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/ Taxes and Law in Poland

Obligations of the employer during summer months

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Date07 Aug 2014
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The scope of obligations of the employer as regards occupational health and safety is subject to a ‘seasonal’ increase during the Winter and the Summer months. Climatic conditions connected with those two seasons obligate the employer to undertake additional activities, protecting employees from the negative impact of Winter or Summer temperatures. In the Summer period those activities generally constitute in protection from heat. All employers are obligated to undertake them, irrespective of the number of employees and the type of business activity conducted.

employers in the Summer season Entitled parties
Providing prophylactic drinks Employees working in:

  • conditions of hot microclimate, characterised by the Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT) index of over 25 degrees Celsius,
  • in open space, in a temperature of over 25 degrees Celsius,
  • at workstations where the temperature caused by weather conditions is over 28 degrees Celsius.
ATTENTION: The employer may not limit the amount of drinks or release himself from the obligation to provide them by paying out an equivalent amount of money.
Relegating employees from work (or directing them to different, appropriate work) due to strenuous climatic conditions Adolescents working on premises:

  • where the air temperature exceeds 30 degrees Celsius and the level of humidity exceeds 65%,
  • in a working environment characterised by big, sudden temperature fluctuations, with differences of at least 15 degrees Celsius, if there is no possibility to guarantee such an employee a minimum 15-minute adaptation time in a room with intermediate temperature (regulation of the Council of Ministers on the list of jobs forbidden for adolescents and the conditions of employing them for some of those jobs, Journal of Laws of 2004, No. 200, Item 2047, as amended),

A female employee who is pregnant and breast feeding – in hot microclimate, in which the PMV index that qualifies the microclimate is higher than 1.5 (regulation of the Council of Ministers on the list of jobs especially strenuous or detrimental to women health, Journal of Laws of 1996, No. 114, Item 545, as amended).

Ensuring, for hygiene purposes, at least 90 litres of water per day for each employee Employees performing work that make he/she dirty, in open space, in high temperature, on workstations which do not have access to running water (§ 13 of the regulation on general provisions on occupational health and safety).

Source: Gazeta Podatkowa of 18 June, 2014

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