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Labour Protection Council debated about NLI’s report
Elimination of immediate hazards to life and health of 53.5
thousand employees, elimination of irregularities related to
legality of employment of 160 thousand individuals performing work,
enforcement of the payment of 104 million zlotys due to 150 thousand
wronged employees, enforcement of granting annual leaves to almost
63 thousand employees – these were just some results of the National
Labour Inspectorate’s activity. Tadeusz Jan Zając, Chief Labour
Inspector spoke about them while presenting the NLI’s annual report
on its activity in 2008 to the Labour Protection Council during its
session held in the Parliament on 19 May 2009.
As he informed all, in the
reporting year labour inspectors conducted 80.5 thousand inspection
visits at about 60 thousand employers. 3.8 million persons were
employed in the inspected companies. Following identification of
breaches of labour law, 364 thousand decisions were issued. Most of
them, as in previous years, referred to improper preparation for
work (among others lack of training, medical check-ups,
qualification competence) and securing of workstations, machines and
technical devices inadequately to requirements. Owing to those legal
measures, it was possible to obtain significant improvement in
working conditions in many companies from various sectors.
11.3 thousand of issued decisions included orders to immediately
stop work due to identified direct hazard to life or health of
workers. 13 thousand workers engaged – contrary to binding
provisions – in forbidden, harmful or hazardous work, were directed
by labour inspectors to other tasks. Employers who committed
breaches were punished by labour inspectors with fines in the total
amount of over 24 million zlotys, which was by 5.5 million zlotys
more than in the previous year. 5 thousand motions asking for
punishing the offenders were lodged with municipal courts, and
prosecutor’s offices received 13% more notifications about the
suspicion of a crime than in 2007.
Labour inspectors applied disciplining measures in the form of
instructions, warnings or rebuke much more often than in previous
years. Last year they were addressed to over 7 thousand employers,
which was twice as many as in 2007. In most cases they were targeted
at employers who were inspected for the first time and in whose
companies the character of identified irregularities and undertaken
steps indicated that instructions will suffice to eliminate legal
breaches.
The head of National Labour Inspectorate Tadeusz Jan Zając pointed
out a rising tendency in the number of work accidents which
continued in the reporting year. One of the main causes of that fact,
mentioned by him, has been low safety culture in our country. In the
Chief Labour Inspector’s opinion, the foundations for shaping proper
safety culture are: adequate OSH training, medical examinations and
occupational risk assessment. Too many employers still do not
understand that major truth.
– I would like to see employers contact our inspectorate more often
so as to get advice about problems related to labour law observance
– said Tadeusz Jan Zając – without being afraid that it would start
an avalanche of inspection visits. We will prefer – at all levels of
activity – to offer advice, instructions and explanations.
The Chief Labour Inspector thanked partners and allies of the
inspectorate for effective collaboration in the reporting year in
the area of securing law observance in labour relations. He also
thanked NLI’s employees, especially labour inspectors, for hard work
and involvement in fulfilling their statutory tasks.
During the discussion, Labour Protection Council’s members noted the
richness of material included in the report, which confirms the huge
amount of work of NLI’s inspectors in the reporting year and they
congratulated our inspectorate on the submitted report. They also
made remarks, reservations and suggestions on its contents.
The session was chaired by MP Izabela Katarzyna Mrzygłocka and
attended by Deputy Chief Labour Inspectors: dr Marian Liwo and Anna
Tomczyk.
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