At a time when the proverbial penny counts for the company, the implementation of measures aimed at reducing the operating costs of the company is crucial. If the employer does not want to lay off employees, he should look for savings elsewhere.

Issues related to the application of occupational health and safety (OHS) regulations and principles are regulated in the Act of 26 June 1974 – Labour Code (kp) and in executive regulations issued on the basis of kp.

According to the general assumptions, the employer is obliged to provide employees with safe and hygienic working conditions and systematic training in the field of health and safety (Articles 15 and 94 point 4 of the Code of Civil Procedure).

At the outset, it should be clearly emphasized that any actions limiting the company’s expenses must not have a negative impact on the safety of employees at the workplace.

Pursuant to Article 207 § 1 of the Code of Civil Procedure, the employer is responsible for the state of health and safety in the workplace. The scope of this responsibility is not affected by the obligations of employees in the field of OHS and entrusting the performance of OHS tasks to specialists from outside the workplace, referred to in Article 237(11) § 2 of the Code of Civil Procedure.

According to Article 207 § 2 of the Code of Civil Procedure, the employer is obliged to protect the health and life of employees by ensuring safe and hygienic working conditions with appropriate use of scientific and technical achievements.

The employer’s obligations include in particular:

• organizing work in a way that ensures safe and hygienic working conditions, which should be understood as taking all necessary actions aimed at reducing or eliminating threats to the health or life of employees occurring in the work environment;
• ensuring compliance with health and safety regulations and principles in the workplace, issuing instructions to remove deficiencies in this respect and controlling the implementation of these instructions. The employer appoints in particular a health and safety service or commission or appoints persons responsible for individual aspects of the organization of safe work, and facilitates the activities of social labor inspectors;
• responding to health and safety needs and adapting measures taken to improve the existing level of protection of workers’ health and life, taking into account changing working conditions;
• ensuring the development of a coherent policy to prevent accidents at work and occupational diseases, taking into account technical issues, work organisation, working conditions, social relations and the influence of factors of the working environment;
• taking into account the health protection of adolescents, pregnant or breastfeeding workers and workers with disabilities as part of preventive measures;
• ensuring the execution of orders, speeches, decisions and orders issued by the authorities supervising working conditions;
• ensuring the implementation of the recommendations of the social labour inspector.

The costs of actions taken by the employer in the field of OHS may not be charged to employees in any way – provides Article 207 § 2(1) of the Code of Civil Procedure.

There is no doubt that in order to take any cost-saving measures for a company in the field of OSH, it is necessary to develop a cost-optimisation plan for a specific company. Such a document must always have a specific character, which results from a huge number of variables resulting from the specificity of the functioning of a given economic entity.

When constructing a plan to optimise OSH-related costs, the following basic elements should be taken into account:

• staffing conditions;
• technical conditions, including the provision of appropriate protective measures for employees;
• other factors, including those of an external nature.

The human factor in the organisation of work is fundamental and must therefore be taken into account when developing a system for optimising OSH costs in the first place and at various levels.

The first idea that can be taken into account is to direct employees to perform tasks remotely. The savings here are measurable and consist in reducing costs due to the lack of the need to rent work rooms.

Another element relating to employees that should be considered in terms of reducing expenses is the issue of OSH training. In this case, consideration could be given to changing the formula of these activities, bearing in mind the fact that the obligations in the field of training employees must be systematically implemented. Therefore, the employer can use, for example, an online training system (e-learning) instead of organizing traditional forms that may generate higher costs.

The employer may also offer employees work under the shortened working week system or the weekend work system – however, it should be remembered that these systems can be used at the employee’s written request. Thanks to the use of such an organization of working time, it is possible to reduce the costs associated with the need to provide employees with the right temperature in the work rooms, which is important especially in the autumn and winter season.

Another element in the aspect of personnel conditions is the issue of preventive medical care for employees. The employer may use the services of another entity operating in this area, which offers similar services to the previous ones, has competitive prices.

The costs resulting from technical conditions can be very high in specific cases. It is therefore worth looking at how they can be reduced. Here it is important to assess the demand for products of a certain type. The employer together with the person responsible for the organization of OHS facilities in the workplace may, for example, verify the number of personal hygiene products purchased (the obligation to provide employees with these products results from Article 233 of the Code of Civil Procedure). After such an analysis, it is possible to rationalize purchases in this area adapted to the actual demand. In addition, you may consider changing your supplier to provide personal care products of the same quality but at a more attractive price.

Similar assessments can, of course, be used in other areas related to the employer’s organisation of safe and healthy employment conditions. This means that the reduction of OSH-related costs may concern, m.in:

• rationalization in the purchase of workwear and personal protective equipment – however, it should be remembered that when buying, for example, protective glasses or hearing protection, they must meet certain technical requirements indicated in Polish Standards and EU directives;
• reducing the costs of occupational risk assessment, including reducing expenses incurred for the measurement of factors harmful to health in the work environment (e.g. by using laboratories with appropriate accreditation, but offering competitive prices);
• taking other actions that in a given time perspective are to bring the expected savings.

Source: https://poradnikprzedsiebiorcy.pl/-obnizenie-kosztow-zwiazanych-z-bhp-w-zakladzie-pracy

Supported by Norway through Norway Grants 2014-2021, in the frame of the Programme “Social Dialogue – Decent Work”.