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Please note: This article concerns French legislation. The requirements described may not apply in other countries.
Law No. 2021-1018 of August 2, 2021, known as the Occupational Health Law, aims to strengthen workplace health prevention, modernize prevention and occupational health services, and bridge the gap between public health and occupational health.
In particular, it has revised the procedures for developing and updating professional risk assessments (the single risk assessment document and chemical risk assessment) and has supplemented and adapted medical monitoring for certain categories of workers.
Two implementing decrees detailing these changes were published in March 2022. Here is what these two new texts entail.
Professional risk assessment
Decree No. 2022-395 of March 18, 2022, specifies the following:
| Before 31 March 2022 | From 31 March 2022 | |
|---|---|---|
| Frequency and process for updating the DUERP | Annual update for all companies. Also updated:
| Annual update for all companies with more than 11 employees. Also updated:
|
| Documents derived from the DUERP | For companies with more than 50 employees: Annual occupational risk prevention and working conditions improvement programme derived from the DUERP, which must contain:
For companies with fewer than 50 employees: Define, based on the DUERP, risk prevention and employee protection actions | For companies with 50 or more employees: Annual prevention programme derived from the occupational risk assessment based on the DUERP, to be supplemented with:
For companies with fewer than 50 employees: Define, based on the DUERP, risk prevention and employee protection actions
|
| Making the DUERP available | The DUERP must be kept available to:
| Digital filing on an online portal:
The DUERP and its previous versions must be kept for a minimum of 40 years and made available to:
|
| Chemical risk assessment | The employer must assess the health and safety risks for workers exposed to chemical hazards | The employer must assess the health and safety risks for workers exposed to chemical hazards, taking into account, where there is successive or simultaneous exposure to several chemical agents, the combined effects of all of these agents. |
Medical monitoring for workers currently or previously under enhanced medical supervision
Decree No. 2022-372 of March 16, 2022, specifies the following:
| Before 31 March 2022 | From 31 March 2022 | |
|---|---|---|
| Post-employment and post-exposure medical follow-up | Medical examination before retirement A medical examination must be organised for workers who are receiving or have received enhanced individual health monitoring, or workers who received specific medical monitoring due to their exposure to one or more of the following risks prior to the implementation of the enhanced individual monitoring scheme:
Þ The occupational physician provides the worker with a health record and recommends post-employment monitoring. Note: If a worker believes they are eligible for this medical examination and has not been informed by their employer, they may, during the month before their departure, request it directly from their occupational health service. In that case, they inform their employer of this step. | Medical examination before retirement and after exposure ends A medical examination must be organised for workers who are receiving or have received enhanced individual monitoring (SIR) of their health, or workers who were exposed to one or more of the following risks prior to the implementation of the enhanced individual monitoring scheme:
=> The occupational physician provides the worker with a health record and sets up post-employment or post-exposure monitoring where applicable Note: If a worker believes they meet the conditions to be eligible for this medical examination and has not been notified by their employer that this information was transmitted, they may, during the month before the end of exposure or their departure and up to six months after the end of exposure, request this examination directly from their occupational health service. |
| Pre-return-to-work examination | A pre-return-to-work examination may be organised for workers on sick leave lasting more than 3 months, at the initiative of the treating physician, the social security medical adviser, or the worker. | A pre-return-to-work examination may now be organised for workers on sick leave lasting more than 30 days. It is therefore no longer systematic for all periods of sick leave lasting more than three months, and no longer necessarily needs to be initiated by the treating physician, the social security medical adviser, or the worker. |
| Return-to-work examination | The worker undergoes a return-to-work examination by the occupational physician:
| The worker undergoes a return-to-work examination by the occupational physician:
|
(*): The provisions relating to pre-return and return-to-work medical examinations are not modified for employees covered by the agricultural scheme.
For a comprehensive overview of all the changes introduced by the Occupational Health Law, please refer to the previous article published in November 2021.
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