Newsflash
Health and safety

Making the report available suffices

Every employer is obliged to draw up an annual report on the functioning of the internal service for prevention and protection at work with regard to the previous year. Until recently, the employer had to send this annual report to the inspection services by 31 March.

The Royal Decree of 7 February 2018 states that, from now on, the annual report has to be kept at the disposal of the inspection services.

The Code on Well-being in the Workplace obliges employers to draw up an annual report on the functioning of the internal service for prevention and protection at work. In practice, this means that the report has to provide an overview of the functioning and the activities of the internal service over the past year.

Until recently, the employer was obliged to provide the inspection services, namely the inspection service of the  Directorate General for the Supervision of Well-being at Work, with the annual report on the internal service within three months following the year to which the report related.

The Royal Decree of 7 February 2018 discontinues this rather formalistic obligation and states that, from now, the annual report has to be kept at the disposal of the competent inspection services.

The amended legislation does not contain a deadline by which the yearly report has to be drawn up. The templates which are available on the website of the Federal Public Service for Employment, Labour and Social Dialogue do not contain a deadline either. In order to avoid discussions with the inspection services, it would be prudent for the employer to draw up the annual report within the three months after the year to which the report relates.

The report has to be submitted in advance to the committee for prevention and protection at work.

> Action point  

Alert the head of your internal service to this amended legislation! He/she is no longer required to provide the inspection services with the annual report. The report does have to be drawn up and made available on request.