One of the basic duties of the employer is to ensure safe and hygienic working conditions. He is obliged to equip employees with the necessary personal protective equipment, as well as work clothing and footwear. Employees must also be provided with a suitable locker for clothes that meets certain standards. The locker should be located in a specially equipped cloakroom.

Detailed guidelines on what requirements must be met by the cloakroom in the workplace can be found in Annex 3 to the Regulation of the Minister of Labor and Social Policy of 26 September 1997 on general occupational health and safety regulations. The following types of cloakrooms for employees are listed there:

• cloakroom of own clothing – should be equipped with employee lockers intended for individual use for each employee and have 0.3 m² of free space for each of the employees using the cloakroom;
• hanger cloakroom – a cloakroom of own clothing can be arranged in this way, if its specificity and working conditions allow it. A separate cloakroom for men and women should be arranged, and if there are less than 5 employees on one shift, the cloakroom may be shared provided that there are special changing booths (except for employees who are not obliged to use work and protective clothing). Special personnel should be appointed to receive clothing. In addition, the cloakroom should meet the following requirements:
  • hanger racks should be intended for individual use by each employee (each employee must have his own hanger),
  • racks should be single-level and have in the lower part mesh shelves for shoes, in the upper part for a headdress,
  • the width of the passage for the cloakroom service must be at least 1,1 m between the rows of hangers and 0,95 m between the wall and the outer row of hangers,
  • it should have a changing room equipped with seating and clothes hangers, and the number of seats should be at least 30% of the number of employees employed on the most numerous shifts (does not apply to workers who are not obliged to use work and protective clothing).
• cloakroom of work and protective clothing – should be arranged, regardless of the cloakroom of own clothing, for employees employed in works causing significant soiling of clothing. It should be equipped with employee lockers for individual use for each employee and have a direct connection to the washroom, showers and cloakroom of own clothing.
• basic cloakroom – can be created instead of separate cloakrooms of own clothing and cloakrooms of work and protective clothing for employees who work in conditions where contamination of workwear occurs to a small extent and does not pose a threat of soiling their own clothing. It should have a direct connection to the washroom and have at least 0,5 m² of floor space for each employee using this cloakroom. It should be equipped with two single cabinets or one double for each employee. One cabinet or one part of the double should be allocated for workwear, and the other for your own.
• pass-through cloakroom – should be arranged for employees employed in work related to the use or secretion of poisonous, infectious, radioactive, irritating or sensitizing substances and substances with an unpleasant odor, as well as in dusty work, in a humid and hot microclimate or causing high dirt. It should meet the following requirements:
  • part of the cloakroom should be devoted to workwear and personal protective equipment,
  • part of the cloakroom should be intended for employees’ own clothing,
  • there should be showers between the two parts so that employees can bathe first and only then enter the cloakroom with their own clothing.

Article 4(2) of Annex 3 to the MPiPS Regulation, referred to above, indicates that employees employed in office premises may store their clothing in designated places in work rooms, e.g. on hangers or in specially designed cabinets. However, here employers have freedom in the matter of arranging this place, but such a place should be separated.

In addition to the strict conditions that employee locker rooms must meet, many requirements should also be met by lockers placed in them.

The dimensions of employee lockers have been specified in the Polish standard PN -75M-78711 and should be:

height 1800 mm, width 400 mm, depth 480 mm.

Employee lockers should also have a bar, shelves and a partition dividing the cabinet in half. Each employee should have at their disposal two single cabinets or one double one.

Employee lockers are necessary wherever employees are required to change into work clothes or work attire. Their number should be adjusted to the number of employees employed, so that everyone has their own locker.

A lot of controversy is raised by the issue of employers controlling employee lockers. As you know, employee lockers are located on the premises of the workplace, were purchased from the employer’s funds and are his property. Therefore, the employer, as well as the head of the department, has the right, and in a way also the obligation to have a spare key. It may happen that the employee loses the key and then he must be able to get to the contents of his cabinet. This does not mean that the employer has the opportunity to look into the employee’s locker without a valid reason. Such a reason that makes it possible to inspect the cabinets is the suspicion of theft.

Source: https://poradnikprzedsiebiorcy.pl/-szafki-pracownicze-komu-pracodawca-musi-je-zapewnic

Projekt otrzymał dofinansowanie z Norwegii poprzez Fundusze Norweskie 2014-2021, w ramach programu „Dialog społeczny – godna praca”.