You as an employer have a number of obligations when an employee of your enterprise is diagnosed with an occupational disease. Such obligations concern notification and investigation. In the course of an investigation, you will also obtain information on what could be improved in order to prevent the reoccurrence of such occupational diseases in the future.
What is an occupational disease
An occupational disease is a long-term medical condition and the main cause of it is a physical, physiological, chemical or biological hazard related to work. One person can also have several occupational diseases at the same time. An occupational health doctor diagnoses an occupational disease. Identifying an employee's occupational disease involves a number of tasks for the employer.
How is it diagnosed?
An occupational disease shall be diagnosed by an occupational health doctor who identifies the state of an employee’s health and collects data of the employee’s present and past working conditions and the type of work.
An occupational health doctor shall inform you as an employer, the local authority of the Labour Inspectorate and the doctor who referred the employee to the occupational health doctor of an occupational disease in writing within 5 days from the diagnosis of the disease.
Investigation of an occupational disease and submission of the results
As an employer, you shall be obliged to investigate all occupational diseases by involving a working environment representative or, in his/her absence, a representative of the employees. The investigation shall be carried out within 20 working days from the receipt of the diagnosis of an occupation disease and shall end with the preparation of a report.
The report shall be prepared in three copies, one of which shall be kept by you; submit the other two to the local authority of the Labour Inspectorate and the injured party or the person protecting his/her rights within 3 working days from the completion of the investigation of an occupational accident.
All incidents of occupational diseases and illnesses caused by work shall be registered and communicated to the working environment specialist, the working environment representative, representative of the employees and the working environment council.
Storage of investigation results
A notification of an occupational disease sent by a doctor, the documents collected in the course of the investigation and the report shall be executed as an investigation file of the occupational disease, which shall be kept for 55 years.
Action for the prevention of occupational diseases
Based on the investigation results, you shall be required to implement measures for preventing the reoccurrence of a similar occupational disease.
More information on occupational diseases can be found in the Tööelu portal.