Workers on computers

Application of Regulation on the health and safety while working with computer.

Workers on computers

Pain in the neck, shoulders, back, hands, fingers, headaches, smarting eyes, blurred vision – all this may be due to long sitting at the computer. It was found even before by the European experts on safety at work, and Croatia in the process of adaptation to the European Union in 2005 adopted a Regulation on the health and safety while working with computer.

The provisions of Regulations are partially applied since June, 2007 and the deadline when employers have to adapt it fully has been extended to June 2009. Until then, employers, explains Zdravko Franić from the Ministry of Economy, are obligated to create a risk assessment for all jobs with computer. Estimates are made by authorized legal persons, but small employers who have up to 20 workers, according to Franić, can also create it by themselves, with an certification from the authorized company.

Jobs with a computer in the Regulation are defined as those where the worker works at least four hours on the computer during business hours. Franić believes it to be a mistake that should be corrected.

Although the Regulation does not explicitly says that the employer must pay the worker’s corrective vision aids, in practice that is the employer’s liability. What about those who work with a computer and already carry their own private glasses? This does not mean, Franić emphasizes, that their employer shouldn’t pay special glasses for computer work.

Regulation obliges employers to ensure appropriate chairs for sitting and proper lighting and also the replacement of old screens with new plasma or LCD screens. Employers must also give directions to their employees on how to practice in the workplace, at least five minutes every hour.

Taken from: www.dobrevijesti.info