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The participants explored key challenges and practical issues in ensuring compliance with the new Occupational Safety and Health Law, which took effect in 2023. The event looked at key emerging rules, interpretation of legal provisions governing hazardous work, and the availability of qualified occupational safety and health (OSH) specialists and challenges with their licensing and demand for their services.
The first speaker was Miodrag Loncović, Advisor with the Safety and Health Administration at the Ministry of Labor, Empoyment, Veterans’ and Social Issues, who emphasised that Ministry of Labor data showed between 40 and 50 percent of all occupational injuries occurred when coming to or going from work.
Asked about the availability and qualifications of OSH officers, Mr Loncović responded the Ministry of Labor had been licensing OSH specialists since 2006. Five state-operated higher education institutions offered training in OSH, he continued, while all companies had been given a transitional period to appoint and train their staff for the OSH certification examination.
Mira Božić, Senior Advisor at the Safety and Health Administration, highlighted the requirement for daily reporting to company management, a new feature of the amended Occupational Health and Safety Law. The new rules require OSH officers to both track the state of OSH in the workplace and report it to the firm’s managers on a daily basis, in a departure from previous standards that only required monitoring.
Maja Ilić, Senior Advisor and head of the Analytics Division at the Ministry of Labor, spoke about the new practice of official advisory visits. Here, the new regulations allow companies to request preventive action even when not subject to an official inspection procedure, and the inspection body must respond within 15 days. The inspection body is required to produce an official record of any such advisory visit and recommend solutions to any issues it identifies during one.
The final panelist was Goran Marković, head of the Second Instance Administrative Proceedings Division at the Labor Inspectorate, who emphasized the importance of training new OSH specialists. He also spoke about opportunities for closer cooperation between public authorities and businesses in implementing the new OSH rules.
See photos from the event here.
