Lesson 3 Duties of employers and workers in relation to occupational safety and health

Module 2 Protective Measures Unit 1 Different methods of minimizing occupational risks and recommended control methods Lesson 3 Duties of employers and workers in relation to occupational safety and health

Perhaps it would be good to know that concerning work and working-relations there is a whole environment in which employers and workers are central personae, functioning with limits of certain legislative conditions.
As we have mentioned in the Introduction to this Unit, there are regulations at the EU level setting up the basic principles for occupational safety and health, however each Member State can introduce its own measures, not getting below those minimum standards.

The duties of employers, according to the Framework Directive, include:

to ensure the safety and health of workers in every aspect related to the work;
to appoint (internally or externally) someone responsible for the prevention of risks at work;
to take the measures necessary for the safety and health protection of workers, including prevention of occupational risks and provision of information and training, as well as provision of the necessary organization and means;
to adjust these measures to take account of changing circumstances and aim to improve existing situations;
to follow the general principles of prevention:
- avoiding risks;
- evaluating the risks which cannot be avoided;
- combating the risks at source;
- adapting the work to the individual;
- adapting to technical progress;
- replacing the dangerous by the non-dangerous or the less dangerous;
- developing a coherent overall prevention policy;
- giving collective protective measures priority over individual protective measures;
- giving appropriate instructions to the workers.
to evaluate the risks to the safety and health of workers;
to ensure that the planning and introduction of new technologies are the subject of consultation with the workers and/or their representatives;
to take appropriate steps to ensure that only workers who have received adequate instructions may have access to areas where there is serious and specific danger;
provide employees and/or their representatives with all relevant information on possible health and safety risks and the measures taken to prevent them;
consult employees and/or their representatives and involve them in all discussions on health and safety at work;
ensure each employee receives adequate health and safety training relevant to their job.

As you can see, the list of employers obligations is pretty extensive. However, you need to remember, that you as worker also have some responsibilities, which include:

to take care as far as possible of his own safety and health and that of other persons at work in accordance with his training and the instructions given by his employer;
to make correct use of machinery, apparatus, tools, dangerous substances, transport equipment and other means of production;
to make correct use of the personal protective equipment supplied to them and, after use, return it to its proper place;
to refrain from disconnecting, changing or removing arbitrarily safety devices fitted, e.g. to machinery, apparatus, tools, plant and buildings, and use such safety devices correctly;

Responsibilities of worker - continuation:

to immediately inform the employer and/or the workers with specific responsibility for the safety and health of workers of any work situation they have reasonable grounds for considering represents a serious and immediate danger to safety and health and of any shortcomings in the protection arrangements;
to cooperate, in accordance with national practice, with the employer and/or workers with specific responsibility for the safety and health of workers, for as long as may be necessary to enable any tasks or requirements imposed by the competent authority to protect the safety and health of workers at work to be carried out;
to cooperate, in accordance with national practice, with the employer and/or workers with specific responsibility for the safety and health of workers, for as long as may be necessary to enable the employer to ensure that the working environment and working conditions are safe and pose no risk to safety and health within their field of activity.

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