Occupational health and safety in Poland, handled in English
Polish labour law puts responsibility for workplace safety on you as the employer, and inspectors ask their questions in Polish. We take that part off your desk: mandatory training, risk assessment, documentation, fire safety and inspections, with everything explained to you in English.
Who we work with
Companies setting up in Poland
You are opening a plant, warehouse or office and need to be compliant from the first day an employee starts work.
Foreign-owned companies already operating here
You have a Polish site, a Polish HR team, and a head office that needs to understand what is being signed and why.
Companies posting workers
Your employees work in Poland or move between EU countries, and the training has to hold up in more than one jurisdiction.
Four obligations that surprise most foreign employers
No training, no work.
An employee cannot start work until they have completed initial OHS training: a general part and a workstation-specific part. This applies from day one, including to office staff and to people transferred from another country.
Training expires.
Initial training is followed by periodic training, repeated at intervals that depend on the job. Missing renewal dates is one of the most common findings during an inspection.
Risk assessment is a document, not an opinion.
Every workstation needs a written occupational risk assessment, and employees have to be informed of its results.
Someone has to perform the OHS service function.
Polish law requires employers to have an OHS service. Above a certain headcount it must be an internal unit; below it, the tasks can be entrusted to an external specialist. That is the role we take on.
Two authorities will visit you: PIP, the National Labour Inspectorate, and PIS, the State Sanitary Inspection. Both conduct inspections in Polish and expect documentation in Polish. We prepare it, and we walk you through it in English.
What we do
Take the whole package or a single item. Pricing is quoted individually.
Outsourced OHS service
- Permanent contract or one-off assignments
- Large production plants and small companies
- Occupational risk assessment
- Accident investigation and the documentation that follows it
- Internal OHS and fire safety audits
- Personal protective equipment: selection and advice
- Coordination of workplace measurements, including noise and lighting
- Subcontracting for other safety companies
Training
- Initial training: general and workstation instruction
- Periodic training for all job categories
- Training for employers and managers
- First aid, including help setting up first aid points on site
- Fire safety and evacuation training
- Delivered in English, anywhere in Poland and across the EU
Documentation and compliance
- OHS instructions and workstation instructions
- Fire safety instruction and evacuation plans
- Internal procedures written for your organisation
- HACCP implementation, GMP and GHP documentation
- Support in carrying out orders issued by PIP and PIS
- Documents prepared in Polish, explained to you in English
Fire safety
- Fire safety instruction for the building
- Evacuation plans
- Implementation of fire protection requirements
- Inspection of buildings and fire safety equipment
- Servicing of portable fire extinguishers
- Investigation into the causes of fires
- Expert opinions
What lands on your desk
Compliance is easier to budget for when you know what you are buying. A typical first engagement produces:
The last item is the one head offices ask for most. Polish documentation stays in Polish, because that is what inspectors read, but you get a plain-English account of what it says.
Outsourcing the work does not outsource the liability
This is the point most often misunderstood by foreign employers, so we prefer to state it before you sign anything. Under Polish law, responsibility for the state of occupational safety rests with the employer. An external OHS service performs advisory and supervisory tasks on your behalf. It cannot assume your liability, and no contract can move it.
We do
- Prepare and keep current the documentation
- Deliver the training and keep the records
- Carry out site inspections and report what we find
- Investigate accidents and prepare the required paperwork
- Advise you on what the law requires and what it will cost
- Support you during inspections and in carrying out orders
You do
- Make the decisions and release the budget for what we recommend
- Act on the findings we report
- Provide safe equipment and working conditions
- Sign the documents that only the employer can sign
- Allow employees the time to attend training
We write our findings down, including the uncomfortable ones. That record protects you as much as it protects us.
Courses we run
Groups and content are matched to the actual jobs on your site. If your workforce is mixed, we can run the same course twice, once in Polish and once in English, rather than translating on the fly.
The first hours matter, and the paperwork has deadlines
A workplace accident starts a formal procedure with fixed statutory deadlines. For serious, fatal or collective accidents, the authorities have to be notified without delay. The scene must be secured before anything is moved or cleaned up, which is the instruction people most often forget under pressure.
- Take the call and tell you what to secure and what not to touch
- Sit on the investigation team and establish the circumstances and causes
- Prepare the accident report and the accompanying documentation within the statutory deadline
- Identify the corrective measures and help you implement them
- Deal with the labour inspector if the accident is reportable
- Explain the whole process to your head office in English
Save our number
Save our number in the phone of whoever runs your site. An accident is not the moment to start looking for a contract.
Training that travels with your people
We work across the European Union, not only in Poland. That includes training for Polish nationals employed abroad and for companies that move staff between sites in different member states.
If your people are hired in Poland and work elsewhere in the EU, or the other way round, we will tell you which obligations follow the employment contract and which follow the place of work, and prepare documentation that covers both. We can travel to your site.
Low-risk does not mean exempt
A sales office, a shared desk and three people on laptops is still a workplace under Polish law. Initial training is required before the first day of work, periodic training follows, and a risk assessment has to exist for office workstations too, including display screen equipment.
The volume of documentation is small and the cost is modest. The penalty for not having it is neither. If your Polish presence is a handful of office or remote staff, say so when you write to us and we will quote the minimum you actually need.
Four steps
Conversation and site visit
We look at the site, ask what you already have on paper and where the gaps are.
Scope and quote
You get a written scope and a price. No work starts before you accept it.
Documentation and training
We prepare the documents, run the required training and set up a calendar of renewal dates.
Ongoing service
Under a permanent contract we keep the documentation current, handle accidents if they happen, and stand behind the paperwork during inspections.
How we quote
Prices are set individually, because two companies of the same size can need very different amounts of work. What moves the number:
- Headcount and the number of separate sites
- The type of work: an office, a warehouse and a production line are three different risk profiles
- Whether documentation has to be built from scratch or corrected
- How many people need training, and in which languages
- Permanent service or a one-off assignment
Permanent service is usually a monthly fee. One-off assignments, such as a single risk assessment or one training session, are quoted per job. Tell us the headcount, the type of site and what you already have, and you will get a figure.
Ośrodek Szkoleniowy Centrum Usługowe QRAK BHP Magdalena Wauters
We are a private OHS and training company based in Poland, working across the country and the EU, holding the status of a Continuing Education Centre under Polish law. You deal with the person who does the work, not an account manager.
Working languages
Polish and English. Your Polish staff get training they understand; your head office gets documents and reports it can read.
Beyond compliance
We also help organise work processes: fewer accidents, better conditions, and employees who speak up when something on the floor does not work.
Across the European Union
We operate in Poland and in other EU member states, including training for Polish nationals working abroad.
What the Polish paperwork is called
Frequently asked
Yes. We run the full catalogue in English. If your team is mixed, we usually run separate groups rather than translating on the fly.
In practice, yes. Inspectors read Polish and expect the documentation in Polish. We prepare the Polish version and give you a written summary in English.
Yes. The duty to train employees and to assess occupational risk does not depend on company size. The volume of documentation does.
The obligations still apply. Remote and office work has its own risk profile and its own training content, but it is not exempt.
Yes. We start with an audit of what exists, list what is missing, and then either correct the documentation or rebuild it.
Call us. If PIP or PIS has issued an order, we help you carry it out and put the documentation in order.
No, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something. Responsibility stays with the employer. We do the work, advise you and document everything, which is what protects you if it is ever questioned.
We operate across the European Union, mostly for companies posting workers and for employers of Polish nationals abroad.
Tell us about your site and we will send you a quote
Call or send the form. We reply by the next working day at the latest.
What helps us quote faster: headcount, type of site, city, whether you already have OHS documentation, and whether training needs to be in English, Polish or both.
Send an enquiry
A few lines about your company and what you need is enough.