National Labour Inspectorate Guide

The National Labour Inspectorate has drawn up an employer start-up guide on how to devise solutions that meet the requirements of legislation and other regulations on employment and OSH. The guide also offers a snapshot of related legislation, information on the forms of advice available, and the contact details of labour inspectorates. The guide is available at the webpage of National Labour Inspectorate (only in Slovak).

What do EU citizens need to prepare before they ‘start dealing with authorities’ 

EMPLOYERS’ OSH OBLIGATIONS

Slovak legislation imposes many obligations on employers to ensure the OSH of their employees and others who are in their workplaces or on their premises with their knowledge. Selected employer obligations:

• to identify hazards and threats, assess risks and prepare a report on the assessment of risks posed by all employee activities;
• to ensure that workplaces, pathways, work equipment, materials, operating procedures, production processes, the layout of workplaces, and the organisation of work do not endanger workers’ safety and health, and to arrange the necessary maintenance and repairs for that purpose;
• to issue internal regulations and rules on OSH, and give OSH-related instructions;
• to assign employees work with due regard for their state of health (based in particular on the outcome of an assessment of their medical fitness for work), skills, age, qualifications and professional competence further to legislation and other regulations on OSH, and not to allow them to carry out work that is not suited to their health (based in particular on the outcome of the assessment of their medical fitness for work) or that requires skills for which they are not yet old enough or for which they do not hold the right qualifications or proof of professional competence further to legislation and other regulations on OSH;
• to provide the necessary effective personal protective equipment free of charge to employees who require it to protect their life or health, and to keep records of the provision of such equipment. 

RISK ASSESSMENT

Risk assessment is the process of assessing the risks to employee health and safety as a result of workplace hazards. A risk assessment systematically reviews all aspects of work, specifically:

• anything that could cause injury or damage;
• whether a risk can be eliminated and, if it cannot, what preventive or protective measures have been or need to be taken in the workplace to mitigate the risk.

In order to safeguard OSH, employers are required to identify hazards and threats, assess the risk, and draw up a report on the assessment of risks posed by all employee activities.

In order to safeguard OSH with personal protective equipment (PPE), employers must make a list of PPE that they have provided in response to risk assessments and to evaluations of hazards posed by work processes and the working environment.

Employers are required to provide their employees or  employee safety representativeswith documentation and to give them a reasonable time to comment on the risk assessment and on the setting and implementation of protective measures, including the deployment of PPE and collective protective equipment.

Risk assessments may be organised internally or outsourced. Employers may draw on a professional safety technical service and occupational health service (made up of their own staff or provided by an external entity) in order to select, organise and perform OSH-related tasks, especially the prevention of and protection from risks, including psychosocial risks. 

EMPLOYERS’ HEALTH AND SAFETY MEASURES

The OSH Act applies to all employers and employees in all manufacturing and non-manufacturing sectors.

Employers are required to assign employees work with due regard for their state of health (based in particular on the outcome of an assessment of their medical fitness for work), skills, age, qualifications and professional competence further to legislation and other regulations on OSH, and not to allow them to carry out work that is not suited to their health (based in particular on the outcome of the assessment of their medical fitness for work) or that requires skills for which they are not yet old enough or for which they do not hold the right qualifications or proof of professional competence further to legislation and other regulations on OSH.

Employers provide an occupational health service operated by health professionals. Under certain conditions these are their own employees, but if they do not have their own staff for this work they can outsource it. The occupational health service is responsible for supervising employees’ health. It provides specialist work and advice to employers in order for them to comply with their obligations.

It is a requirement for employers to provide their employees with a safety technical service.

Sufficient numbers of trained workers need to be appointed internally to provide this service. Employers hire them as employees or make other similar arrangements to recruit them according to labour law. Employers who use their own trained staff to provide the safety technical service must have sufficient amounts of the necessary technology and devices. 

OSH RULES SPECIFIC TO THE EMPLOYMENT OF YOUNG WORKERS

Employers have a duty to draw up their own list of jobs and workplaces that are out of bounds for young workers. This issue is specifically addressed by a government regulation establishing a list of jobs and workplaces that are prohibited for young workers and establishing certain obligations for employers in the employment of young workers.

CONDITIONS AND PROCEDURES SPECIFIC TO SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED ENTERPRISES

By law, employers who have more than 11 employees or who engage in high-risk operations that may cause serious damage to the health of employees or that tend to cause damage to their health more often are required to develop, periodically evaluate and, where necessary, update a concept for their OSH policy, containing the fundamental objectives to be achieved in safety and health at work, and a programme for the implementation of this concept that encompasses, in particular, the procedure, means and manner of implementation. The law also stipulates the minimum number of safety technicians or authorised safety technicians, which depends on the number of employees and the type of operations performed by the employer. 

NATIONAL AUTHORITIES RESPONSIBLE FOR OSH AND INCIDENT REPORTING

Safety and health at work and employee care are primarily the responsibility of the employer. Employers’ OSH tasks must be organised by their managers. These tasks are no less important than their other responsibilities and are integral to their work.

Government authorities oversee the performance of employers’ OSH tasks. Labour inspections are conducted by bodies of state administration – the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family, the National Labour Inspectorate and regional labour inspectorates.

Some tasks required of employers are also supervised by public health authorities, especially the central Public Health Authority of the Slovak Republic and regional public health authorities. 

For the most part, labour inspections run checks on compliance with:

• regulations under labour law that govern employment relations (in particular the creation of, changes to and termination of jobs), and the wages and working conditions of employees, including women, young people and homeworkers;
• legislation and other regulations intended to safeguard OSH, including regulations governing working-environment factors;
• legislation governing the prohibition of undeclared work and illegal employment;
• obligations under collective agreements. 

Special labour inspections are conducted at the workplaces of the Ministry of the Interior, the Police Force, the Fire and Rescue Service, the Ministry of Defence, the armed forces, the Prison and Court Guard Corps, and the Financial Administration by their labour inspection bodies. 

Where and how to report an accident, injury, occupational disease

Employers must have an internal regulation designating to whom and how incidents are to be reported. Employees are required to notify their employer immediately of the following incidents:

• an accident at work;
• an accident other than an accident at work, or a death that is not the consequence of an accident at work, if this takes place in the workplace or on the employer’s premises;
• a hazardous incident (near miss);
• a major industrial accident. 

Employers are required to provide employees and employee representatives, including employee safety representatives, with information on accidents at work, occupational diseases and other occupational injuries that have occurred at the employer, including the results of investigations into the causes and the measures adopted and implemented. This reporting must be drawn up in an appropriate and readily understandable form. Employers must also keep records of recognised occupational diseases and threats of occupational diseases, specifying details about the cause and the measures adopted and implemented to prevent the same or similar occupational diseases.

Where employees can lodge complaints

Employees who are wronged by a breach of employment obligations and employee representatives who are employed by an employer who, during an inspection conducted in accordance with the Labour Code, is found to have broken labour laws may lodge a complaint with the competent labour inspection authority.

The competent labour inspection authority is the local regional labour inspectorate where the employer has its head office, premises, or branch, or the place where the work is performed, depending on the specific case. The employer’s name and address (including the precise place of work) must be specified in a written complaint.

Complaints about dangerous or unhealthy operations may be lodged online with regional labour inspectorates, which have set up websites presenting the necessary information.

Who to contact if you’re unsure what to do

If you have any questions, you can contact your local labour inspectorate. It is open for enquiries on working days from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Non-compliance penalties