The employer is obliged to ensure safe and hygienic working conditions in the company. Also, before allowing an employee to work, he or she should be referred for initial, check-up or periodic preventive examinations.

Working in special conditions is not the same as working in harmful (troublesome or dangerous) conditions.

Working in special conditions gives you the opportunity to take advantage of early retirement. Professions that are performed in special conditions are listed in the Act on Bridge Pensions.

Allowance for work in harmful or special conditions is paid only if such a provision is included in the work or remuneration regulations. The employer is not obliged to pay the employee additional remuneration if harmful factors occur at his workplace.

However, the employer should strive to eliminate and reduce conditions harmful to the health and life of employees. In situations where, based on the measurement results and the occupational risk assessment, it is found to be high, i.e. unacceptable, it is necessary to introduce changes at a given position in order to reduce this risk below the level that poses a threat to the employee’s health or life.

Issues related to working in harmful conditions are mainly regulated by occupational health and safety regulations. They define the employer’s obligations and how to protect employees against harmful factors (e.g. use of protective clothing, earmuffs, glasses).

The employer is obliged to indicate factors harmful to health in the work environment and identify their sources, and then commission tests and measurements of these factors. In a workplace where employees are exposed to harmful factors, the employer must keep records of these factors. The employer is obliged to register and store the results of measurements and tests of factors harmful to health in the work environment in order to make them available to employees and control bodies.

The register of factors harmful to health occurring at the workplace should be kept for a period of 40 years from the date of the last entry.

A referral for a preventive examination should include information about factors harmful to health or burdensome conditions, as well as current results of tests and measurements of factors harmful to health performed at these positions.

In the referral, the employer may list harmful factors in the work environment, which are divided into:

• Physical: noise, mechanical vibrations (general, local), dust, metals in dusty form, e.g. lead, iron, laser radiation, cold microclimate, hot microclimate.
• Chemicals: toxic substances, irritants, sensitizing substances, carcinogens.
• Biological: bacteria, viruses, fungi.

The referral may also include other factors, including dangerous and burdensome factors, as well as other factors resulting from the way the work is performed. The employer may enter factors such as:

• operating screen monitors (up to 4 hours/over 4 hours a day),
• working at heights (up to 3 m/above 3 m),
• night work.

The scope of the tests is determined by the doctor based on a referral for tests issued by the employer.

The Labor Code clearly defines the employer’s obligations regarding occupational health and safety. One of them is sending the employee for examinations carried out by an occupational physician. However, for a medical certificate to be valid, the employer must issue an appropriate referral for examination, especially in situations where harmful factors occur in the workplace.

Source:https://poradnikprzedsiebiorcy.pl/-szkodliwy-aktywi-w-srodowisku-pracy-a-skierowanie-na-badanie

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