Safety coordinator on site: when you need one

On construction projects three roles are most often confused: the contractor's safety technician, the design coordinator and the safety coordinator. The rules sit in one short piece of legislation, Government Regulation of the Slovak Republic No. 396/2006 Coll. on minimum safety and health requirements for construction sites.

The threshold is the number of contractors, not the size of the project

The client appoints a design coordinator and a safety coordinator for every construction site on which more than one employer or more than one self-employed person will carry out work (Section 3(1) of Government Regulation No. 396/2006 Coll.). There is no condition about budget, area or duration. It is enough that two firms work on the site.

The client is the natural or legal person on whose initiative the construction is carried out (Section 2(2)). Even a family house where the bricklayer and the electrician are two separate firms meets this condition.

The safety plan is drawn up before the site is set up

The client arranges for a health and safety plan to be drawn up before the construction site is set up (Section 3(2)). The plan is prepared by the design coordinator and lays down the rules for carrying out work on the site, including special measures for work involving particular danger (Section 5(2)).

The list of work involving particular danger is in Annex 2 to the regulation. It includes, for example, work where employees are exposed to the danger of falling from a height or of burial.

Notification to the labour inspectorate

Before work starts, the client submits to the competent labour inspectorate a notification under Annex 1 if the planned duration of work on the site will exceed 30 working days and more than 20 individuals will work there at the same time, or if the scope of planned work exceeds 500 person-days (Section 3(3)).

The same notification must be displayed visibly on the site before work starts and updated when anything changes (Section 3(4)). This is one of the first things an inspector looks for on site.

Who may be a safety coordinator

A safety coordinator may be a natural person authorised to act as site manager, a natural person authorised to act as construction supervisor, or a safety technician (Section 6(1)).

There is one hard restriction. A natural person authorised to act as site manager may not be the safety coordinator on a site where they act as site manager. They cannot coordinate their own project.

Appointing a coordinator does not transfer liability

If the client appoints one or more coordinators to perform the tasks under Sections 5 and 6, this does not relieve the client of liability (Section 3(5)). It is the same logic as with the occupational safety service. The specialist does the work, the liability stays with the party on whose initiative the construction is carried out.

What to check before work starts

Whether a design coordinator and a safety coordinator have been appointed, whether a safety plan exists before the site is set up, whether the notification was sent and displayed where the project exceeds the thresholds above, and whether the safety coordinator is not at the same time the site manager of the same project.

If you want this sorted

We provide safety coordination on construction sites and prepare safety plans for clients and for main contractors. Have a look at safety coordination on construction sites or get in touch.