The question we hear most often from HR and OHS teams is this. How often should we repeat periodic examinations? The answer lies in your workplace hazard class, but if you do not know the exceptions, the schedule still slips.
The main rule, 1-3-5 years
- Very hazardous class such as mining, construction, chemicals, and foundry work, at least once a year.
- Hazardous class such as many manufacturing and workshop jobs, at least once every three years.
- Low hazard class such as offices, retail, and clerical services, at least once every five years.
You determine your workplace hazard class from the NACE code in the Communiqué on Workplace Hazard Classes Related to Occupational Health and Safety. Different locations of the same company can fall in different classes, so screenings need to be planned location by location.
Situations that shorten the intervals
- More frequent follow-up for young workers under 18 and for groups that need a special policy.
- Noise exposure, where audiometry follow-up is done annually in practice.
- Dust exposure, where chest X-ray and pulmonary function test cycles grow more frequent under the Dust Control Regulation.
- The occupational physician's judgment based on risk assessment, since the legal intervals are upper limits and the physician can always ask for more frequent checks.
- Return-to-work examinations, done regardless of the interval after a work accident, occupational disease, or long medical leave.
The cost of missing the schedule and how to avoid it
An overdue periodic examination brings an administrative fine per worker at inspection, and in a possible work accident it directly raises the employer's degree of fault. Even so, the most common picture in the field is examination dates forgotten in Excel lists.
You can request a sample screening schedule and a per-person timing plan for your hazard class, and we send it in writing within the same business day.