Within the scope of employee health protection, every employer is liable to ensure occupational safety and health. This responsibility concerns not only adherence to commonly acknowledged norms in this respect, but also individual contraindications related  to an employee’s general state of health or peculiar predispositions. One of the key elements  of prevention is medical examinations whose purpose is to ascertain the capability of  an employee to work under the conditions present in the given workplace.

This paper aims to familiarize employers or executives with their responsibilities concerning employee preventive medical examinations. The second objective of the paper is to draw employees’ attention to their responsibilities regarding medical prevention. The text of this paper accepts the changes in law concerning employee examinations which took effect  on 1^st April 2015.

Chronic venous insufficiency (CVI) is the most common human disorder of the lower limbs; it is by venous valvular insufficiency. When the valve does not close properly, blood backs up and begins to push against the walls of the blood vessels. Vessels extend and over the years residual venous blood causes lesions in the surrounding tissues. Symptoms of the disease may be cutaneus or vascular. CVI is a disease of multifactorial etiology and the nature of work may be a factor that leads to symptoms of CVI. Prolonged standing or sitting can lead to stagnation of blood in the veins of the lower limbs; therefore, workers doing this kind of work must take care of their workstation. For people working in a sitting posture, chairs with a sloping backrest and a footrest, and regular breaks are recommended. For workers working in a standing posture, short walks during frequent breaks are recommended. Physical activity is best in fighting against CVI, regardless of the type of work.

High visibility clothing is common when a worker is at risk of being hit by moving vehicles, machines or other objects. Even though this clothing does not provide full safety, the level of visibility is optimized and the risk of an accident is significantly reduced. Since high visibility clothing is a type of personal protective equipment, it should comply with the requirements of Directive 89/686/EEC and the harmonised standard on the requirements for this type of clothing. This article presents the main changes introduced  in the new harmonised standard  PN-EN ISO 20471:2013, which replaces standard PN-EN 471:2003+A1:2007. The differences mostly consist in the construction of clothing, requirements for fluorescent materials and high visibility materials, marking, information supplied by the manufacturer and the selection of protective clothing.

Entrepreneurs are not really aware of the losses that result from bad working conditions. Enterprises do not analyse the influence of occupational safety and health (OSH) on productivity. This paper attempts to identify why this is so.  It discusses entrepreneurs’ perception of the relationship between OSH and productivity and illustrates how that perception influences observations of such relationships at the level of workstations. Finally, this article presents an approach which considers ignorance of OSH requirements to be a factor generating losses in the productive capacity at individual workstations, which is a starting point for presenting OSH as a vital element of operational management at the level of workstations. 

Entrepreneurs are not really aware of the losses that result from bad working conditions. Enterprises do not analyse the influence of occupational safety and health (OSH) on productivity. This paper attempts to identify why this is so.  It discusses entrepreneurs’ perception of the relationship between OSH and productivity and illustrates how that perception influences observations of such relationships at the level of workstations. Finally, this article presents an approach which considers ignorance of OSH requirements to be a factor generating losses in the productive capacity at individual workstations, which is a starting point for presenting OSH as a vital element of operational management at the level of workstations.