A healthy and safe working climate leads to healthy and motivated employees. Employees who work in healthy and safe conditions are less likely to suffer from stress, become ill or unfit for work, they are better motivated and on the whole they perform better. Employers avoid unnecessary high sickness- and worker replacement costs as well as insurance premiums. Moreover, a positive and safe working climate is good for the image of your business or organisation.
Healthy and safe working conditions: rights and obligations for employers and employees
Set out in the Working Conditions Act (Arbeidsomstandighedenwet), the Working Conditions Decree (Arbobesluit) and the Working Conditions Regulations (Arboregeling) are the rights and obligations for employers and employees in the area of health and safety at work.
Employers have the primary responsibility for healthy and safe conditions
Employers have the primary responsibility for providing a situation whereby their employees can work under healthy and safe conditions. Employees also have responsibilities. They are obliged, for example, to follow the relevant safety conditions that apply within the workplace.
In order to promote healthy and safe working conditions, it is important that employers ensure that their employees are kept well-informed about the rights and obligations that apply to the employees. Moreover, it is important that employers implement a structural, adequate and up-to-date working conditions policy. It is recommended that you formulate your working conditions policy in collaboration with the works council or together with employee representation.
The Working Conditions legislation applies everywhere ‘work under authority’ is carried out. This applies, for example, to agency workers and (partly) to the self-employed and to voluntary workers.