With the entry into force of the new Rulebook on the Method and Procedure of Risk Assessment at the Workplace and in the Work Environment (hereinafter: the Rulebook), the regulatory framework has been amended providing employees with additional protection in the work environment. In addition to terminological changes, significant substantive changes have been introduced, primarily concerning the measures established to eliminate, prevent, or reduce risks at the workplace and in the work environment.
The most important information for employers is that all employers are required to align their risk assessment act with the provisions of this Rulebook by 28th of April 2025.
According to the Law on Occupational Safety and Health, the risk assessment act is an act that contains description of the work process with an assessment of the risks of injury and/or health impairment while performing all tasks in the work environment and outlines measures to eliminate or reduce risks in order to improve safety and health at work.
The Rulebook also applies to employees, as well as to a person who, on any basis, performs work or is trained to work for an employer, as well as a person engaged in professional internship or practical teaching or learning through work in the dual education system.
The Rulebook provides a more detailed definition of hazards and harmful factors in the work environment, offering employers clearer guidelines to follow during risk assessments compared to the previous regulations.
When recognizing and determining dangers and harmfulness at the workplace and in the working environment, when assessing the current state of safety, employers are now required to conduct inspections and testing of electrical and lightning installations, analyze biological hazards, and review information and data on sources of chemical, physical, and biological hazards in the workplace and work environment (e.g., safety data sheets, equipment usage manuals, etc.), review work permits, as well as other prescribed documentation and data available to the employer (e.g., Emergency Protection Plan, Fire Protection Plan, etc.).
In description of the technological and work process, employers must include data on sources of harm (chemical, physical, and biological), and when collecting data and recording work organization, it is necessary to take into account working in shifts and working at night.
This regulation also introduces a new category of hazard in the workplace that employers must consider during risk assessment – hazards arising from the physical and chemical properties of chemical substances, such as explosiveness, flammability, self-reactivity, instability, and others.
The innovations introduced by the Rulebook are significantly reflected in the prescription of risk elimination measures: technical (maintaining work equipment in proper condition and conducting inspections and checks of work equipment, as well as testing electrical and lightning installations, ensuring effective ventilation, providing collective protective measures (guarding or isolating work equipment using safety systems on machine and/or machine parts and physical barriers (fall protection nets, fences, acoustic, thermal, or electrical barriers, etc.), organizational (establishing appropriate work procedures and controlling them, reducing exposure time, employee rotation, and providing safety and/or health signs in the workplace), hygienic and other measures (informing, consulting, cooperation, etc.), which were not explicitly provided for in the previous regulation.
The Rulebook expands the number of cases in which it is necessary to amend and supplement the risk assessment act, and employers are required to amend and supplement the risk assessment act when the results of monitoring the health status of employees exposed to harmful factors indicate that it is necessary, as well as based on the proposal of a healthcare institution performing occupational medicine activities, following preliminary, periodic, or targeted medical examinations of employees, and when it is determined that employees are exposed to hazards and harmful factors not identified in the risk assessment act. It is important to note that employers are no longer obligated to completely amend and supplement the risk assessment act after every collective work injury with mortal consequences that occurs in the workplace and work environment of the employer.
The Rulebook introduces the obligation for an employer designated as the competent person for conducting risk assessments to have passed the appropriate professional exam, if they can perform occupational safety and health tasks themselves in accordance with the Law on Occupational Safety and Health.
Until the adoption of a risk assessment act aligned with the provisions of the Rulebook, safety and health measures at work aimed at preventing work-related injuries, occupational diseases, and work-related illnesses shall be implemented in accordance with the provisions of the general act or employment contract regulating the rights, obligations, and responsibilities in the field of occupational safety and health at the employer.