Fall protection for working at height

If you own a company in the Netherlands and you or your employees work at height, you must take measures for fall protection. This is required by the Dutch Working Conditions Decree.

When is fall protection mandatory?

Fall protection is required if your employees work:

• at 2.5 metres or higher
• below 2.5 metres, but there is a danger of falling
• on a surface that moves or can start moving, causing them to fall

How do you offer fall protection?

To protect your employees from falling, you must:

• use a secured scaffolding, an aerial platform, or a work floor.
• place fences, railings, and guardrails.
• secure openings in the floors and walls.

If you cannot take these measures, you must use safety nets, harness belts, and harness cords.

If you want to know what the risks of falling are for you and your employees, you can do a risk assessment and evaluation. This will help you decide when you need to use fall protection and in which situation.

The employer is not the only one who has to take measures. Employees must do everything in their power to ensure they can work at height safely. If an employee uses the fall protection in the wrong way, changes, or moves the protection, they can be fined.

Personal fall protection

Is placing collective fall protection, like railings or fences, not possible? Then make sure your employees use personal fall protection, like a harness belt and a harness cord.

Using steps and ladders

If you use steps or ladders, you are at risk of falling. You should therefore avoid them as much as possible. Ladders are primarily intended to reach a work space, not as a work space. It is not permitted to use a ladder if you are working at a height of 7.5 metres or above.

If your employees do use steps and ladders, they must comply with product safety requirements. These requirements are in the Portable Climbing Equipment (Commodities Act) Decree (Warenwetbesluit draagbaar klimmaterieel, in Dutch). Your steps or ladders must, among others:

• be approved (check for an approval sticker)
• be periodically tested
• comply with the standards NEN 2484 and NEN EN-131

If your employees do use steps and ladders, pay attention to these points:

• The steps or ladder should always have good support and grip.
• The ladder must be straight and placed on a firm surface, which does not move.
• Rolling ladders must be secured before use.
• Ladders to another floor must reach at least one metre above the higher floor level.
• Employees must secure hanging ladders firmly, so that they cannot move or sway.

Fall protection for lifting or hoisting machine

If your employees work in a lifting or hoisting machine with a safety cage, they must be able to work safely. That means you have to:

• Make sure the machine is meant for carrying persons, not goods
• Make sure the machine meets safety requirements. You can tell from the CE-marking if it does.
• Inform and instruct your employees on how to use the machine safely
• See to it that your employees use the machine correctly.