OBLIGATION TO CARE FOR HEALTH AND SAFETY AT WORK
In our society, health protection is one of the key priorities and it plays a big part also in the world of work. Performance of work activities (either dependent or independent) must never lead to damage to health; health protection takes precedence over the efficiency of work performance.
No worker is required to put his or her life or health at stake at work. The only exceptions are members of security forces such as police officers or firefighters.
If you are an employee, the labour code contains a provision entitling you to refuse the performance of work which you are reasonably concerned may immediately and seriously threaten your life or health, or the life or health of other persons. Such a refusal may not be considered as a failure to meet the obligations of an employee.
If you are self-employed (OSVČ, a freelancer), the labour code does not apply to you; however, when performing independent work activities, you are no one's subordinate – and therefore no one can make you perform dangerous work. Of course, even a self-employed person has the right to protect their health at work. S/he is even obliged to do so. The new civil code generally stipulates that everyone is obliged to act so as to avoid unjustified injury of the freedom, life, health, or property of another person, if required by the circumstances of the case or practice of private life. Each work performance is no doubt a case in which this preventive obligation is imposed.
In employment, the person primarily responsible for ensuring the health and safety at work is the employer. First, the employer must comply with one of the basic principles of employment relations, which are "satisfactory and safe working conditions".
The employer must fulfill the following general obligations:
- To ensure the protection of the health and safety not only for their employees, but for "all natural persons, who, to his/her knowledge, are present at his/her workplaces"
- To bear all the costs associated with HSW, while these costs may not be even indirectly transmitted onto employees
- To provide the employees with such working conditions that they can properly carry out their job tasks without risking damage to health or property. If deficiencies are found, the employer is obliged to take measures to eliminate them
- To evaluate the health risks of work, constantly inform employees (even those employed by other employers) about health risks, take measures for emergencies such as fire or flood and ensure preventive health care for employees
- To properly train the staff in the field of HSW. In order to minimize health impact, adapt working conditions to the needs of employees continuously and replace physically strenuous work with new procedures
- May not choose such arrangements for rewarding employees, which expose the employees to a higher risk of health damage and the application of which would increase work efficiency but lead to health and safety risk for workers
- To ensure a ban on smoking in the workplace
- In case of health risks, provide staff with personal protective equipment (e.g. safety helmets, glasses or heated jackets, detergents), and – in a working environment, in which clothing or footwear is subject to extraordinary wear and tear or pollution or serves a protective function – also with work clothes and/or shoes. The provision of this equipment may not be compensated for financially.
- To either possess the professional competence to assess and prevent risks of potential danger to life or health, or employ the so-called security officer.
Training in HSW should not be replaced by simply putting a signature beneath instructions concerning this issue. In training as well as during all instructions, ask for these to be performed or presented in a language that you understand really well!
The employer has a number of other special duties to be applied to certain employees. It is especially such employees who perform more risky categories of work. Further, these duties concern women in relation to pregnancy and maternity and under-age workers, who are, besides that, prohibited from performing certain types of work.
The above-mentioned obligations concern employers and their duties to employees. As an employee, you have the right to demand that your employer meets all these obligations. However, you must also meet certain obligations; in particular:
- to comply with the measures taken by the employer and take part in creating a secure and healthy environment (e.g. the obligation to communicate to your employer any shortcomings and deficiencies found in the workplace and all accidents at work)
- to refrain from the consumption of alcohol and other addictive substances in the workplace, and when under the influence of such substances not to enter the workplace.
If you fail to comply with your obligations in the area of HSW, you are at risk from being dismissed and being obliged to compensate your employer for damages!
For your own health and safety, comply with the instructions of your employer or superior. Use the work and protective equipment you are given!
The employer is controlled by labour inspectorates, public health authorities and other authorities entitled to imposing fines on the employer. You can make a complaint regarding the employer to these bodies. If the complaint is made in writing, the labour inspectorate is required to inform you of the result of its inspection.
If an employer penalizes an employee for filing a complaint, s/he would have committed an offense and a fine of up to 400000,- CZK would be outstanding.