has prevailed, which has 
generated gaps of impunity due to the complexity of claiming responsibility extraterritorially. Considering that Spanish 
investment in Latin America stands at multimillion-dollar figures and there are multinational companies located in that region, it is observed that while in Latin American occupational risks (deaths and very serious injuries) are only sanctioned with administrative and exceptionally criminal law, in Europe there is a crime that punishes the endangerment of 
workers for the omission in compliance with occupational safety measures.