Clients quite often ask me whether the Occupational Health and Safety Act in The Netherlands (Arbowet) requires them to offer ergonomic workstation assessments to all colleagues. And can employers make it mandatory for employees to participate?
This is not a simple question. The Occupational Health and Safety Act, like almost all laws, speaks mostly in general terms. Exactly what concrete steps an employer should follow cannot be found in the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
This is what the Working Conditions Act (source – in Dutch) says roughly:
The employer must ensure a healthy and safe workplace for the employee and that the workplace is equipped to suit the employee’s personal characteristics. This also applies to your home workplace. This is called the employer’s ‘duty of care’. The extent to which the employer can fulfil this depends on what can reasonably be required. It may be that circumstances make it unreasonable to expect this of the employer.
The employer must actively instruct his employees. How an employee can do his job safely and healthily should be a recurring topic of discussion between employer and employee.
I expect that the Dutch government will get increasingly more strict about the part of the Occupational Health and Safety Act dealing with working from home, as working hybridly becomes the norm for more and more employees. In my opinion, more value is placed by the legislator on preventive education, rather than ergonomic furniture (which simply does not fit in many homes – and is therefore not “reasonable”).
My advice for HR departments: make it mandatory for all colleagues to do a workstation assessment done by an occupational therapist, ergonomist or occupational health and safety expert who specialises in home workstations.
Do this not only to fulfil the duty of care outlined in the Occupational Health and Safety Act, but also to save money. A good ergonomist will not recommend you to buy unnecessary ergonomic equipment. I allowing employees to order ergonomic equipment until after a workstation assessment.
The Occupational Health and Safety Act can be interpreted in many ways, and each adviser has his or her own opinion. Above all, let us know what you think in the comments! Or contact me at sanne@deskguru.nl!