Should trainees be familiar with the occupational risk assessment?
The term „trainee” has not been defined in a uniform manner in generally applicable legal regulations. In common understanding, it is a person performing work for an employer on a basis other than an employment relationship, and students and students who are not employees of a given employer, who attend classes at the workplace.
Here you can also refer to the phrase „internship” contained in the Act of 20 April 2004 on employment promotion and labor market institutions, hereinafter referred to as the Employment Promotion Act. In these provisions, internship is defined as the acquisition of practical skills by an unemployed person to perform work by performing tasks at the workplace without entering into an employment relationship with an employer.
Therefore, does the law impose any health and safety obligations on employers who use the services of interns, including those relating to informing about occupational risks? The answer to this question is obviously affirmative – such obligations are formulated in Art. 304 of the Labor Code (LC)
The employer is obliged to ensure safe and hygienic working conditions, referred to in article 1. 207 par. 2 of the Labor Code, natural persons performing work on a basis other than an employment relationship in a workplace or other place designated by the employer (Article 304 § 1 of the Labor Code).
Moreover – in accordance with the wording of Art. 304 § 2 of the Labor Code – the employer is obliged to ensure safe and hygienic conditions for classes held at the workplace by students and students who are not employees.
The obligations set out in Art. 207 § 2 of the Labor Code shall apply accordingly to entrepreneurs who are not employers and who organize work performed by natural persons on a basis other than an employment relationship.
Referred to in Art. 304 of the Labor Code, the provision, i.e. Art. 207 § 2 of the Labor Code provides, inter alia, that the employer is obliged to:
- organize work in a manner ensuring safe and healthy working conditions;
- ensure compliance with health and safety regulations in the workplace, issue orders to remedy deficiencies in this respect and control the implementation of these instructions;
- ensure the execution of orders, statements, decisions and orders issued by the supervisory authorities over working conditions;
- ensure the implementation of the recommendations of the social labor inspector.
Taking into account the provisions of the Labor Code presented above, there is no doubt that the employer should provide the persons working or attending classes on the premises of his company with the necessary information in the scope enabling the organization of work, internships and classes in a manner ensuring safe and hygienic working conditions. One of the most important activities of an employer in this field with regard to trainees is to provide them with adequate information on occupational risks.
As trainees will in most cases work in existing positions, the employer may use the risk assessments already prepared for these positions to inform trainees about these risks. Moreover, it is permissible to modify the evaluation cards in terms of special conditions related to the admission of trainees, students and pupils.
The trainee should receive from the employer an assessment of the occupational risk at the workplace where he / she will perform the work, and the necessary instructions, thanks to which the tasks ordered by the supervisor can be performed in safe and hygienic conditions.
Let’s go back to the trainee who was sent for an internship under the provisions of the Employment Promotion Act. Pursuant to Art. 53 sec. 1 of this Act, the starost may refer a person with the status of unemployed within the meaning of the Act on Employment Promotion for an internship for a period not exceeding 6 months. With regard to the unemployed under 30, the internship may not exceed 12 months.
The guidelines for the organization and course of the internship are set out in the Regulation of the Minister of Labor and Social Policy of August 20, 2009 on the detailed conditions of internships by the unemployed.
The guidelines for the organization and course of the internship are set out in the Regulation of the Minister of Labor and Social Policy of August 20, 2009 on the detailed conditions of internships by the unemployed.
In § 6 sec. 1 of the above-mentioned regulation sets out the obligations of the internship organizer. In the context of the discussed topic, it is worth paying attention to the following provisions, the internship organizer:
- provides the unemployed with safe and hygienic conditions for internships on the terms applicable to employees;
- provides the unemployed with preventive health protection to the extent provided for employees;
- trains the unemployed in accordance with the rules for employees in the field of health and safety, fire regulations and familiarizes them with the applicable work regulations.
An unemployed person referred to an internship is, in turn, obliged to comply with the regulations and rules in force at the organizer, in particular the work regulations and health and safety rules.
Therefore, it can be clearly stated that, in the light of the above-mentioned regulations, the employer who organizes the internship is obliged to provide the referred unemployed person with appropriate health and safety instructions and information on occupational risk assessment.
Projekt otrzymał dofinansowanie z Norwegii poprzez Fundusze Norweskie 2014-2021, w ramach programu „Dialog społeczny – godna praca”.
