The Danish Ministry of Employment’s Bill to amend the Danish Working Environment Act has now been passed by the Danish Parliament and will come into force on 1 October 2010.
The Bill has three main focus areas: health and safety cooperation, annual discussions in the health and safety committee and health and safety at work training. In general, the basics of the Danish Working Environment Act are unchanged – the responsibility for ensuring that internal health and safety cooperation is working is still the employer’s.
Here is a summary of the amendments:
Health and safety cooperation
With effect from 1 October 2010, enterprises with 10 – 34 employees will be required to organise their health and safety efforts in a health and safety organisation composed of one or more supervisors and one or more health and safety representatives and chaired by the employer or its representative.
For enterprises with 35 employees or more, the health and safety work must be organised at two levels in the same way as before. At the first level, one or more health and safety groups will handle the day-to-day tasks. At the second level, one or more health and safety committees chaired by the employer or its representative will handle the overall issues. The requirement for quarterly meetings in the health and safety committee(s) has been repealed, as has the requirement for a day-to-day health and safety supervisor and a main health and safety board in certain situations.
How many members the health and safety organisation should have will be decided by the employer in consultation with the employees and supervisors. The decision must be based on various factors, including the need for proximity between employees and representatives.
Annual discussions
With the amendment, employers will be required to discuss health and safety with their employees each year. At the meetings, the parties will organise next year's health and safety cooperation. This requirement also applies to enterprises with less than 10 employees, but, in the same way as before, they will not be required to formalise the arrangements.
The employer must be able to provide documentation to the Danish Working Environment Authority to show that the enterprise is holding the statutory meetings, including the annual discussions. If the documentation is not in place, the employer will risk a fine.
Health and safety training
With the amendment, a new training programme is introduced for new members of the health and safety organisation. The members must complete a mandatory training programme of 3 days (formerly 5 days). The employer must then provide members with supplementary training on a regular basis. The employer is required to provide 2 days of training within the first year and, after that, 1½ days of supplementary training each year.
-- oo0oo --
Additional features of the amendment:
- Regulations may be issued to allow doctors access to enterprises’ workplace assessment
- The Danish Working Environment Authority is given authority to order employers to destroy technical aids etc. posing a serious risk
- The Danish Working Environment Authority may be given access to employer data in the income register and from the tax authorities’ registration system
- The group of persons covered by the special secrecy provision is expanded
- Decisions made by the Danish Working Environment Authority based on an EU regulation may be appealed to the Danish Council of Appeal on Health and Safety at Work
- The penalties that may be imposed on employers in personally owned firms are aligned with those that may be imposed on other employers