Question: Are periodic health check-ups for employees a mandatory obligation?
Answer:
Periodic health check-ups for employees are a mandatory administrative obligation for enterprises; they are absolutely not a voluntary benefit that can be agreed to be waived or converted into cash. This activity cannot be abolished or delayed based on an agreement between the parties, and an enterprise’s failure to ever implement it constitutes a direct violation of its legal obligations.
Regarding the legal basis, pursuant to Article 132 and Article 134 of the Labor Code 2019, the employer must bear the primary responsibility for complying with and fully implementing measures to enforce all legal regulations on occupational safety and health in the workplace.
Specifying this responsibility, pursuant to Article 21 of the Law on Occupational Safety and Health 2015, it is stipulated:
“1. Enterprises must organize health check-ups for employees in normal positions at least once a year. For employees performing heavy, hazardous, or dangerous jobs, or vulnerable employees, the enterprise must organize check-ups at least once every 06 months.
- When conducting health check-ups as prescribed in Clause 1 of this Article, female employees must undergo obstetric/gynecological examinations; employees working in environments exposed to factors with a risk of causing occupational diseases must be examined for occupational disease detection.
- Employers shall organize health check-ups for employees before assigning them to work and before transferring them to heavier, more hazardous, or more dangerous jobs, or after they have recovered from occupational accidents or diseases and return to work, except in cases where their decrease in work capacity has been assessed by a Medical Examination Council.
- Employers shall organize health check-ups and occupational disease screening for employees at medical examination and treatment facilities that ensure professional and technical requirements and conditions.”
To comply with the law and avoid direct legal violations, enterprises must strictly organize periodic health check-ups and occupational disease screening according to the exact frequency and for the specific subjects prescribed in the Labor Code 2019 and the Law on Occupational Safety and Health 2015.
