New businesses failing to reach safety standards

During 2011, Slovakia’s Labour Inspectorate carried out checks on working conditions and occupational safety and health across a number of new organisations, and detected widespread deficiencies in the field. During the checks in the wholesale and retail sectors, construction industry and the hotel and catering sector, inspectors provided consultancy, insisted employers eliminate problems that were discovered and, in some cases, imposed financial penalties.

Characteristics of checks

In 2011, the State Labour Inspectorate (NIP) carried out checks on working conditions and occupational safety levels in selected groups of new organisations across Slovakia. The aim of the checks was to determine the level of occupational safety and health care, to look at working conditions, and to investigate how companies complied with the generally binding legal regulations and other safety requirements.

Checks were carried out in organisations established after 2005 with a minimum of five employees. The checks were made in the wholesale and retail, construction, and hotel, restaurant and catering (HORECA) sectors.

Inspectors checked 154 organisations, visiting a similar number of businesses in each of the regional administrative units of Slovakia. In 141 of them they identified a total of 1,103 problems in working conditions and occupational safety and health (OSH). About 43% of those deficiencies were found in the commerce sector and 40% in HORECA. The fewest number of weaknesses was identified in western regions, in the counties of Bratislava and Trnava.

Common problems

The most common deficiencies were identified in the areas outlined below.

Management of OSH and working conditions

There were 325 deficiencies detected, which mainly concerned:

• lack of identification, evaluation and elimination of occupational risks;

• lack of professional occupational health and safety staff;

• employee representatives for OSH not being appointed;

• provision of information and training of employees not being implemented;

• company rules for OSH not being clearly defined.

Provision of protective equipment

In total, 157 deficiencies were detected in relation to protective equipment mainly in the following areas:

• personal protective equipment not being provided to the employees;

• no definitive list of protective equipment provided by employers.

Healthcare of employees

In relation to healthcare, 22 deficiencies were detected in the following areas:

• employees being assigned to jobs without assessment of their medical capability;

• regular reassessment of their capability not being done within deadlines.

Working environment

Up to 15 deficiencies were detected regarding the working environment, the majority of them relating to chemical substances and exposure to noise, and concerned mainly:

• measures to combat the exceeding of permitted exposure limits not being observed;

• occupational risks not being assessed and related operational rules not being made clear.

Operating facilities

In this area there were 218 deficiencies concerning mainly:

• missing safety signs;

• protection of people and material against falls not being ensured;

• local operational rules in storehouses not being clearly defined.

Technical equipment

There were 199 deficiencies identified related to lifting, pressure, electrical and gas equipment, mainly in the following areas:

• prescribed checks, tests and revisions of the state of the technical equipment not being performed at defined intervals;

• deficiencies discovered during checks, tests and revisions not being dealt with;

• electrical cables not being protected against mechanical damage.

Decisions and sanctions

The inspected organisations were ordered to adopt measures to put right the areas where rules had been breached, to correct deficiencies before deadlines and afterwards to submit to the labour inspectors written information about how problems had been resolved. The labour inspectors also imposed financial penalties on 31 organisations totalling €12,850.

Assessment of findings

The results of the checks showed that the state of OSH in many newly established organisations was not up to the required level. Inspectors found many new companies were not capable of applying the relevant OSH legislation when they began trading because they lacked professional OSH expertise, missed guidance rules, and lacked systematic managerial control.

Checks in some companies showed that, before the labour inspectorate visited, no attention had been paid to occupational OSH issues. In most of the checked organisations, the relevant records and documentation needed for the systematic care of OSH, mainly to do with the safety of technical equipment, had not been maintained.

Teodor Hatina, Institute for Labour and Family Research