On Wednesday, March 30, a law, voted in all discretion last August, comes into force, which changes the situation in terms of health at work. First novelty, the mid-career medical visit: it is scheduled for the employee’s 45th birthday.
What will it be used for? To make an inventory, at an age when you are still in great shape, to anticipate possible aging in relation to your work requirements and to make proposals for adaptation. Michel Ledoux, a lawyer specializing in occupational health, specifies on franceinfo: “Often we intervene too late, we intervene when the employee’s state of health is degraded, whereas there, by intervening at 45, we can adapt the workstation, find solutions so that the employee can continue to work in good conditions, in particular by modifying or adjusting the conditions and the workstation.”
“It’s very important before possible degradation. It’s primary prevention.”
Master Michel Ledouxon franceinfo
Another novelty: it concerns employees who lose contact with the business world. Those who are at risk of disintegration because they are on long-term or repeated sick leave. They must be oriented in time before the cut becomes irreversible. “The novelty of the law is the creation of a cell intended to fight against disintegration, believes Michel Ledoux. It is a cell which will be located in the occupational health prevention services, which will firstly be responsible for raising employee awareness of disintegration, identifying problematic individual situations and, in conjunction with the employer, again proposing individual measures such as job change or job adjustment.”
There will now also be better communication between the attending physician and the occupational physician. With the employee’s agreement, and only with his agreement, the occupational physician will have access to the shared medical file. He will therefore be able to know everything about the employee’s health history. Conversely, the attending physician will have access to all information on the employee’s exposure to risk.
Last novelty, the single risk assessment document must be kept for at least forty years by the company. Employees who have worked for this company will thus be able to prove more easily that they have been exposed to such and such a risk.