Relevant Legislation
As part of a health promotion effort, individual health checks are a method chosen by more and more Danish companies. The reason for choosing a Health Check is typically presented by the company’s HR and / or work safety organization. The purpose is usually a combination of the company’s need for an attractive profile, combined with sickness absence reduction and the employees’ desire for health promotion as part of the employment.
However, health checks are often also based on the existing legal requirements applicable to companies that have employees with night work or who work in noise, dust or certain dangerous substances such as lead or mineral wool.
The Director of the Occupational Safety and Health Authority may decide that a company, as a condition of employing employees at work that is at risk to their health, must ensure that they undergo occupational medical examinations or are offered such examinations, periodically and if necessary even before commencement of work.
Examinations under this Executive Order must be organized and conducted with a view to preventing and combating work-related disorders and must be carried out by experts.That is why we employ Nurses.
Individual results of the Examination must not be left to the employer, and the person conducting Examinations must, as a general rule, keep the examination results for an employee, and the records based on them, for at least 40 years after the impact during work has ceased.
The regulation can befound here
The guide describes the health problems that night work can cause and the current rules on health checks during night work, including the obligation to inform the Danish Working Environment Authority on health checks. Ref. Section 6 of Act No. 248 requires employees to be offered free health checks before beginning work on night work, and thereafter with regular periods of less than 3 years. Many labor agreements, including CO-Industry, however, has reduced the interval to 2 years.
Act no. 248 can be found here.
The Guide can be found here.
Employees exposed to noise exceeding a noise level of 85 dB (A) or peak values of pulses of 137 dB (C) must have access to an occupational medical examination.
Employees exposed to noise exceeding a noise level of 80 dB (A) or peak values of pulses of 135 dB (C) must have access to a Hearing Survey, including an audiometric examination if the workplace assessment, cf. §§ 4-7, shows risks due to noise.
Reference is also made to the Order on Occupational Medical Examinations under the Working Environment Act 1165 above.
The Regulation may be found here.
The Guide can be found here.
The AT-Guide includes work for an employer that assesses the risk of exposure to metallic lead and its ionic compounds. In addition, the Executive Order on Occupational Medical Examinations applies under the Working Environment Act 1165 above.
Every six months, the employer must monitor the concentration of lead in the blood of the employees. If the results of two consecutive measurements show blood lead values below 20 µg lead / 100 ml blood (1.0 µmol / l), no further regular blood lead levels should be examined if the working conditions are the same.
The Guide can be found here
Employees must have access to a health examination before starting work on asbestos or asbestos-containing material, and if necessary at regular intervals thereafter and at least once every 3 years.
The Guide can be found here
In addition, there are a number of AT guidelines that prescribe health checks if the company’s APV points to risks that cannot be fully remedied.
Annex 10, par. 9: Employees must be offered free health checks before beginning employment as a night worker. Night workers must be offered health checks within regular periods of no more than 2 years. It is natural for the safety organization at each company to monitor on its own initiative whether the health check is carried out in accordance with the rules.
The Labor agreement can be found here
Under various conditions, the company can pay for some types of healthcare without the employee becoming taxable on them, including health checks, health examinations, vaccinations, smoking cessation and stress treatment.
Health checks and vaccinations:
Health checks and vaccinations can be tax-free according to 2 different rules:
- The staff care exemption:
Health checks and vaccinations are tax-free after the staff exemption, if these 3 conditions are met:
- The health check is done in the workplace
- The health check is without significant economic value
- All employees are offered a health check.
- The trifle limit for smaller staff benefits.
Health checks or vaccinations (at or outside the workplace) are tax-free if the value of these, combined with the value of other smaller staff benefits that the employee receives during the year, does not exceed DKK 1,200 in 2020.
Vaccination, which is largely done for the sake of work, is tax-free for the employee who receives the vaccination. It is a condition that the value of the vaccination combined with the value of other staff benefits, covered by the trifle limit for business-related staff benefits, which the employee receives during the year, does not exceed DKK 6,300 in 2020.
Quit smoking
Smoking cessation courses, therapy, counseling and pharmacological aids, such as nicotine preparations, are tax-free for the employee if the expense is incurred as part of a general personnel policy for all the company’s employees. However, the offer must be limited to general criteria of seniority and number of working hours.
Stress Treatment:
Employer-paid treatment of stress is tax-free for the employee, if it can be specifically demonstrated that the stress has arisen as a result of the employee’s work function.
Here you can see what is tax-free and what conditions apply.
See also our Privacy Policy here
