Verification of work equipment and facilities
In order to safeguard the health and safety of agents, local authorities must keep work equipment, personal protective equipment and installations for which they are responsible in good order. To ensure that this equipment and installation complies with health and safety regulations and is not damaged or defective, it is necessary to have periodic inspections carried out by competent and qualified personnel, whether or not they belong to the community. This sheet provides an overview of the rules to be followed for basic equipment (1).
Validation is a general term defined in regulatory texts. They indicate the type of operation to be performed as well as the periodicity to ensure that the equipment or installation is in proper working order. They can be summary (“scale: verification before use”) or more complex, involving, if necessary, functional tests to ensure that the installation works normally and that the safety devices perform their function properly. Verification of work equipment is carried out within the framework of the employer’s obligations under the labor code:
- Article L.4321-1: “Work equipment and means of protection put into service or used in establishments intended to receive workers are equipped, placed, used, repaired and maintained in a way to safeguard health and safety of workers. workers. , including in the event of changes to this work equipment and the means of this protection”;
- article R.4322-1: “Work equipment and means of protection, regardless of their user, are kept in a state of compliance with the technical design and construction rules applicable when they are put into service in the establishment, including about the instruction manual”;
- Article R.4323-22: “The orders from the Minister responsible for labor or the Minister responsible for agriculture define work equipment and the categories of work equipment in which the employer has performed or conducted a preliminary examination, when they were placed in service at the establishment. Consequently, the texts set out the verification and control obligations applicable to specified types of equipment and installations;
- article R.4224-17: “Technical and safety installations and equipment of workplaces are maintained and checked with appropriate frequency”.
The appeal authentication is a generic term which is specified in texts regulations. They indicate the type of operation to do this which is the periodicity in the view of make sure the good working conditions equipment or of installation.
It will be useful to remember that civil servants (particularly in the territory) are generally not subject to the provisions of the labor code except in certain points and especially in the whole aspect of occupational safety where the rules that applied to communities are the same as those applied privately. Consequently, failure to comply with these regulations may, in the event of an accident, result in serious culpability on the part of the employer. Therefore, they should be taken seriously.
The following list is probably not complete. But some basic principles of effective evaluation of work equipment and installations go through:
- a general policy for the prevention of service-related accidents or illnesses;
- training, pedagogy and management work;
- monitoring regulations and organization of internal processes to comply with them;
- normal maintenance of work tools.
Based on these principles, many accidents can be avoided.
Inspections of pressure devices under the environment code, checks of establishments open to the public (ERP) and checks of vehicles under the highway code are not covered.
(1) Checks of pressure devices under the Environmental Code, checks of ERPs and checks of vehicles under the Highway Code will not be covered.
