•  News
    • The results of the control action on small construction sites (3)
      The National Labor Inspectorate presented the shocking results of controls on small construction sites. The main shortcomings from among the whole range of irregularities concerned, inter alia, no protective railings on the scaffolding and along the edges of ceilings and no fall protection for workers who install steep roofs. And this is just the beginning of the irregularity.
    • Reconstruction of the construction, assembly and demolition log (4)
      The new ordinance of 6 September 2021 on the method of keeping construction, assembly and demolition logs largely repeats the solutions functioning in the previous ordinance on this subject. However, due to changes in the Construction Law, the new regulation adjusts and unifies some provisions. Check the details.
    • Gas hazardous work without supervision - change of regulations (6)
      The coronavirus epidemic caused staff shortages in the energy sector. Companies struggled (and often still struggle) with absenteeism and employee turnover. All this affects the continuity of gas-hazardous work. Therefore, the representatives of the energy industry themselves requested changes to the regulations. They wanted to adjust the occupational health and safety regulations to the realities of work performed in connection with the limitations caused by the COVID-19 epidemic. This is also what happened and from September 17, 2021, new regulations on the number of employees performing gas hazardous work are in force.
  • Health and safety service
    • Cooperation with laboratories in the field of measurements of harmful factors - task 17 of the health and safety service (7)
      The employer indicates factors harmful to health in the work environment, for which tests and measurements are performed after identifying the sources of their emissions and working conditions. Admittedly, tests and measurements of factors harmful to health are not performed at the workplace level. The ultimate responsibility for the proper fulfillment of obligations related to their implementation rests with the employer. An intermediate link between the employer and the laboratories authorized to perform these tests and measurements is the health and safety service, which is responsible for cooperation with laboratories.
  • Employer's rights and obligations
    • Reimbursement of corrective glasses lost by the employee before the deadline (9)
      Some employees working on the workstation equipped with screen monitors should use glasses correcting their eyesight during their work. Their provision is the responsibility of the employer, and the ongoing supervision over their use - in the scope of the persons managing the employees. The employer should provide corrective glasses after each examination that suggests the need for a new vision correction. But what if the glasses are lost earlier for various reasons?
  • The subject of the issue
    • How to independently prepare an occupational health and safety instruction (11)
      Regulations obliging the employer to develop job instructions in the field of occupational health and safety do not interfere in detail with the organization of work in a given workplace. The only normative act concerning people involved in the process of creating OHS instructions is the regulation on the OHS service. According to it, the task of the health and safety service is to give opinions on instructions. Therefore, it is solely up to the employer who will be entrusted with the development of this document. There are also no regulations that define the qualification requirements of people who prepare OHS instructions.
  • Working conditions
    • Fire protection status assessment in the company (15)
      Obligation to carry out an annual assessment of the state of fire protection. in the company it is not regulated by any regulations, but it results from generally accepted principles of occupational health and safety. It is worth knowing that the employer, in order to be able to properly manage the company, should have the necessary information on, inter alia, fire protection status in the workplace. This information must be obtained in the annual fire protection assessment. The article discusses the elements that should be included in such an assessment.
  • Questions & Answers
    • Is there an obligation to carry out a trial evacuation during a pandemic? (18)
      The ordinance on fire protection of buildings, other constructions and land has not been changed and is still the legal act in force.
    • How to define a workers 'position (18)
      A worker position is one in which workers' activities predominate during work. Performed with the involvement of human muscles. The employee should be classified as belonging to the group of people whose nature of work involves exposure to factors harmful to health, burdensome or dangerous or with responsibility in the field of occupational health and safety, and which are not otherwise named in the provisions on OSH training.
    • Is a contusion an injury? (19)
      Contusion is damage to the subcutaneous and muscular tissue, as well as the periosteum and peri-tissue joints. The contusion therefore meets the definition of an injury.
    • Can forklift trucks be used outside the workplace? (19)
      Forklifts should not be allowed on the road. Pursuant to the Road Traffic Act, the wheelchair is, however, a device adapted to move on the road.
  • Accidents at work
    • Analysis of the accident - a collective accident during the mining of the foundations of a building (20)
      The article presents an analysis of an accident at work that occurred during the mining of the building's foundations by tearing (landslide) the ground and filling in two employees. What exactly happened and what were the causes of the accident in the opinion of the labor inspector?
  • Court case law
    • Demand for annulment of the rules of the social fund by trade unions (21)
      The trade union is not entitled to claim the invalidity of the employer's decision on the independent (in the absence of an agreed position of the trade unions) establishing the rules of the company social benefit fund.
  • COVID-19 and OHS
    • Remote work will increase employers' costs (22)
      The proposed provisions of the Labor Code on the introduction of remote work contain provisions according to which the employer will be obliged to cover certain costs related to remote work. What are these costs and on what terms will they be determined?
  • Health and safety instructions
    • Safety instructions for the operation of the X-ray machine (23)
  • Health and safety training - Experts respond
    • Every how many years training for employees in potentially explosive atmospheres (24)
      With regard to the discussed issue, training for people working in places where there is a possibility of an explosive atmosphere should be conducted as part of health and safety training at workers' positions at least once in year.

Aktualności BHP (OSH News) - the whole list