The safety statement with a risk assessment is a company's foundation document for occupational safety — it describes the workplaces, identifies the hazards, determines the level of risk and prescribes the measures. The law requires every employer to prepare and implement one for every workplace, whether the company has two employees or two hundred (Occupational Safety and Health Act, consolidated text; original text Official Gazette of RM no. 92/07, as subsequently amended, most recently in Official Gazette of RNM no. 74/25). It is also the first document a labour inspector asks for.
What the safety statement actually is
The Act defines the safety statement as a document that describes the characteristics of the work process, contains identification of hazards and an assessment of the risk to safety and health at the workplace, and prescribes appropriate protective measures (Article 3).
In practice that means one document per workplace, containing:
- general details of the employer and location, the name of the workplace and the number of people performing it — including whether there are employees under 18, pregnant workers or employees with residual working capacity;
- a description of the technological and work process, the work equipment (machines, appliances, hand and power tools, installations) and the materials;
- a list of personal protective equipment with the applicable standard (for example EN 397 for a safety helmet) and its service life;
- a description of the work organisation, working hours and the conditions for entering into employment;
- data from inspections carried out on work equipment, workplace measurements, health examinations, workplace injuries and inspection findings;
- a table of identified hazards and harmful factors, a table with the determined level of risk, and a table of measures;
- a conclusion and the safety statement itself, signed by the employer, the authorised organisation and the occupational medicine specialist.
The statement is prepared in the Macedonian language and its Cyrillic script, and where required also in another language in official use in the municipality (Article 11(5)).
The form is not left to discretion. Under Article 11(6) of the Act, the manner of preparing the safety statement, its content and the data on which the risk assessment must be based are prescribed by a dedicated rulebook, adopted by the minister responsible for labour in agreement with the minister responsible for health — the Rulebook on the manner of preparing the safety statement, its content, and the data on which the risk assessment must be based. The practical consequence is that a statement drawn up "to your own template" rarely survives an inspection: both the structure and the minimum body of data are prescribed in advance.
Who may prepare it
This is where employers most often go wrong. There are two lawful routes:
First — through an authorised specialist organisation. The Ministry of Economy and Labour issues a licence to a legal or natural person to perform the specialist activities, among which risk assessment and the concept of the safety statement are expressly listed (Article 45(1)). Following the 2025 amendment, competence in this area rests with the Ministry of Economy and Labour rather than the former Ministry of Labour and Social Policy (Official Gazette of RNM no. 74/25).
Second — through your own safety professional, but subject to a condition. One of the primary duties of the safety professional is preparing the technical basis for the safety statement (Article 19(1)). But paragraph (2) of the same article is explicit: the safety professional may perform that task only if the conditions of Article 46 of the Act are met, that is, the staffing, organisational and technical requirements prescribed by the minister. Most companies do not meet those conditions and therefore engage an external authorised organisation.
Important: an employer may entrust these obligations to authorised legal or natural persons where it lacks suitable specialist staff and technical capability (Article 6(1)), but engaging an external firm does not release it from its own liability in this area (Article 6(4)). Liability remains with the employer.
Who may do what is set out further on the page for the occupational safety professional.
The methodology: four steps
1. Identifying hazards and harmful factors
The specialist team tours the workplace, observes the work process, speaks with the people doing the work and takes over the employer's documentation — the job classification, safe working instructions, findings from equipment inspections, health examination reports and injury data from the preceding period. A standardised list of hazards and harmful factors is then completed: mechanical hazards, hazards linked to the characteristics of the workplace (work at height, confined space, slippery surfaces), electrical hazards, chemical, physical and biological hazards, psychophysiological strain, and factors linked to the organisation of work.
2. Determining the level of risk
For each identified hazard, the source, the work activity during which it arises and the possible consequence are determined. The level of risk is derived semi-quantitatively — by multiplying three parameters: likelihood, frequency of exposure and severity of the possible consequence. The product gives the rank: low, moderate or high risk.
An example from a real assessment for a workplace involving work at height: for the hazard "work at height or depth", parameters of 6 × 6 × 6 give a result of 216, classified as high risk — an unacceptable level requiring additional measures. The same assessment gave 36 for "psychological strain", that is, low risk, for which no additional action is needed.
3. Measures
For every established risk the document states three things: which measures have already been implemented (training, personal protective equipment issued, health examination carried out), which additional measures are required, who is responsible for them and by what deadline. This is the part an inspector reads most closely, because it is the evidence that the document is being implemented rather than merely existing.
The Act requires measures to be built in order of priority: avoiding the risk, tackling the risk at source, replacing the dangerous with the safe, and giving priority to collective over individual measures (Article 9).
4. Consultation and revision
Once prepared, the employer must obtain an opinion from the union, or from the employee representative where there is no union (Article 11(2)). The statement must also be presented to employees and to their representative (Article 27(2)).
When the statement must be renewed
The Act prescribes no fixed validity period — there is no "every two years" rule. The obligation is triggered by an event:
| Event | What the law requires | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Change of conditions at the workplace or in the working environment | A new safety statement | Article 11(3) |
| A new hazard appears | A new safety statement | Article 11(3) |
| Change to the technological process, reconstruction of the building, of the ventilation, heating or air-conditioning, modification of process equipment | New testing of chemical, biological and physical hazards, microclimate and illuminance | Articles 34 and 35 |
| Starting operations in a new building | Testing within one year at the latest | Article 35 |
| New work equipment | Inspection and testing before first use, after reconstruction or breakdown, and after relocation | Article 33(2) |
| A new workplace in the job classification | A safety statement for that workplace | Article 11(1) |
A workplace injury is not expressly listed as a trigger in the Act, but after an injury there is almost always a basis for a new statement: the injury is evidence that the assessed level of risk or the prescribed measures do not match reality, which constitutes a change of conditions within the meaning of Article 11(3). In addition, the employer must notify the labour inspectorate in writing within 48 hours of every fatality, collective accident and injury causing incapacity lasting more than three working days (Article 36).
What the employer gains
- Legal compliance — the first document requested during an inspection.
- The basis for everything else — the programme for employee training, the type and service life of personal protective equipment, the scope of workplace environment measurements, and the content and scope of preventive health examinations all depend on the risk assessment (Article 22(7)).
- A clear division of responsibility — every measure has an owner and a deadline.
- An argument in proceedings — in the event of a workplace injury or dispute, the documented assessment and the measures implemented are evidence of due care taken.
The Rulebook on the cost of performing specialist occupational safety activities (Official Gazette of RNM no. 275/19) prescribes a minimum of MKD 3,000 per workplace for the risk assessment and at least MKD 300 per workplace for preparing the concept of the safety statement. Those are statutory minimums, not market prices.
Typical mistakes
- One assessment for the whole company. The Act requires a statement for every workplace, not a single document for the legal entity.
- An assessment copied from another company. The assessment must be based on the specific work process and documentation; a transcribed list of hazards does not survive an inspection.
- A document that sits in a drawer. The statement must be implemented — the measures carried out and the employees made familiar with it. Failing to present the statement to employees and their representatives is a separate offence (Article 56).
- Forgotten new workplaces. Every new workplace in the job classification requires its own statement.
- Measures with no owner and no deadline. A measure without a responsible person and a deadline is not a measure.
- An assessment without measurements. If the process involves noise, dust or chemical hazards, an assessment without measured results remains at the level of assumption.
Penalties
| Offence | Micro and small | Medium | Large |
|---|---|---|---|
| Failed to prepare and implement a safety statement in writing, or it was not prepared in the prescribed manner (Article 11(1) and (4)) | €500 – 1,000 | €1,000 – 2,000 | €3,000 – 4,000 |
| Failed to test chemical, biological and physical hazards, microclimate and illuminance (Article 34) | €500 – 1,000 | €1,000 – 2,000 | €3,000 – 4,000 |
| Failed to present the safety statement to employees and their representatives (Article 27(2)) | €200 – 300 | €300 – 400 | €400 – 600 |
Amounts are in denar equivalent. For offences under Article 58, the responsible person within the legal entity is fined EUR 300 at a micro and small employer, EUR 400 at a medium one and EUR 500 at a large one, and an employer that is a natural person EUR 250.
Two things are worth knowing. First, if the fine is paid within eight days of the offence payment order being issued, half the prescribed amount is payable (Article 54(2)). Second, if the employer repeats the offence within one year, the inspector will prohibit work in the work premises by decision for 15 days (Article 54(3)).
How we can help
RI-Opusproekt is an authorised organisation for specialist occupational safety activities. We prepare the risk assessment with a safety statement workplace by workplace, together with the necessary workplace environment measurements, and keep it current when you change equipment, premises or technology. Write to us via Request a quote with your headcount and activity and you will receive a specific scope.
This article is informational and does not replace professional advice. Regulations change — last updated: August 2026.
This article is informational and does not replace professional advice.
