Not All Work Equipment Require Safety Instructions

The Chamber contacted the Ministry of Social Affairs in relation to the requirement imposed on employers to prepare a safety instruction for all work equipment used, including for example using a pen and stapler. The Chamber finds that the obligation has been imposed in a too broad sense and the requirements for preparing safety requirements and acquiring safety data sheets should be established in a clearer and less burdensome fashion.

Safety instructions must be prepared for any work equipment that the employee is using

The idea of preparing a safety instruction is to prevent injuries to employees is understandable and very important in the case of certain equipment, especially if the equipment is hazardous and requires special skills. It is also appropriate if the normal use of the work equipment, considering the duration and frequency of use may have hazardous impact on health. However, the need for and relevance of preparing safety instructions is doubtable for absolutely any work equipment and in case of any period and frequency of use.

The obligation to prepare safety instructions for the used work equipment has been set out in a too broad fashion and in practice may cause a situation where it is unclear for entrepreneurs if they should take a reasonable approach or rely on grammatical interpretation and draw up safety instructions for all work equipment in use.

It should be specified, which equipment requires safety instructions

Safety instructions should be mandatory only for the equipment that in their nature, long period of use or frequency of use may have a hazardous impact on the health of employees or the use of which is unclear for a person behaving reasonably, and are not in everyday use or used in households.

For that purpose, the applicable wording should be limited, or as an alternative, a clear instruction should be prepared for employers with clearly established criteria. Furthermore, a situation where the manufacturer or seller has attached a safety instruction to the equipment for the purposes of consumer safety, but the employer is still required to prepare their own instructions, should be avoided.

Safety data sheet for using hazardous chemicals

Additionally, the Chamber sees problems in the requirement for acquiring the safety data sheet. Namely, the wording of the REACH Regulation as well as the implementing act applicable in Estonia allow interpreting the requirement of acquiring the safety data sheet in a way that the safety data sheet would be necessary for the use of any hazardous chemical, irrespective of the frequency or duration of its use.

For example, in a situation where a secretary is washing dishes (coffee cups, glasses etc) from time to time as an additional work task, either by hand or in a dishwasher, using a respective dishwashing liquid or washing pods (both classified as household chemicals and available in retail shops without restrictions), the employer is required to acquire the safety data sheet for the dishwashing liquid and instruct the secretary on how to use the dishwashing liquid. In such situation, it is doubtable if the obligation is proportional as compared to the gained result and actual risks as the employee has contact with the respective chemical rather infrequently and for short periods of time. Furthermore, it is obvious that employees are also using the dishwashing liquid or other basic substances daily at home.

In the Chamber’s opinion, it is not justified that the employer is required to perform additional tasks of instructing and acquiring safety data sheets for substances that are basic and used daily beyond work time.