Matters to be Addressed

Matters within the scope of occupational safety cooperation

Occupational safety cooperation deals with matters and measures concerning the safety, health and working capacity of employees and the monitoring of their effects and implementation.

The issues to be handled in cooperation between the employer and employees include:

• Matters immediately affecting the safety and health of an employee, and any changes in those matters;
• The principles and manner of investigating risks and hazards at the workplace, as well as such factors generally affecting the safety and health of employees that have come up in connection with the investigation or a workplace survey carried out by an occupational health care organisation;
• Development objectives and programmes relating to workplace health promotion or otherwise affecting the safety and health of employees (16.12.2011/1327);
• Matters affecting the safety, health and work ability of employees and relating to the organisation of work or workload, or to any essential changes in the organisation or workload;
• Need and arrangements for training, guidance and induction to be given to employees pursuant to Acts enforced by the occupational safety and health authorities;
• Statistics and other follow-up information relating to the work, working environment and the state of the work community and describing safety and health at work; and
• Follow-up of the implementation and effects of the above matters.

The above matters must be dealt with in due time considering the objectives of the cooperation, taking account of the timetable for their preparation and implementation. Issues related to the implementation of occupational health care and the objectives of the occupational safety and health action programme must also be dealt with in the cooperation.

Handling of occupational health and safety cooperation issues

Immediate cooperation

Issues concerning individual employees or employee groups are handled between the employee in question and their supervisor. The occupational safety representative may take part in the proceedings:

• if the employee asks them to take part
• if the employer and the supervisor in question ask them to take part
• on their own initiative, provided that the employee approves the presence of the occupational safety representative and the representative rightly considers their presence to be necessary.

Handling of the matter in the occupational safety committee

Occupational health and safety cooperation issues concerning a broad category of employees or the workplace in general are handled in the occupational safety committee or in a similar cooperative body.

Members of the occupational safety committee have the right to make proposals to the occupational safety committee about the issues that are being handled.

If the workplace does not have an occupational safety committee, matters that should be handled by the committee are handled with the employer and the occupational safety representative. If the workplace does not have an occupational safety representative, the matters are handled together with the employees.