In March, an amendment, which obliged all employers to present a risk assessment analysis to the Labor Inspectorate, entered into force. Nearly a third of employers did not present their analyses as of the due date in September.
Labor Inspectorate acting director Meeli Miidla-Vanatalu said that there were some employers who were still not aware they had to provide an analysis. Some employers have no intentions to do it, because they say the job comes with no risks, and there are some employers, who say they simply have not finished the assessment yet.
“Every workplace has certain risks, which affect the person’s health and wellbeing. The employer is legally obligated to assess these risks in order to implement measures to avoid their workers falling ill as a result of their work or getting into a work accident,” Miidla-Vanatalu said.
All organizations from large corporations to NGOs and apartment associations with at least one contractual employee must present the assessments. Conducting a risk analysis is critical to the sustainability of the company, but also productivity and the health of the staff.
Miidla-Vanatalu said the state kept the assessment for 75 years.
“If something happens to an employee or if the company stops operating, the risk analysis will remain available and if the person’s health deteriorates in time and a doctor thinks it has something to do with their work, then there is an analysis, which states how the workplace’s environment could have affected health. This gives an option to treat the person with more knowledge,” the labor expert said.
Labor Inspectorate director-general Maret Maripuu said creating a good workplace environment started from assessing risks.
“Avoiding a workplace accident or an employee falling ill keeps workers healthy, the work process uninterrupted and therefore, it also protects the company’s financial sustainability. The virus period has taught us that if a company does not care for their employees’ health and does not assess risks, the situation could end with restrictions, closing or even bankruptcy,” Maripuu said. (ERR/Business World Magazine)
