Employees’ obligations in relation to medical examinations confirming their fitness for work derive from the provisions of the labour law enshrined in Articles 201, 211 and 229 of the Labour Code (Act of 26.06.1974 Labour Code – consolidated text, Journal of Laws 2016, item 1666).
Workers are obliged to undergo initial, periodic and follow-up medical examinations, carried out at an occupational health clinic, on the basis of a referral issued by the employer. In the referral, the employer specifies the sources and types of hazards resulting from the specific nature of the work and the workplace and working conditions. On the basis of the referral, the occupational medicine consultant shall refer the worker to specific occupational medicine specialists. On the basis of the examinations, the occupational medicine specialists establish the absence or existence of contraindications to work in a specific position and under the conditions of the worker’s exposure described in the referral.
Initial medical examinations shall be carried out for persons admitted to work and for adolescent workers transferred to other jobs and other workers transferred to jobs where there are harmful factors to health or arduous conditions.
The employee is subject to periodic medical examinations. In the event of incapacity for work lasting more than 30 days due to illness, the employee shall also be subject to a medical check-up to determine his ability to perform his work in his current position.
Periodic examinations and check-ups shall be carried out as far as possible during working hours, with the right to remuneration for non-working time, and, in the event of travel to another location for these examinations, with the right to entitlement to travel expenses according to the rules in force for business trips. Periodic and control examinations shall be carried out at the employer’s expense.
From 16 December 2020, on the basis of Article 12a of the Act of 2 March 2020 on special solutions related to the prevention, prevention and combating of COVID-19, other infectious diseases and crisis situations caused by them (Journal of Laws 2020.1842), the obligations to carry out periodic examinations of employees (Article 229 § 2, first sentence of the Labour Code), the issuing of a referral for periodic medical examinations by the employer (Article 229 § 4a of the Labour Code) and the performance of periodic medical examinations are suspended:
- after cessation of work in contact with carcinogenic substances and agents or fibrogenic dusts;
- after the termination of the employment relationship, if the person concerned requests to be covered by such examinations (Article 229 § 5 of the Labour Code).
Following the revocation of an epidemic emergency, in the event that an epidemic emergency is not declared, or following the revocation of an epidemic emergency, the employer and the employee shall immediately undertake the suspended duties and perform them within a period of no more than 180 days from the date of the revocation of the relevant emergency. Medical certificates issued as part of periodic medical examinations, which expired after 7 March 2020, shall remain valid, but no longer than until 180 days have elapsed from the date on which the epidemic emergency is revoked, in the event that an epidemic emergency is not declared, or from the date on which the epidemic emergency is revoked.