Physical and psychosocial strain

Your employees have a right to a safe and healthy workplace. Some situations at work may cause physical or psychological problems for your employees. This is called physical or psychosocial strain, which may lead to serious health issues. As their employer, you must prevent physical and psychosocial strain as much as possible. 

Preventing physical strain 

Besides manual handling of heavy loads, there are many other risk factors which may cause physical strain to your employees, such as for instance: 

• repetitive movements
• improper postures
• noisy workplaces
• poor lighting conditions

You must take measures to reduce their risk of causing injuries to your employees. For example, you can provide suitable office furniture or automate simple physical tasks. You must also inform your employees how they can work in a safe and healthy manner. 

Knowledge institute TNO has a Physical Work Load website with tools to help you create a more sustainable working environment. Is physical strain common in your industry? The Health and Safety catalogue (arbocatalogus, in Dutch) will state the agreements on health and safety in the workplace for your industry. 

Preventing physical strain at home 

The obligation to prevent physical strain extends to your employee’s home office. Thus, you must also ensure your employees have a safe workplace when they work from home. 

Preventing psychosocial strain (PSA) 

You must prevent psychosocial work strain (psychosociale arbeidsbelasting, PSA, in Dutch) for your employees as much as possible. Psychosocial strain at work can cause physical, psychological, and social problems. Your employees may experience psychosocial strain at the workplace from, among others: 

• too high workload
• lack of role clarity
• lack of involvement in decision making
• job insecurity
• ineffective communication
• psychological and sexual harassment, or third party violence 

You must make a psychosocial workload policy (PSA-beleid) as part of your Health & Safety policy. In it, you examine what the potential causes of psychosocial strain are and how you aim to prevent them. 

In your risk assessment and evaluation (RI&E) you describe the health risks from psychosocial strain for your employees. You include the measures to prevent or reduce psychosocial stress in the RI&E’s Plan of Action. You inform your employees about these risks and the measures that you take. You must also check if these measures are effective. 

Aggression and violence against employees 

You must protect your employees against physical or verbal aggression and violence in the workplace by colleagues, customers, or patients. As their employer, you must take preventive measures. And you must arrange for shelter, support, and aftercare. 

Confidential adviser 

You can appoint a confidential adviser (vertrouwenspersoon, in Dutch) who helps you with issues caused by improper behaviour. A confidential adviser provides information and support to employees who are victim of improper conduct. And they advise superiors and management on preventive measures against improper conduct. A confidential adviser is sworn to secrecy. 

Testing employees for alcohol and drugs use 

Do you suspect an employee consumes alcohol or uses drugs before or during work? You are not allowed to test them (ADM test). An ADM test by employers is a breach of privacy . An exception applies to employees in certain high risk professions, such as pilots or train drivers. These exceptions are stated in the Alcohol, Drugs and Medicines (Road Traffic) Decree (in Dutch). 

Alcohol, drugs, and medicines policy 

Your risk assessment and evaluation (RI&E) reveals the risks from alcohol consumption and drug use at work. You can arrange for rules regarding the use of alcohol, drugs, and medicines and record these in an alcohol, drugs, and medicines policy (ADM-beleid, in Dutch).