2) Coordinator for safety and health matters on the construction site
OHS coordinator services
(within the meaning of Act No. 309/2006 Coll.)

Act No. 309/2006 Coll., stipulating further requirements for health and safety at work in labor relations and concerning occupational health and safety protection in activities or services provided outside labor relations, came into force on January 1, 2007.

The aim of the new act is to set the conditions at workplaces so that occupational health and safety (OHS) is ensured; this covers self-employed persons (entrepreneurs) as well.

One way to minimize the number of occupational accidents in the construction industry was the introduction of the institute of a Coordinator for safety and health matters on the construction site modeled after the EU. Longstanding experience abroad clearly demonstrates that existence of the Coordinator for safety and health matters on the construction site leads to a reduction in the accident rate. In those EU countries where the coordinator position has been around for a number of years, the number of fatal accidents at work has decreased by more than 25 %.

The Coordinator for safety and health matters on the construction site is a qualified person designated by the building contracting authority (builder/investor). His task is to ensure occupational health and safety during the building preparation and construction phases. The contracting authority is obligated to designate a Coordinator for safety and health matters on the construction site in situations where employees of more than one contractor work on the site simultaneously. Typically, the contracting authority signs a contract with one contractor, the so called general contractor, in order to simplify communication when handling problems associated with the construction. He then mistakenly believes that there is only one contractor on the construction site and that he therefore does not have to designate a Coordinator for safety and health matters on the construction site.

The contracting authority is obligated to designate a Coordinator for safety and health matters on the construction site in cases where the following applies during the construction stage:
- the total expected duration of work and activities exceeds 30 working days during which work and activities are performed, and more than 20 individuals work on them at the same time for a period longer than 1 working day, or
- the total planned volume of work and activities during the implementation of the work exceeds 500 working days converted to one individual.

In the cases specified above, the building contracting authority is obligated to deliver a notice of commencement of work to the Regional Labor Inspectorate, and this notice must, among other things, include the name of the person who will perform the work of the Coordinator for safety and health matters on the construction site during the building preparation and construction phases.

The obligation to designate a coordinator does not apply to construction projects for which it is not necessary to issue a building permit or notice, and to construction projects that the builder performs himself. It is the job of the Coordinator for safety and health matters on the construction site to, among other things, draw the attention of the contracting authority to possible defects and to recommend ways to eliminate them, thereby protecting him from potential problems that he would face if:
- due to non-compliance with legal regulations in occupational safety there is a work-related accident at the construction site
- due to non-compliance with legal regulations in occupational safety it is not possible to safely maintain and operate the building after the final approval for use is issued (most frequently this concerns elevators and fall arresting systems on the roofs of buildings)