The area of work permits is one of the areas monitored by the National Labor Inspectorate. That’s why it’s important to know when contractors only need an access pass and health and safety training, and when they must have a separate permit. In this article, we’ll explain when such a document is required, what it must include, and how you can reduce the risk of errors by using digital documentation.
What is a work permit for an outside company?
A work permit is a written document that authorizes a specific person or group to perform particularly hazardous work on the premises of a facility. This matter is governed by the Regulation of the Minister of Labor and Social Policy of September 26, 1997, on general occupational safety and health regulations.
You won’t find a specific template in the regulations, so the employer determines the procedure for issuing such a permit. The document may be issued by the employer or by a person authorized by the employer, such as a construction manager. It is advisable for the document to include information about:
- the persons responsible for organizing and carrying out the work,
- the recipients that is, specific employees or the entire team,
- the location and time of the work, including the start and end dates and any breaks,
- the conditions and safety measures,
- the exact scope of the assigned tasks.
A work permit is not the same as an access pass, health and safety training, or certification. An access pass is required simply to enter the facility, while introductory health and safety training is required before starting any work (and in the case of outside contractors, they must be informed of the risks).
Verification of qualifications and compliance with health and safety requirements involves confirming that individuals assigned by an outside company to perform work possess the required qualifications and skills and, where applicable, valid medical certificates. A work permit, on the other hand, is one of the methods for organizing particularly hazardous work, and the employer may specify the procedure for issuing it as part of the workplace’s health and safety procedures.
When employees of different employers are working at the same location and at the same time, a health and safety coordinator must be appointed. The coordinator oversees the safety of all employees at that location, but this does not relieve individual employers of their responsibility for their own employees.
When does an outside company need a work permit?
The official website of the Ministry of Development and Technology lists four categories of particularly hazardous work:
- construction, demolition, renovation, and installation work carried out without suspending operations at the workplace or any part thereof,
- work in tanks, sewers, the interiors of technical equipment, and other hazardous enclosed spaces,
- work involving hazardous materials: acids, explosives, flammable substances, and toxic substances,
- work at heights.
Please note: the list in the regulation is not an exhaustive catalog. The employer should expand it to include work defined as hazardous in industry–specific regulations and in equipment operating instructions, as well as other activities that the employer deems to involve increased risk. A facility that contracts with an outside company is required to maintain its own, up-to-date list of particularly hazardous tasks performed on its premises. Based on this list, the facility decides whether a given contracted task requires a permit.
How does a digital system support the management of work permits?
Paper-based permit documentation is difficult to retrieve quickly during an audit, and it’s easy for a signature to be missing or a form to be out of date. The HRcode Appointments visitor registration system allows you to handle the process digitally, and you can find the necessary permits with just a few clicks.
The Permits module includes selecting the type of permit, specifying the scope of work, hazards, and required authorizations. The generated PDF document is ready for signature (physical or digital), and the permit history is saved for each visitor or contractor, along with scans of the signed documents. Permit templates are fully customizable, so you can easily adapt them to your company’s needs.
What might this process look like?
Your visitor registers via a link or QR code, completes an e-training course on occupational safety and health tailored to their role, and passes a test. Only then will they gain access to a work permit. Security at the reception desk will see the training status in the system. In turn, the report will include information on visits, training sessions, tests, permits, and incident reports. If needed, you can quickly and easily export this data to Excel.
What are the most common mistakes made when issuing work permits?
The most common mistakes tend to recur regardless of the industry. Here they are:
A permit issued verbally or… not at all
Although the regulations do not require a written agreement, having one protects the employer. Without a signed document, it will be difficult for you to prove that the formalities were followed in the event of an accident.
The permit was issued on a long–term basis and covers the entire project rather than a specific task
The document issued for the entire project suggests that security measures are not being verified on an ongoing basis.
No distinction between a pass and a permit
Allowing an outside company onto the plant premises is sometimes confused with authorizing it to perform a specific, particularly hazardous task.
Incomplete document content
The absence of any of the elements of the minimum scope, such as the responsible persons, scope of activities, duration, or signature.
HRcode Appointments helps you avoid some of these errors. The permission template requires all fields to be filled out before the document is generated, and the history of permissions assigned to a specific contractor eliminates the risk that a single document will cover several unrelated tasks.
Finally – what should we do now?
Check whether your facility has an up–to–date list of particularly hazardous work and whether the permit template you use includes all the required elements. If documentation is still being passed back and forth in paper form between the reception desk and the occupational safety and health department, now is a good time to see how this works in the visitor registration system.
FAQ
No. A work permit is required only if the contractor performs work that is particularly hazardous as defined by the regulation or work classified as particularly hazardous by the host facility. Access to the premises is regulated by a pass, not a work permit.
No, these are two separate matters. A work permit applies to a specific, particularly hazardous job and is issued in addition, provided that such a procedure is in place at the workplace or is required by the relevant procedures.
The regulations do not preclude electronic approval. For security reasons, many companies opt for a physical copy of the document and store it digitally, as in the HRcode Visits Permits module.
Yes. The document can be issued to multiple employees, which is especially practical for large construction projects.
The regulations do not specify a maximum duration. Best practice is to set the duration to match the duration of the assignment.
Bibliography:
Ministerstwo Pracy i Polityki Socjalnej, Rozporządzenie z dnia 26 września 1997 r. w sprawie ogólnych przepisów bezpieczeństwa i higieny pracy, 1997, https://przepisy.gofin.pl/przepisy,4,18,39,24,2479,20211120,rozporzadzenie-ministra-pracy-i-polityki-socjalnej-z-dnia.html;
Arslege.pl, Art. 208 k.p. – Współdziałanie pracodawców zatrudniających pracowników w tym samym miejscu, https://arslege.pl/wspoldzialanie-pracodawcow-zatrudniajacych-pracownikow-w-tym-samym-miejscu/k10/a1430/;
Biznes.gov.pl, Prace szczególnie niebezpieczne, 2024, https://www.biznes.gov.pl/pl/portal/00294
3M Poland;
Przestrzenie zamknięte – definicje, przepisy i statystyki, 2019, https://multimedia.3m.com/mws/media/1721789O/confined-spaces-definitions-regulations-and-statistics-poland.pdf
Anna Różak
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