Abstract
The Covid-19 pandemic presented huge challenges for essential workers and for the global workforce as a whole. As the true burden on human capital continues to be unravelled, national systems are now in the process of identifying the gaps and learning from experiences so as to be able to better understand the occupational impact when managing future epidemics, pandemics or public health crisis. This paper, based on the Spanish pandemic performance response, provides an analysis of how OSH regulatory frameworks responded to the circumstances of key workers during this exceptional period. The review assesses OSH-related interventions and exposes deficiencies in response to this public health emergency, through an examination of legislative and regulatory enforcement, the country’s preparedness and resilience, as well as the roles and interventions from central government, devolved administrations, regional and local authorities with a responsibility on OSH.