Estonia's amended health and safety act for employers

The Riigikogu adopted amendments to the Occupational Health and Safety Act on 30 September 2026. A new hire's health check deadline moves from four months to six, companies with fewer than ten employees stop filing their risk analysis in the Labour Inspectorate portal, and separate instructions for the work performed are dropped. Confirm the entry into force date on Riigi Teataja.

The new hire health check: six months, and no longer

The simplest mistake the amendment invites is reading a longer deadline as no deadline. The act now gives six months for a new employee's health check instead of four. If month six passes and the worker has not seen an occupational health doctor, the worker is left unexamined and the breach belongs to the employer.

Nobody needs to visit the site to find it. According to the Government, the Labour Inspectorate will draw more on employment register data, and the register entry shows the date the worker started. The deadline follows from that date by simple addition. For foreign workers the register entry is mandatory in any case, and the procedure is covered in the employment register and payroll guide.

The practical step is to keep the health check date in the same sheet as the contract start and the permit expiry. A worker who starts on 1 November reaches the last month in April, and the booking with the occupational health provider is made well before the final week.

Who the amendments affect

The scope of the change depends on company size. The Government release cites roughly 95 percent of Estonian companies as micro enterprises with fewer than ten people, so most employers fall into at least one row below. The Government states that the reform answers 31 problems raised by businesses.

One boundary matters: a company with fewer than ten employees loses the duty to file the risk analysis in the portal, not the risk analysis itself. Only the one person company is released from the risk analysis.

Instructions, first aid and intoxication testing

Employers no longer write a separate instruction for the work performed. An equipment instruction is not needed when the manufacturer's manual covers safety. Where the manufacturer's manual does not cover safety, the need for the employer's own instruction remains. It is therefore worth checking, for each item of equipment, whether the manufacturer's manual sets out the safety requirements, and keeping the manual where the worker can reach it, for example next to the equipment or on the company intranet.

First aid becomes more flexible. No first aider has to be appointed for a person working alone or at a healthcare provider, and employers sharing a work environment, such as a construction site or a warehouse building, may organise first aid jointly. A joint arrangement is worth putting in writing, so that it is clear who is responsible on which shift.

On intoxication, the amended act gives employers a clearer basis. Testing is possible on reasonable suspicion, and preventively where a major hazard source exists. The testing procedure should be explained to workers in advance, not on the day of an incident.

Labour Inspectorate data and the employer's calendar

The Labour Inspectorate will rely more on employment register and subcontracting chain data, so employers file the same data with fewer agencies. That reduces duplication, but it raises the weight of an accurate register entry: a wrong start date shifts every deadline calculated from it. Subcontracting chain liability and the content of inspections are covered in the illegal employment and inspections guide.

After the amendment, three dates belong in the calendar for every new hire: the register entry before work starts, the health check by the end of month six, and the permit expiry where the worker is a foreign national. The consolidated text and the entry into force date are published in Riigi Teataja, and the reasoning for the reform is in the Government release. Open vacancies are listed on the job board.