The latest tragic events involving fatal accidents are a stark reminder that safety in the workplace is a major issue for employers right from an employee’s first day on the job.
By law, employers are obliged to ensure the health and safety of their employees, by implementing preventive measures.
First of all, you need to assess the occupational risks present on the site, then draw up the DUERP (taking into account the obligations according to the size of your company) and finally inform all workers and check that they have understood the information.
Obviously, although necessary and mandatory, all these steps are extremely time-consuming for the company’s HSE department!
👉 This is why solutions exist to relieve HSE managers while increasing process efficiency: compliance with regulations and monitoring, verification of understanding, proof and historicity of actions taken. And all optimized by digitization and artificial intelligence.
Before providing risk information, it’s important to assess the risks involved.
In order to know and understand the regulations applicable to the company, it is necessary to establish a
a regulatory safety diagnosis and an operational safety diagnosis.
To comply with health and safety regulations, companies must draw up their own occupational risk assessment document (DUERP).
The DUERP, a single document for assessing occupational risks, must include
- information on risk assessment and preventive measures taken.
- the role of the various prevention players
- provisions contained in internal regulations, if any.
Obligations differ according to the size of the organization (over or under 50 employees).
For companies with 50 or more employees, on an annual program to prevent occupational hazards and improve working conditions that :
- Sets out a detailed list of measures to be taken over the coming year, including measures to prevent the effects of exposure to occupational risk factors, as well as, for each measure, its implementation conditions, result indicators and estimated cost.
- Identifies company resources that can be mobilized;
- Includes an implementation schedule
For companies with fewer than 50 employees, on the definition of risk prevention and employee protection initiatives. The list of these actions is recorded in the occupational risk assessment document (document unique d’évaluation des risques professionnels) and its updates.
Anticipating change
Since regulations are constantly changing, and your company’s activities can evolve too, you need to make sure you’re always compliant with current regulations. To achieve this, it will be necessary to keep a close watch on regulations in order to avoid non-compliance and possible sanctions.
-> At Novallia, we carry out these regulatory and operational diagnostics and set up a digital system for regulatory monitoring and compliance.
What are the penalties for non-compliance?
When employers fail to comply with regulations, they expose themselves to a wide range of penalties, including criminal sanctions, as well as damage to their image.
Penalties range from imprisonment to fines, some of them very high, and even cessation of activities.
Informing about risks: the first objective of a safety reception.
Safety reception is a mandatory procedure for companies. The aim is to raise awareness of potential health and safety risks, and inform the public about the preventive measures to be taken.
The aim of this approach is to enhance the health and safety of workers and visitors, while improving the company’s quality and productivity.
Welcoming the public in a safe manner also reflects the company’s safety culture. Its main objective is to ensure that employees and external visitors are fully aware of the risks present on the site, as well as the preventive measures in place and the people responsible for implementing them.
By providing adequate information to employees and visitors on health and safety risks, employers guarantee their protection against occupational accidents and diseases, while protecting themselves against possible criminal sanctions.
Who is concerned by the safety welcome?
By law, employers are obliged to ensure the health and safety of their employees by implementing preventive measures for all of the following groups:
👉 The workers he hires;
👉 Workers who change workstations or techniques ;
👉 Temporary employees, with the exception of those called in to carry out urgent work necessitated by safety measures and who are already qualified for such work;
👉 Workers returning to work after being off for at least twenty-one days [At the occupational physician’s request ]
[from Article L4141-2 of the French Labor Code Information and training for workers].
What are the regulations governing safety reception?
Articles L.4141-1 and 2 of the French Labor Code inform us of the mandatory nature of safety induction. It is the employer’s responsibility to inform workers about health risks and preventive measures. This information also covers the products or manufacturing processes used or implemented by the establishment, as well as the measures taken to remedy the risks associated with these products or processes.
There are several articles dealing with safety training: the 2 main ones, L4141-1 and L4141-2, supplemented by articles L4141-3 to L4141-5.
Here are the legal texts from Legifrance :
Articles L4141-3 and L4141-4 set out the terms and conditions of safety training courses:
L4141-3: The scope of the obligation to provide safety information and training varies according to the size of the establishment, the nature of its activity, the nature of the risks observed there and the type of employment of the workers.
L4141-4: Employers are responsible for financing safety training.
These articles are developed and broken down into requirements within the NV Compliance application. Their compliance can be easily assessed within the application.
How to comply with safety regulations?
As safety induction must be carried out as soon as employees are hired, and each time it is required (during the course of their contract), it can become extremely time-consuming for the site manager.
Today, companies can rely on the digitalization of these processes to ensure that they are properly implemented and monitored. Cikaba has set up a digital solution that effectively transmits safety instructions, ensures that they have been understood, and provides traceability and compliance with regulations.
In conclusion: human expertise + digitization = efficiency!
Combining human expertise and digitalization is one of the most effective combinations of our time: Cikaba has achieved it, for example, in the area of security reception, and Novallia in the area of regulatory compliance. These digitized processes save valuable time and enable greater precision and efficiency for corporate safety managers and preventionists.
Contact us to carry out a safety diagnosis and implement preventive measures.