Workplace Emergency Action Plan Mexico (Plan de Emergencia Empresa)

A Workplace Emergency Action Plan Mexico (Plan de Emergencia Empresa) is a formal written document that every Mexican employer must prepare, implement, and maintain under NOM-002-STPS-2010 (Prevención y Protección contra Incendios) and related Normas Oficiales Mexicanas issued by the Secretaría del Trabajo y Previsión Social (STPS). The plan establishes the procedures, responsibilities, and resources required to protect workers, visitors, and the workplace from fires, explosions, natural disasters, chemical spills, and other foreseeable emergencies.

The constitutional basis for workplace safety in Mexico is Article 123, Apartado A, Fracción XV of the Constitución Política de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos of 5 February 1917, which obligates employers to adopt all preventive measures necessary to protect the life, health, and physical integrity of workers. The Ley Federal del Trabajo (LFT) implements this mandate through Articles 472 through 512, which govern occupational safety and hygiene (seguridad e higiene en el trabajo). Article 504 LFT requires employers to maintain first-aid equipment and adopt preventive measures against occupational accidents and illnesses, while Article 509 LFT mandates the creation of a Comisión Mixta de Seguridad e Higiene (Joint Safety and Hygiene Commission) in every workplace, composed of equal numbers of employer and worker representatives.

NOM-002-STPS-2010, titled Condiciones de seguridad — Prevención y protección contra incendios en los centros de trabajo, published in the Diario Oficial de la Federación on 9 December 2010 and mandatory for all commercial, industrial, and service establishments in Mexico, requires employers to conduct a fire risk assessment (evaluación del riesgo de incendio), classify the workplace by fire risk level (ordinary, high, or extra-high risk), install and maintain fire-suppression equipment, establish evacuation routes (rutas de evacuación) with clearly marked emergency exits (salidas de emergencia), designate assembly points (puntos de reunión) outside the building, and form and train emergency brigades (brigadas de emergencia) to carry out specific functions during an emergency.

The STPS inspection regime (Inspección Federal del Trabajo) enforces compliance with NOM-002-STPS-2010 through federal labour inspectors (inspectores federales del trabajo) who may conduct surprise visits (visitas de inspección ordinaria o extraordinaria) to any workplace at any time under Articles 540 through 550 LFT. Employers who fail to maintain a documented emergency action plan, post evacuation routes, or train brigades face administrative fines under Article 994 LFT of between 50 and 5,000 times the general minimum daily wage (Unidad de Medida y Actualización — UMA) per violation, with each day of non-compliance constituting a separate infraction. The Unidad de Medida y Actualización (UMA) is updated annually by the Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía (INEGI) — for 2025 the daily UMA value is $108.57 MXN, meaning fines for emergency plan violations can reach up to $542,850 MXN per inspector citation.

Additional NOMs that interact with the emergency action plan requirement include NOM-001-STPS-2008 (buildings, facilities and installations — general conditions), NOM-003-STPS-1999 (activities related to handling and storage of hazardous substances), NOM-004-STPS-1999 (safety systems and protective devices on machinery and equipment), NOM-017-STPS-2008 (personal protective equipment — selection, use, and maintenance), NOM-018-STPS-2015 (harmonized system for the identification and communication of hazards and risks of hazardous chemicals), NOM-026-STPS-2008 (safety and health colours and signals), NOM-030-STPS-2009 (occupational safety and health management services), and NOM-035-STPS-2018 (psychosocial risk factors — identification, analysis, and prevention). Where the workplace handles flammable, combustible, or explosive substances, NOM-003-STPS-1999 imposes additional emergency response requirements that must be incorporated into the plan.

The Comisión Mixta de Seguridad e Higiene required by Article 509 LFT must be constituted through a joint employer-worker process, registered with the STPS through the Sistema de Administración de Seguridad y Salud en el Trabajo (SiAST), and must conduct regular workplace inspections. The Commission plays a central role in reviewing and updating the emergency action plan, identifying hazards, and verifying that corrective measures are implemented — making it a key internal governance body that supplements the external STPS inspection regime.

A Workplace Emergency Action Plan Mexico is required for every establishment that engages workers under an employment relationship governed by the Ley Federal del Trabajo, regardless of company size, industry, or number of employees. NOM-002-STPS-2010 applies universally to all centros de trabajo in Mexico — from single-location micro-businesses (microempresas) to multi-site manufacturing corporations (empresas grandes) — and imposes obligations that must be in place before the workplace begins operations.

The plan must be prepared or updated whenever a workplace is newly established, whenever the physical layout of the facility changes materially (installation of new equipment, construction of partitions, addition of production lines), whenever new hazardous substances are introduced into the workplace, or whenever the number of workers changes sufficiently to affect evacuation procedures or brigade composition. Under NOM-002-STPS-2010 section 5, the employer must review and update the emergency plan at least annually and after every emergency incident — the review must be documented, signed by the employer representative and the Comisión Mixta de Seguridad e Higiene, and retained for a minimum of three years.

The document is needed immediately when a company receives an STPS inspection notice (orden de visita) or when a federal labour inspector (inspector federal del trabajo) conducts a surprise audit — having a current, signed, posted, and trained-against emergency plan is a prerequisite for passing the NOM-002-STPS-2010 compliance checklist. Employers who cannot produce the plan during an inspection receive a citation (acta de observaciones) with a mandatory corrective action deadline, and failure to comply within that deadline triggers the administrative fines under Article 994 LFT.

The plan is also required for the constitution and registration of the Comisión Mixta de Seguridad e Higiene with the STPS under Article 509 LFT — the Commission's first act is typically to review and approve the emergency action plan. In facilities that house more than one employer (as in industrial parks, shopping centres, or office towers), each tenant-employer must maintain its own plan, and the plans must be coordinated with the building owner or property manager to avoid conflicting evacuation procedures. Under the Ley del Seguro Social Article 74, employers must report all workplace accidents to the IMSS within 24 hours — a documented emergency response plan is essential evidence that the employer met its duty of care and exercised reasonable preventive measures before the accident occurred.

For foreign-invested companies operating in Mexico under an FDI authorization from the Secretaría de Economía, STPS compliance — including emergency action plans — is a condition of the operating permit and may be reviewed during the renewal process. Sector-specific regulations, such as those issued by the Comisión Reguladora de Energía (CRE) for oil and gas facilities, the Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (SEMARNAT) for environmentally sensitive operations, and the Secretaría de Salud for food processing establishments, impose emergency planning requirements that run parallel to and supplement the NOM-002-STPS-2010 obligations. La Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación y los Tribunales Colegiados de Circuito han emitido tesis jurisprudenciales sobre la interpretación de este tipo de documento. El Registro Público de la Propiedad y de Comercio inscribe actos que afectan derechos reales. La Procuraduría Federal del Consumidor (PROFECO) y la Comisión Nacional Bancaria y de Valores (CNBV) supervisan aspectos complementarios.

A complete Workplace Emergency Action Plan Mexico under NOM-002-STPS-2010 and Ley Federal del Trabajo art. 509 must include the following elements to satisfy STPS inspection requirements and protect employer liability.

Workplace Identification and Risk Classification: Full legal name of the employing entity (razón social), RFC (Registro Federal de Contribuyentes), IMSS employer registration number (registro patronal), physical address of the workplace, nature of business activities (giro), number of workers per shift, and the fire risk classification (riesgo ordinario, alto, or extra-alto) determined under the NOM-002-STPS-2010 risk assessment methodology. The risk classification drives the selection and quantity of fire suppression equipment required.

Fire Risk Assessment: Documentation of the fuel load (carga combustible) present in each area, identification of ignition sources (fuentes de ignición), hazardous substance inventory referencing NOM-018-STPS-2015 hazard communication data sheets (Hojas de Datos de Seguridad — HDS), and the corrective measures adopted to reduce fire risk. The assessment must be conducted or validated by a competent person (persona competente) as defined in NOM-030-STPS-2009.

Evacuation Routes and Emergency Exits: Scaled floor plan (croquis) identifying all evacuation routes (rutas de evacuación) with arrows, emergency exits (salidas de emergencia) with panic bars (barras antipánico) as required by NOM-002-STPS-2010, assembly points (puntos de reunión) at safe distances from the building, and the maximum permitted travel distance from any workstation to the nearest exit. All routes and exits must be marked with NOM-026-STPS-2008 compliant signage (señalización de seguridad) and must remain unobstructed at all times.

Emergency Brigades: Names, positions, and contact details of brigade members (brigadistas) for each required brigade: (a) Brigada de Primeros Auxilios (First Aid Brigade) — certified in CPR and basic first aid under Secretaría de Salud standards; (b) Brigada de Prevención y Combate de Incendios (Fire Prevention and Response Brigade) — trained in portable fire extinguisher operation and fire-hose use; (c) Brigada de Evacuación (Evacuation Brigade) — responsible for guiding workers and visitors to assembly points and conducting headcounts; and (d) Brigada de Comunicación (Communications Brigade) — responsible for notifying emergency services (BOMBEROS via 911, IMSS Urgencias, Protección Civil). Brigade composition must be proportional to the number of workers per shift.

Fire Suppression Equipment Inventory: Type, location, capacity, and last inspection date of all fire extinguishers (extintores), hose reels (mangueras), sprinkler systems (rociadores automáticos), and fixed suppression systems. Under NOM-002-STPS-2010 section 8, portable extinguishers must be inspected monthly and recharged or replaced according to the manufacturer's specifications. The inspection log must be available for STPS review.

Emergency Alert System: Description of the alarm system (sistema de alarma) — audible, visual, or both — covering all areas of the workplace, including the trigger protocol (who activates it, under what conditions), and the alarm signals for different emergency types (fire, chemical spill, earthquake, medical emergency). The system must comply with NOM-001-STPS-2008 electrical installation requirements.

Emergency Response Procedures: Step-by-step instructions for each foreseeable emergency scenario: fire, earthquake (sismo) — following the Comité de Sismos protocol of the Secretaría de Gobernación/CENAPRED (Centro Nacional de Prevención de Desastres), chemical spill, medical emergency, and workplace violence. Each procedure must specify the actions of the Comisión Mixta de Seguridad e Higiene, brigade leaders, and individual workers.

Training and Drill Record: Annual drill calendar (simulacros de evacuación) — NOM-002-STPS-2010 requires at least one evacuation drill per year, and the Comité de Sismos recommends two earthquake drills annually. Records must document the date, number of participants, evacuation time, issues identified, and corrective actions taken. STPS inspectors regularly request the last two years of drill records.

Forms-legal.com provides this Workplace Emergency Action Plan Mexico template as a practical starting framework. Every plan must be adapted to the specific physical conditions, risk profile, and workforce of each workplace, reviewed by a Licenciado en Derecho specializing in derecho laboral y seguridad e higiene, and validated by the Comisión Mixta de Seguridad e Higiene before implementation. The STPS maintains a public registry of licensed external safety advisors (asesores externos en seguridad y salud en el trabajo) who can assist with NOM compliance audits.