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On the 17th and 18th of October, Päijät-Häme inspected the work inspectorate, which audited a total of 124 jobs during the two days. Inspections were carried out in Asikkala, Hartola, Heinola, Hollola, Lahti, Orimattila, Padasjoki and Sysmä. The purpose of the surveillance was to ensure that the workplace knows the health risks of the work and thus is able to prevent health damage in advance.
The most worrying finding was that an appropriate occupational healthcare workplace survey was only found in 73 jobs, or 59% of the jobs audited. 28 in the workplace (23%) were not properly investigated, and 23 (19%) of the workplace are still being investigated ex post.
In a workplace survey, occupational health care assesses the health impacts of work-related adverse effects or hazards and gives the employer recommendations for action to reduce them. It was positive that in those workplaces where workplace surveys were made, it was often good and detailed.
“Workplace surveys must be useful for the employer. The employer can ask himself whether he can find out what health hazards the job can cause and what can be done to reduce the risk. The employer pays for occupational health care services, so they should also be looking for quality, “remembers Tuula Uurala , Senior Adviser , from the Regional State Administration of Southern Finland.
Statutory occupational health care was missing from 11 jobs (9%). The risk assessment and assessment of the work was done in 22 workplaces (18%).
Cooperation with employees is working
In the management of health risks, it is essential that the employer cooperates not only with occupational health care but also with the employees. Workers know their work best and know how to deal with the disadvantages or hazards associated with the job.
In the supervised workplaces of Päijät-Häme, the co-operation between occupational safety and healthcare workers seemed to work well on the basis of audit findings, and only two jobs received official guidance. The Occupational Safety and Health Inspector was also selected in most workplaces with more than 10 persons.
The monitoring focused particularly on small jobs, and no checks were made in the workplace in advance.
“The jobs were almost invariably received by the inspectors, and the interest in occupational safety was great,” Uurala says.
Inspectors shared information on the workplace, for example. from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration web site www.tyosuojelu.fi and from the Telephone Inspection Service of the Occupational Safety and Health Authority. There is also a Small Business Information Package on the web service that has information on employment, work environment and working conditions. It can be found as an electronic publication at www.tyosuojelu.fi/tietoa-meistä/julkaisut .
