And the general labor inspector’s statement on the office’s activity in the Committee of Senior Labour Inspectors (SLIC) was one of the topics of the Labour Protection Council meetingheld on 25 May 2021 in the form of a video conference.

Presenting the material on this matter, Katarzyna Łażewska-Hrycko, Chief Inspector of Labour, said that the SLIC Committee is a forum for developing close cooperation between the labour inspection offices of the Member States of the European Union and representatives of the European Commission. For the first time, the National Labour Inspectorate was invited to attend its meetings in 1995 as an observer. Since our country’s accession to the European Union, PIP has been committed to the tasks of SLIC membership and has been actively involved in initiatives to acquire good labour inspection practices and solutions proven in other Member States. Thanks to the possibility of reviewing draft decisions and studies prepared by SLIC for the European Commission, the National Labour Inspectorate has a real impact on shaping a European strategy in the field of health and safety at work.

More broadly, pip’s activities in the Committee of Senior Labour Inspectors were discussed by Michał Wyszkowski, deputy district labour inspector in Poznań, acting as an alternate member of SLIC on behalf of the State Labour Inspectorate and representing the office during the plenary meetings of the committee in place of the Chief Inspector of Labor.

Here are the more important thesis of his speech:

– Each SLIC plenary session, organized twice a year, is followed by a so-called thematic day. It is prepared by the Presidency of the Council of the EU during the six months and is devoted to a different issue in the field of occupational safety and health. On the occasion of the first Polish Presidency of the Council of the EU in 2011, the National Labour Inspectorate organised a day that resulted in the development of a „Code of Good Practice”, i.e. a set of examples of best practices in the control and non-audit work inspections of EU Member States. The Codex was issued in Polish and English;

– PIP experts work intensively in several SLIC working groups, m.in. on law enforcement, strategy, machinery directive, information exchange system, evaluation of the labour inspection system. As part of this expert activity, representatives of the Polish labour inspectorate acquire valuable knowledge and good practices from the EU Member States, and due to the wide range of competences and interests of PIP, they support the work of the Committee of Senior Labour Inspectors in many areas;

– Of particular note is the initiative implemented by the SLIC Committee since 2009 called the Labour Inspector Exchange Programme, which is co-financed by the European Commission. As part of this optional initiative, Polish labour inspectors have repeatedly participated in audit activities as part of study visits to the structures of foreign labour inspection offices. There were also visits by representatives of the Member States to the territory of the regional labor inspectorates in Poland;

– Evaluations of individual national labour inspections take place every 10 years under the mutual auditing system. The international evaluation teams set up on several occasions included PIP experts (assessment of Slovakia, Spain, Finland, Ireland) and led the work of such a team (Portuguese assessment). Pip is currently a member of the inspection systems preparation teams in France and the Czech Republic. In 2013, the international team of SLIC experts carried out an evaluation of the labour inspection system in Poland, which resulted in a high assessment of the office’s activities. Effective and well-prepared control programmes were praised and effective practical and administrative solutions were highlighted in support of PIP field activities.

„The activity and involvement of the National Labour Inspectorate in the initiatives of the Committee of Senior Labour Inspectors is not only an opportunity to raise awareness, learn about the good practices of foreign partners, update information on the current situation in the EU in the field of health and safety at work. It is also an excellent opportunity to promote more than 100 years of polish labour inspection on the international stage, to share the solutions developed, the substantive knowledge and methodology of operation, as well as to present the results achieved by PIP”, emphasized Michał Wyszkowski in his summary.

Deputy Chief Inspector of Labor Jarosław Leśniewski and Dariusz Mińkowski also attended the meeting of the Labor Protection Council.

Source: https://www.pip.gov.pl/pl/wiadomosci/125341,o-dzialalnosci-pip-na-forum-europejskim.html

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