Responsibilities and obligations
The Occupational Safety and Health Act (738/2002) lays down the general principles of occupational safety and health. It defines the obligations of the employer and employees and the basics of occupational safety and health cooperation. The Act deals with potential risk, hazard and workload factors at workplaces and measures to control them. According to the Act, the employer is obligated to provide sufficient orientation to its employees to their work, duties and working conditions and to ensure that the employee has understood the instructions.
Osion alasivut
Common workplace, workplace of mutual hazards and temporary agency work
Many companies both order and provide services as subcontracting and temporary agency work. Networking and cooperation within and between sectors is becoming more common. Industrial companies and public sector organisations order services from the private service sector. Typical subcontracting services include cleaning and property services, security services, financial administration services and information management services.
Työturvallisuuslaki määrittää työpaikalla toimivien velvoitteet toimialasta riippumatta. Kun ostetaan palveluita eli alihankintatyötä, teetetään vuokratyötä tai toimitaan rinnakkain yhteisten vaarojen puitteissa, työsuojeluvastuuasiat on tärkeä selvittää osapuolten kesken. Työantajat ja itsenäiset työnsuorittajat ovat velvollisia toimimaan yhteistyössä turvallisuuden toteuttamiseksi.
Palveluiden tilaaja- tai toimittajayritysten toimiessa kansainvälisessä ympäristössä, on tiedostettava, että kussakin maassa noudatetaan sen maan lainsäädäntöä, jossa kyseinen yritys toimii.
Employees’ obligations and rights
When it comes to the development of occupational safety and health at the workplace, it is important that employees are actively involved in it. The right attitude towards safety at work is a fundamental element of professional competence. Employees have a duty to follow the orders and instructions given by the employer and to take care of their own and other employees’ safety at work.
The key laws on working life, as well as the regulations supplementing them, must be kept visible to employees in all workplaces. In addition to occupational safety legislation, agreements between the labour market partners, workplace-specific regulations and the employer’s instructions on occupational safety must be complied with.
The starting point of safe and healthy working conditions is the self-initiated activities of workplaces. The employer and the supervisors acting as the employer’s representatives are legally principally responsible for occupational safety.
Each of us, regardless of our position and tasks, has a duty as an employee to take care of our own and others’ safety.
Occupational safety and health personnel – occupational safety managers, occupational safety and health representatives, deputy representatives, ombudsmen and committee members – participate as experts in the handling of occupational safety and health issues at their workplace.(you will be directed to another service)
Regional State Administrative Agencies’ Occupational Safety and Health Divisions act as the occupational safety and health authority, whose task is to monitor compliance with occupational safety and health provisions and regulations regionally.(opens in a new window, you will be directed to another service)