Working conditions

Basic rights and obligations of the employee are provided for in the Act of 26 June 1974 – Labour Code (Journal of Laws of 1998, No 21, item 94, as amended), notably its SECTION TEN “Health and safety at work.” The key obligation of the employee is to comply with the rules and principles of health and safety at work. Pursuant to Art. 211 of the Labour Code, the employee is required in particular:

– to be familiar with the rules and principles of health and safety at work, participate in the relevant training and instruction and pass the required tests,

– perform his or her work in compliance with the principles and standards of health and safety at work as well comply with all instructions and guidelines of the supervisors in this respect,

– care about the proper condition of plant and machinery, tools and equipment, as well as order and tidiness at the work post,

– use collective protection measures, as well as the assigned personal protection measures, clothing and working footwear in accordance with their intended use,

– undergo initial, periodical and control as well as other recommended medical checks and comply with all medical guidelines,

– immediately notify the supervisor of any accident or human life or health hazard occurring at work as well as warn colleagues and other persons present in the danger zone about the hazard,

Basic obligations of the employer are provided for in the Act of 26 June 1974 – Labour Code (Journal of Laws of 1998, No 21, item 94, as amended), notably its SECTION TEN „Health and safety at work.” Pursuant to Art. 207 § 1, the employer, who is responsible for the status of health and safety at work at the employer’s working establishment, is required to protect the employees’ life and health by ensuring safe and healthy working conditions for them, making appropriate use of the progress in science and technology. Under § 2 and 3 of the said article, the employer is required in particular:

·   to organise work in a manner that ensures safe and healthy working conditions,

·   ensure compliance at the work establishment with rules and principles of health and safety at work, give instructions to remedy any flaws in this respect as well as check whether such instructions are complied with,

·   ensure compliance with orders, motions, decisions and regulations issued by supervisory bodies for working conditions,

·   ensure compliance with the recommendations of the social labour inspector, and

·   be familiar, so far as to be able to comply with the relevant obligations, with the regulations on labour protection, to include rules and principles of health and safety at work.

Detailed obligations of employers in respect of health and safety at work include, among others:

·  evaluation and documenting professional risk inherent in the work performed and application of the required preventative measures that reduce the risk as well as notifying employees of the professional risk inherent in the work performed as well as of rules of protection against the occurring hazards.(Art. 226 of LC),

·   undertaking, at the expense of the employer, test and measurements of life-hazardous agents, keeping the results of such tests and measurements and making them available to the employees (Art. 227 § 1 section 2 of LC),

·   undertaking initial, periodical and control medical checks for the newly employed and already employed staff (Art, 229 § 1 – 3 of LC) and complying with the prohibition to employ a person who does not hold a valid medical certificate stating no counter indications to render work at a given post (Art. 229 § 4 of LC),

·   providing the employees employed in particularly difficult conditions with free-of-charge, appropriate food and drinks, insofar as is required for prevention (Art. 232 of LC),

·   systematically analysing the reasons for accidents at work, professional diseases and other diseases linked with working conditions and applying the appropriate preventative measures in line with the results of such analysis (Art. 236 of LC),

·   ensuring training for employees in respect of health and safety at work prior to their commencement of work and holding periodical training sessions in this respect (Art. 237³ § 2 of LC),

·   undergoing by the employer a training in health and safety at work as far as is required to fulfil the obligations of the employer in this respect; the training should be held periodically (Art. 237³ § 2¹ of LC),

·   providing the employees free of charge with personal protection measures, protecting them against hazardous and harmful agents present in the working environment and notifying them of the ways to use such measures effectively (Art. 237⁶ § 1 of LC),

·   providing the employees free of charge with working clothing and footwear that meet the requirements specified in the Polish Standards:

– if the employee’s own clothing could get destroyed or very dirty,

– in case of the relevant technological, sanitary or health-and-safety-at-work requirements (Art. 237⁷ § 1 of LC),

·   in the case when more than 100 employees are employed – establishing a service for health and safety at work, to perform advisory and control function, and in the case when less than 100 employees are employed, a person with a different working duties or, in case of no competent employees at the establishment, a specialist from outside the working establishment should be tasked with duties to be performed by the health and safety at work service. The employer who completed the training necessary to perform health and safety service tasks may proceed with these tasks on his or her own if he or she:

1)     employs up to 10 employees, or

2) employs up to 20 employees and is classified into a business activity group where the risk category, within the meaning of regulations on social insurance for accidents at work and professional diseases, is defined as level three or lower (Art. 237¹¹ § 1 and § 2 of LC),

·   consulting with employees or their representatives all actions related to health and safety at work (Art. 237^11a § 1 of LC),

·   in the case when more than 250 employees are employed – establishing health and safety at work committee, to act as an advisory and opinion-making body to the employer (Art. 237¹² and 237¹³ of LC); consultations as regards health and safety at work may take place within this committee (Art. 237^11a § 5 of LC),

·   complying with the prohibition to employ women for particularly difficult jobs or jobs that are harmful to their health (Art. 176 of LC) and prohibition to employ minors for jobs they are not allowed to take up (Art. 204 § 1 of LC).