Certainly a lot of people know the words ’labour safety’ or ’safety at work’ in a direct or indirect way.
The role and aim of labour safety is to establish the basic requirements for occupational safety and occupational health for us, others, employers and employees as well.
The employer is obliged to satisfy the conditions of the legislation in force. Making employees behave the same way shall be the obligation of employers too.
Paying attention to avoid dangerous situations, overcome emergency situations at the place they arise, reduce the duration of the monotonous work and develop a preventive strategy shall be the duty and obligation of employers as well.
It is a highly important question whether it is required to employ occupational safety experts or opt for labour safety representatives in our company.
The conditions of employing an occupational safety expert and the criteria of choosing a labour safety representative can be found in Enclosure 2, Regulation No 5/1993 (26 December) of the Labour Department and Section 70/A from Act XCIII of 1993 on Labour Safety.
We can classify the company’s activity in hazard classes based on the TEAOR number of the company. Based on it and the average statistical number of employees we can ensure if we need to employ an expert.
Certain labour safety activities may be performed only by a person with secondary education qualification or higher education qualification.
Labour safety representative shall ensure the implementation of occupational safety and occupational health requirements and the appropriate condition of the safety equipments too.
Workers’ representative shall be entitled to inspect the implementation of measures taken in order to prevent accidents at work and occupational diseases (for instance: additional assessment of capacities, prescribed in the risk assessment, fulfilled by occupational doctor), furthermore the preparation and preparedness of employees for occupational safety and occupational health at work. An employee may only be employed in a particular position and under the condition, that such employment has no detrimental effect on his/her health and physical integrity, and with respect to minors, has no detrimental effect on his/her development.
Implementation of personnel, material and organizational conditions for occupational safety and occupational health shall be the duty and obligation of employers. Employers may not provide pecuniary or other redemption to employees in lieu of meeting the requirements of occupational safety and health standards.
The minister in charge of employment and labour shall decree the minimum level of safety and health requirements regarding work equipment, and the minimum level of occupational safety requirements of work places.
For example: in the case of administrative type of activity, the implementation of the minimum level of occupational safety requirements of work places shall be the obligation of employers in order to avoid any risks; ergonomics, hygiene, maintenance, preparation, designing the office, place, seats, ventilation, temperature, lighting, toilets, resting room, noise protection, computer display, position of keyboard, table, chair, lighting, reflection, climate – in the case of working with computer.
The implementation of occupational safety and occupational health requirements is one of the most important obligations of employers. Employers shall get known the personnel, material conditions, taking our type of activity into consideration.