Guide

When is an in-house OHS unit compulsory, and what does it require?

Where a full-time assignment is required, a unit is established; a unit is not a room but a structure with defined conditions.

Where the duty comes from

Article 5(3) of the Occupational Health and Safety Services Regulation requires the employer to establish an in-house OHS unit where the workplace physician and the safety specialist must be assigned full time. The unit is the natural consequence of the full-time threshold, not a separate choice.

What the unit involves

Article 11 sets out the minimum conditions. The sections and units are to be within the same area, and their location is marked so workers can easily see it. The list is not limited to space; equipment and access are covered too.

Where full time is not required

The first paragraph of the same article places on the employer the duty to provide minimum conditions even where full-time assignment is not required. So even without the duty to establish a unit, conditions in which the assigned person can do their job must be provided.

The health report side

Article 11(6) treats a unit formed under that article, and meeting its conditions, as an in-house OHS unit for the purposes of the health reports issued, in cases where full-time assignment is not compulsory.

In Optifora

The workplace record holds the unit's existence, its conditions and the people assigned together; a missing condition becomes a task and stays in the workplace's conformity summary until it closes.

  1. Measure the full-time thresholdCalculate the time required for the specialist and physician and determine whether it crosses the threshold.
  2. Record the decisionWrite down whether a unit will be established and why; below the threshold, plan the minimum conditions.
  3. Set up space and equipmentBring the sections into the same area, mark the location visibly, provide the required equipment.
  4. Attach the assignmentsAdd the people working in the unit and their certificates to the record.
  5. Turn gaps into tasksTie every unmet condition to a task with an owner and a date.
  6. Track the changeRe-measure the threshold when headcount or hazard class changes.

Manage this in Optifora

Optifora is not a single program but a compliance platform assembled from modules. The catalogue states which module is ready today and which is on the roadmap.

See what Optifora is