•  News
    • From 2019, administrative and office employees without periodic health and safety at work (1-2, 4)
      The Council of Ministers adopted a package of 50 changes, the aim of which is to simplify and facilitate business operations in Poland. Two of these changes relate to health and safety issues. It is about the exemption from periodic health and safety training of administrative and office employees and the extension of the circle of employers who can independently perform the tasks of health and safety at work in their own workplace. These changes would come into effect as early as next year.
    • Will all administration employees be exempted from health and safety training (3)
      In connection with the upcoming abolition of the obligation of periodic training for administrative and office employees, further questions and doubts arise. Would the dismissal cover all administrative and office employees, including those in managerial positions? Will the dismissal be applied, for example, to employees of the state administration, ie the president, commune head and heads of state?
    • 8 additional chemical substances, including exhaust gas from diesel engines, entered in the list of carcinogenic substances (4)
      Negotiators from the Member States of the European Union and the European Parliament have reached an agreement on the amendment to the directive on carcinogens and mutagens. In January 2017, the European Commission proposed that 25 new substances be added to the list of carcinogenic substances in the workplace.
    • The Chief Labor Inspectorate wants the penalties for breaking health and safety at work (5)
      With the postulate of the change in the amount of penalties for violation of employee rights, the Razem party came forward, proposing them to be calculated in proportion to the company's turnover. This is a reaction to the results of the inspection of the National Labor Inspectorate in the Amazon. The Chief Labor Inspector also talks about changing the system of calculating fines for the violation of provisions by employers. On the other hand, the Ministry of Labor does not take up the topic and does not plan to work on the issues of the amount of penalties. So is the amount of penalties adequate?
  • Working conditions
    • Do you know 27 principles of safe work in a chemical laboratory (6-7)
      Work in contact with hazardous chemical substances and their mixtures in chemical laboratories is associated with specific hazards. This applies without exception to all chemical laboratories. Therefore, in order to minimize the existing hazards in such a laboratory, it is necessary to ensure proper organization of work and compliance with specific rules of conduct.
    • Work shoes and winter season (12)
      Does an employer who provides work shoes for a given job should take into account the winter time and provide winter footwear for workers - if the employee moves between buildings - for example once a week and this is related to the delivery of a material at the verbal command of the superior? What if an employee is injured in an area covered with snow, icy in his shoes (eg high heels)?
      What are the necessary permissions to assemble and disassemble scaffoldings? (15)
      What permissions must an employee have to assemble and disassemble the scaffolding? How do you get them today?
  • The topic of the issue
    • Employers' obligations to ensure safety during winter (8-11)
      Winter is a period that brings with it additional accident and disease risks. It is important that not only employers and supervisors, but also employees themselves, take care of job security. The employee should comply with his obligations laid down in the labor code and company regulations, but also has the right to demand (require) to provide him with safe and healthy working conditions. He also has the right (through his representatives) to influence the employer's actions to ensure occupational health and safety at the plant.
  • Occupational risk assessment
    • Assessment of occupational risk at the position of a physical education teacher (13-14)
      At school, as in any other workplace, an occupational risk assessment should be carried out for teaching posts. The most diverse in terms of risks and separate position will be a physical education teacher / sports activities. His position is the least similar position to the office position, unlike other teaching positions. With this in mind, we present a sample of occupational risk assessment prepared by experts at the workplace of a physical education teacher, ready to be downloaded.
  • Occupational health and safety documents
    • Notification of the Office of Technical Inspection about dangerous damage to the device (16)
      The obligation imposed by the regulations on technical supervision for operators of technical devices is to notify the competent office of the Technical Inspection Office of any dangerous damage to the device during its operation. Lack of such notification and failure to comply with this obligation may result in fines imposed on the operator of the device. However, drawing up a document of such a notice can create difficulties. With this in mind, we present a ready-to-use model of a document to notify the competent Office of Technical Inspection about the dangerous damage to the device.

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