On 3rd August 2016 the amendment of art. 176 of the Labour Code entered into force. This provision, which is not currently applicable, prohibited the employment of women in works that were particularly onerous or hazardous to health. Currently, art. 176 of Labour Code does not apply to all women, but only to pregnant women and women who are breastfeeding - forbidding them performing burdensome, dangerous or harmful works which may negatively affect their health, pregnancy or breastfeeding. The provision, in its previous and current version, authorizes the Council of Ministers to establish, by the ordinance, a list of works which are prohibited.
From the 1st May 2017, the ordinance of the Council of Minister, issued on the basis of art. 176 of Labour Code, is applied in the case of the list of burdensome, dangerous or harmful works which may negatively affect women’s health, pregnancy and breastfeeding dated on the 3rd 2017 (Journal of Laws from 2017, item 796) replacing the previous ordinance of the Council of Ministers on the list of works which are particularly onerous or hazardous to women’s health of 10th September 1996 (Journal of Laws No. 114, item 545). The new act, as it results from the title, does not regulate the maximum permissible standards for physical activity and manual handling of loads for women who are not pregnant and not breastfeeding. These limits, as a result of the change, which also came into force on 1st May 2017 are currently laid down in the Ordinance of the Minister of Labor and Social Policy on health and safety in manual handling activities and other work connected with physical activity.
The most discussed solution introduced by the new regulations is undoubtedly the admission of pregnant women to use displays monitor for a maximum of 8 hours per day, while until the 30th April 2017, this kind of work involved a time limitation of up to 4 hours per day.
However, as was indicated in the justification for the draft of the new ordinance, in order to reduce the burden of musculoskeletal while operating the display monitors in an unchanged body position, better results are achieved by introducing frequent breaks rather than shortening the total working time during the work shift. For this reason, from the 1st May 2017, a pregnant woman who works in front of display monitors must work for a maximum of 50 minutes per hour, with a minimum of 10 minutes of break considered work time.
- Adam Gielnik