Occupational disease is defined in Art. 2351 of the Labor Code. An occupational disease is considered to be a disease listed in the list of occupational diseases if it can be stated beyond any doubt or with high probability that it was caused by factors harmful to health occurring in the work environment or caused by the way of performing work, known as „occupational exposure”.

The list of occupational diseases is included in the annex to the Regulation of the Council of Ministers on occupational diseases.

Occupational exposure is assessed taking into account the effects of:

• chemical and physical factors – type of factor, concentration or intensity value and average occupational exposure time;
• biological factors – type of factor, determination of contact, latency period and determination of the mechanism of action or route of spread of the factor, without the need to determine the concentration of this factor;
• sensitizing factors (allergens) – type of factor and identification of contact with such a factor during work, if it occurred in the work environment, work tools, raw materials, semi-finished products or finished products, without the need to determine the concentration of this factor;
• carcinogenic factors – chemical substances, their mixtures, factors or technological processes with carcinogenic or mutagenic activity specified in the regulations issued pursuant to Art. 222 § 3 of the Labor Code and the primary location of the tumor and the latency period;
• method of performing work – determining the degree of physical effort and timing of activities that may cause excessive strain on relevant organs or systems of the human body.

An occupational disease may be diagnosed in an employee or former employee during the period of his or her employment in occupational exposure or after termination of work in such exposure, provided that documented symptoms of the disease occur within the period specified in the list of occupational diseases.

The list of occupational diseases, in addition to the diseases recognized as occupational, also includes periods in which the occurrence of documented disease symptoms allows for the diagnosis of an occupational disease despite earlier termination of work in occupational exposure (e.g. acute poisoning – 3 days, silicosis – cannot be determined, bronchial asthma – 1 year, fatigue fracture – 1 year).

In art. 235 § 1 of the Labor Code states that the employer is obliged to immediately report any case of suspected occupational disease to the competent state sanitary inspector and the competent district labor inspector.

In addition, the employer should:

• investigate the causes of an occupational disease, its nature and the extent of the risk of this disease, acting in consultation with the relevant district sanitary inspector,
• remove factors causing occupational diseases and apply appropriate preventive measures,
• follow medical recommendations, i.e. transfer the employee to another workplace where there are no threats that could worsen his or her health,
• pay a compensatory allowance equal to the amount of any remuneration lost in connection with transfer to another job position, for a period not exceeding 6 months,
• keep a register of occupational diseases and suspicions of such diseases.

An employee is entitled to a compensatory allowance if his remuneration is reduced as a result of being transferred to another job. The compensatory allowance is due for a period not exceeding 6 months. It is the employer’s responsibility to transfer an employee who has symptoms indicating an occupational disease to another job that does not expose him to the factor that caused these symptoms. The employer transfers the employee to another job based on a medical certificate, on the date and for the period specified in this certificate.

The employer’s obligations regarding the prevention of occupational diseases and other work-related diseases are specified in Art. 227 of the Labor Code. These are:

• maintaining the constant efficiency of devices that limit or eliminate factors in the work environment that are harmful to health, as well as devices used to measure these factors,
• carrying out, at its own expense, tests and measurements of factors harmful to health, recording and storing the results of these tests and measurements and making them available to employees.

Wojciech Napora (Zielona Linia 19524, Employment Services Information Center)

Source:https://kadry.infor.pl/bhp/choroby-zdrowie/6422439,choroba-zdrowie-co-kryje-sie-pod-tym-pojeciem-co-robic-gdy-pracown.html

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