Health and safety officer

As specified in the Dutch Working Conditions Act (Arbowet), business owners in the Netherlands must designate one or more health and safety officers. If you have 25 employees or less, you yourself may act as health and safety officer. A health and safety officer focuses on day-to-day health and safety issues within a company.

Tasks of the health and safety officer

A health and safety officer has three statutory tasks:

• Drafting and implementing (either independently or with others) the risk assessment and evaluation (RI&E)
• Advising and consulting the works council or staff representation on working conditions
• Implementing health and safety measures

A health and safety officer must have sufficient levels of knowledge and experience to carry out these tasks. If there is insufficient knowledge and experience within your company, you may call on an external health and safety expert for support.