Driving safely at work is a shared matter. The employer creates the conditions, the driver uses them and follows the rules. This lesson says what each of them must do.
What the employer must do
Under the Labour Code (§ 101 and § 102), the employer ensures occupational health and safety, looks for hazards, assesses risks and takes measures. For journeys at work this means in practice:
- Assess the risks: how much driving there is, in what traffic, in what weather, for how long, with what equipment.
- Check the driver: a valid driving licence for the right category, and medical fitness where the type of work requires it. The company must not let a person drive who has no driving entitlement. It also must not give them work whose demands do not match their abilities (§ 103(1)(a)).
- Provide the vehicle: a valid technical inspection, regular servicing, the compulsory equipment, winter tyres in winter, and repair of defects.
- Give instructions: how to use the vehicle, how to load it, where to report defects and accidents, what to do in a breakdown.
- Decide how often to train and keep records (§ 103(3)).
- Provide first aid (§ 103(1)(j)).
- Pay the costs of health and safety: the employer must not pass them on to employees (§ 101(6)).
What the employee must do
Under § 106(4) of the Labour Code you must:
- take part in training and have your knowledge checked,
- follow the employer's rules and instructions that you have been properly told about,
- use the means of transport and working methods set for you, and not change them on your own,
- not drink alcohol or misuse other addictive substances during working hours,
- report defects and shortcomings that endanger safety,
- report a work injury without delay, your own or that of another employee you witnessed,
- submit, on the instruction of an authorised manager named in writing by the employer, to a test of whether you are under the influence of alcohol or other addictive substances (point i).
The traffic act also applies here: under § 5(1)(f) of Act No. 361/2000 Sb., a driver must undergo an examination at the employer's request to show whether they are under the influence of alcohol.
The right to refuse dangerous work
Under § 106(2) you may refuse work that you have good reason to believe directly and seriously endangers your life or health, or the health of others. Such a refusal is not a breach of duty. Examples are an instruction to drive a vehicle with a serious technical defect, or to set off when you are very tired and ill. It is an exception for serious cases, not a reason to skip a trip whenever you do not feel like it.
Only those who may drive can drive
A driver must hold a valid driving entitlement for the vehicle category. Under Act No. 361/2000 Sb., they must not hand over driving to a person without entitlement or to a person under the influence of alcohol (§ 5(2)(d)). If your licence has been withheld, suspended or lost, tell your employer and do not drive. Driving without entitlement is an offence and can also be a crime.
Summary
- The employer assesses risks, checks the driver and the vehicle, gives instructions and keeps records.
- The employee is trained, follows instructions, does not drink, and reports defects and injuries.
- On the employer's instruction you must undergo an alcohol test.
- Without a valid driving entitlement you must not drive, and you must tell the employer.