Who must have occupational safety and fire protection

Who must have occupational safety and fire protection

Duties in occupational safety and in fire protection do not depend on the size of the company. They start with the first employee and apply equally to a sole trader with one part-timer and to a manufacturing plant. Below is an overview of who must have what in place and where the limits are.

From the first employee and the first day

The law makes no distinction between an employment relationship, a work agreement and a student's summer job. The employee must be informed about the regulations on ensuring safety and health at work when starting work and before being assigned to a workplace (Section 7(1) of Act No. 124/2006 Coll.). Fire protection training for a newly hired employee also takes place before work begins (Section 22 of Decree No. 121/2002 Coll.).

The employer must moreover take care of the safety and health of all persons who are present at its workplaces with its knowledge (Section 6(7) of Act No. 124/2006 Coll.). This is therefore not only about your own employees, but also about contractors, drivers and visitors.

Occupational safety: the safety service

The employer must provide a safety service for its employees (Section 21(3) of Act No. 124/2006 Coll.). There are two usual routes. Either it designates a sufficient number of its own qualified employees in an employment relationship and equips them with the necessary work equipment, or it contracts the service externally (Section 21(4)). Externally it may only be provided by a company or a sole trader holding an authorisation issued by the National Labour Inspectorate (Section 22(8)).

The third route is narrow. The tasks of a safety technician may be performed in person by the employer or the statutory body, but only if that person is professionally qualified and at the same time employs fewer than five employees in the sectors listed in Annex 1 to the Act, or fewer than 19 employees in other sectors (Section 21(6)). The conditions of that professional qualification are in Section 21(7).

One thing applies regardless of the route chosen. Setting up a safety service or contracting it externally does not affect the employer's duties or its liability for ensuring the safety and health of employees at work (Section 22(7)). The technician prepares the documentation, carries out the inspection and points out the risk. The decision and the liability stay with the company.

Fire protection: the fire protection technician

A legal person and a self-employed person ensures, through a fire protection technician, the performance of preventive fire inspections, the identification of places with an increased risk of fire and the number of members of fire patrols, fire protection training and the professional preparation of fire patrols, the drawing up and maintenance of fire protection documentation, the setting of fire safety requirements for the use of a building and for a change in its use, and the organisation of fire drills (Section 9(2) of Act No. 314/2001 Coll.).

Some of the tasks belong to a fire protection specialist, in particular the fire safety design of a building (Section 9(3)). That is a different professional qualification from the technician, so for a new building or a change of use a fire protection technician alone is not enough.

Leased premises do not remove the duties, they only shift them

Occupational safety is always the employer's own matter. Neither the landlord nor the building manager is responsible for how work is done at the tenant's workplace.

With fire protection the starting point is the opposite. The owner or manager of a property who leases it out is obliged to ensure fire protection tasks, unless agreed otherwise with the tenant in the lease agreement (Section 6(2) of Act No. 314/2001 Coll.). In practice this is almost always shifted to the tenant by contract, so read what the lease says about fire protection before signing. Training your own employees is the employer's job either way.

What happens if a company does not have it

The labour inspectorate may impose a fine of up to EUR 100,000 on an employer. Where the breach resulted in a workplace injury causing grievous bodily harm, the fine is at least EUR 20,000, and at least EUR 33,000 for a fatal workplace injury (Section 19(1) of Act No. 125/2006 Coll.).

In fire protection, the regional or district directorate of the Fire and Rescue Corps may impose a fine of up to EUR 8,298, for example for failing to carry out regular preventive fire inspections, and up to EUR 16,596 for more serious breaches (Section 59 of Act No. 314/2001 Coll.).

How you can solve this

We provide the safety service and the tasks of a fire protection technician externally, for companies from one employee up to manufacturing operations. Have a look at occupational safety and fire protection, or get in touch.