What level of education should a prevention advisor have?
And is an internal prevention advisor mandatory in my company?
Table of contents
When is a internal prevention advisor mandatory?
Every employer has a legal obligation to actively participate in preventative measures for well-being at work. From the moment an employer hires its first employee, preventive actions are expected to be taken in all areas of well-being.
In this context, a prevention advisor should always be appointed. Although in limited cases there is room for employers to act as prevention advisors themselves, this is no longer the case in high-risk activities and in larger companies.
If you do not yet have a prevention advisor, make sure you have someone trained internally or appoint an external prevention advisor.
Specifically, how does the calculation work?
Article II.1-2.-§1 of the Codex classifies all companies into different groups (A, B, C or D) based on the number of employees and business activity (in particular the risk). These two factors are crucial for the required level of training of the prevention adviser.
The text of the Welfare Act, like many legal texts, is not always easy to understand. Prevom strives to make its terms and calculations as understandable as possible and uses a three-step process to do so:
- Step 1: Risk assessment
- Step 2: Calculate amount of employees
- Step 3: Establish mandatory level of training
Determining the risk level
Determining the risk level is crucial, and as mentioned earlier, the level of training of the prevention advisor is directly linked to the risk of the business activity. The review should be done carefully; the classification of the company is of great importance. It is important to note that the highest category always takes priority!
For example, a metal processing company falls under medium risk, while a company manufacturing products from metal falls under high risk. Even if your company is technically also a metal processing company, it falls under high risk if it manufactures products from metal.
It is important to note that the highest category always has priority!
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Very high risk
- Industry for extraction and manufacture of fissionable and fertile materials
- Coke oven companies
- Petroleum industry
- Chemical feedstock plants
- Petro and carbochemical industry
- Industry for the manufacture of other chemical products with mainly industrial or agricultural application
High risk
- Industry for production and distribution of electricity, gas, steam and hot water
- Industry for manufacture and first processing of metals
- Industry for manufacture of stone, cement, concrete ware, pottery, glass and such
- Chemical industry not belonging to the enterprises previously listed in the very high risk category (everything except chemical raw material plants, petro and carbochemical industry & production of chemical products for industrial or agricultural application)
- Artificial and synthetic continuous yarn and fiber industry
- Industry for manufacture of metal products
- Mechanical Engineering
- Industry of automotive construction and factories of automotive parts
- Other transportation equipment manufacturing
- Wood industry and manufacture of wooden furniture
- Construction
- Meat processing industry
- Human health care
- Transportation and storage
High risk
- Water extraction, purification and distribution industry
- Metal processing, precision engineering and optical industries that are not among the enterprises previously listed in the high-risk category (all except manufacture of metal products, mechanical engineering, automotive construction/car parts and other transport equipment manufacturing).
- Other manufacturing and processing industries that are not among those listed in the high-risk category (all except machinery & meat processing industries).
Low risk
All companies that don’t fall into the higher risk groups. This category includes businesses whose activity is inherently less risky for personnel, such as wholesale & retail, a consulting firm, etc.
Calculation of the number of employees
Besides risk, the number of employees also plays a crucial role.
This requires more than a one-off assessment: it involves looking back over the past four quarters to determine how many employees a company has in the context of prevention.
The specific calculation method for a company’s number of employees is clearly set out in Art. II.1-2.-§2 of the Codex.
The procedure is described as follows:
"The number of employees shall be calculated by dividing the number of calendar days on which each employee, during a period of the four trimesters preceding each trimester, is registered in the personnel register, the maintenance of which is imposed by Royal Decree No. 5 of October 23, 1978 on the maintenance of social documents, or in any other document maintained for this purpose if the employer is not subject to the provisions of said Royal Decree and divide it by by three hundred and sixty-five.
When the actual hourly schedule of an employee does not reach three-fourths of the hourly schedule that would have been his if he were employed full-time, the number of calendar days on which he was entered in the personnel register during the period referred to in the first paragraph shall be divided by two.
The number of assimilated persons referred to in Article 2, §1, second paragraph, 1°, (b) to (e) of the Act shall be calculated by dividing the number of hours during which they perform labor, apprenticeship or some form of work during a period of four trimesters preceding each trimester by one thousand seven hundred fifty."
This procedure may not be easy to understand. We now briefly summarise what is essential.
Equalised employees
This calculation also refers to Article 2, §1, second paragraph, 1°, (b) to (e) of the Law of August 4, 1996 on the welfare of workers in the performance of their work. This article describes the categories of persons who are assimilated to employees, and they are also included in the calculation.
These categories include:
- those attending vocational training whose study program provides some form of work that may or may not be performed at the training institution;
- the persons with an apprenticeship contract;
- the trainees;
- pupils and students pursuing a field of study whose training program provides for some form of work performed in the educational institution
The employee formula
The formula for calculating the number of employees is as follows:
Number of employees =
(days of full-time employees enrolled) / 365
+
(enrolled days part-time employee / 2) / 365
+
(enrolled days equivalent employee) / 1750
Note:
Divide part-time employees by 2. divide equalised employes by 1750 instead of 365.
Would you also like to train as a prevention advisor?
Determining the level of education
After calculating both the risk of the company and the number of employees, one can proceed to determine the level of training required for the prevention advisor.
Check the result carefully to make sure the advisor appointed has the correct level of training.
Interested in training as a level 3 prevention advisor
Level 3 prevention advisor training is the basic training for any new prevention advisor.
In this training, you will get the basic insights around the 7 welfare domains defined in the Codex: health, ergonomics, occupational safety, psychosocial aspects, occupational hygiene, workplace beautification and internal environment.
Looking for clarity?
What if the company has multiple units? Is it useful to appoint multiple advisors? Should every prevention advisor be the same level? Which is better for my business - internal or external PA?
Prevom has tailor-made solutions:
We will be happy to inform you about the possibilities!