Legal regulations regarding the assessment of occupational risk in remote work have been included in the Act of June 26, 1974 – Labor Code, hereinafter referred to as kp.

It is worth emphasizing at this point that these are relatively new regulations, as they entered into force on April 7, 2023, so there are no detailed instructions in this regard, resulting from, for example, judicial decisions. However, you can refer to some well-grounded opinions of the National Labor Inspectorate, which monitors various aspects of work performance, with particular emphasis on the provisions and principles of occupational health and safety.

The basic obligations of the employer in the area of ​​occupational health and safety include assessing the occupational risk, which also applies to the case when the work is to be organized remotely.

The relevant provisions in this subject matter are the provisions contained in Art. 67(31) § 5 and 6 of the Labor Code, which cover the basic requirements regarding the employer’s obligations in terms of conducting an occupational risk assessment at a remote work position. The above regulations indicate, among others, what aspects should be paid special attention to when fulfilling the aforementioned obligation.

When assessing the occupational risk of an employee performing remote work, the impact of this work on the eyesight, musculoskeletal system and psychosocial conditions of this work is taken into account in particular.

While the issue of taking into account the impact of remote work on vision or the musculoskeletal system should not raise any major doubts, the issue of psychosocial conditions of this form of employment may sometimes be problematic, if only because of aspects that have not been analyzed so far, determining specific behaviors of employees subjected to isolation. In this subject matter, the psychosocial realities of remote work should be taken into account, e.g. the alienation of an employee in a team resulting from the lack of contact with other co-workers or a significant reduction in interaction between employees. Limitation or lack of contact with superiors is also of great importance.

A significant facilitation in carrying out risk assessment for remote work is the possibility of meeting this obligation for specific groups of such work positions.

According to Art. 67(31) § 5 of the Labor Code, the employer may prepare a universal occupational risk assessment for individual groups of remote work positions. In many cases of remote work, there are the same or very similar tasks to be performed and risks.

In such circumstances, the employer may identify a group of remote work stations where the same tasks are to be performed under the same conditions and where the same risks occur, based on the Polish Standard (PN 18002).

There is then no need to conduct a separate occupational risk assessment due to the averaging in relation to work conditions and existing hazards.

The occupational risk assessment performed by the employer at the remote work position should be properly documented in the form of an occupational risk assessment sheet. It needs to be emphasized that there is no one universal formula, but you can use the guidelines provided by the National Labor Inspectorate (PIP) and the Central Institute for Labor Protection – National Research Institute (CIOP-PIB). The methodology of documenting occupational risk assessment is described in detail on the websites of the above-mentioned entities. To document the occupational risk assessment at a remote work position, it will be sufficient, in most cases, to use a simplified occupational risk assessment card template, available e.g. on the CIOP-PIB website.

The occupational risk assessment sheet for a remote work position should additionally contain information on the place of performing this work. Therefore, the employee’s place of residence (temporary or permanent residence address) should be indicated, due to the fact that it is there, in most cases, that remote work will be provided.

The occupational risk assessment card may also be supplemented with attachments containing, for example, checklists (filled in by the employee) and photographic documentation of the place of remote work.

In addition to the registration information concerning both the workplace and the employee, the occupational risk assessment card should include the name of the workplace for which the occupational risk assessment is made and the personal data of the person who conducted the assessment.

Other information to be included in this document is:

• the types of risk factors and the degree of damage (severity of consequences) for each type of risk factor;
• occupational risk mitigation measures;
• the likelihood of a particular hazard occurring;
• occupational risk for a given hazard – determined on the basis of the assessment of the probability of occurrence associated with the assessment of the severity of the consequences;
• comments and proposed actions to reduce the risk.

The Chief Labor Inspectorate (GIP) of the PIP also commented on the scope of the employer’s obligations regarding the assessment and documentation of occupational risk related to remote work.

The obligation to assess and document work-related risks rests with each employer, including in relation to remote work. The decision whether, in the proceedings concerning the occupational risk analysis, the employer will exercise the right to carry out health and safety inspections at the place of remote work, or prepare other tools for assessing the occupational risk related to remote work, including checklists, photographic or video documentation, etc., rests solely with the employer. within the competence of the employer (based on the letter from GIP PIP of February 9, 2023).

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