Do you want to know how to apply NR 4? Understand here!
What do you know about NR 4? Surely, you may have heard about this regulatory standard, but today our focus is to bring all the content it covers so that it can help you apply it to your works.
NR 4, like all NR's, because it is established by the Ministry of Labor and Employment, is mandatory and must be complied with. Therefore, we understand the importance of providing all the relevant information that this standard deals with so that you can adapt your works to NR 4.
As you may already know, the Regulatory Standards (NR's) guide the processes related to safety in the workplace for all companies that have employees under the Labor Code.
Considering that civil construction is the sector with the highest rate of accidents at work in the country, we believe that complying with NR 4 involves not only a legal obligation, but also concerns offering a safe work environment, guaranteeing decent conditions for employees.
With that in mind, we developed this article to help you keep your work appropriate to NR 4, since it's not always a simple task to understand about Occupational Safety in Civil Construction, such an important topic! Then, continue reading this article to understand everything about this essential standard for civil construction!
A NR 4 It is one of the most important NRs when it comes to occupational safety, as its purpose is to guide and discipline the SESMT, Specialized Service in Safety Engineering and Occupational Medicine. But what does that mean, in practice?
Well, first of all, we have to emphasize that NR 4 is a Regulatory Standard established by the Ministry of Labor and Employment, which describes the main aspects of the work environment to be considered in order to identify and measure risks to the health of the worker.
In addition to being mandatory, working within the standards required by NR 4 makes it possible to obtain quality seals. Therefore, following the recommendations of the NBR' s and meeting the requirements of the NR' s adds value to your constructions.
Basically, NR 4 in civil construction governs SESMT, which, among its functions, involves the monthly recording of data on occupational accidents, occupational diseases, and health agents, always taking into account workplace safety and employee health issues. In general, we can say that the main function of the SESMT is to prevent accidents at work and protect workers, through instructions on the risks of work activities and guidelines on the use of PPE's.
The standard states that the SESMT design varies according to the characteristics of each company. For example, construction sites with up to a thousand employees and located in the same state are not classified as establishments and may, in these cases, be integrated into the headquarters of the company responsible for the organization of SESMT.
This situation, in particular, allows professionals to be centralized. In other cases, the sizing of SESMT must be carried out considering the degree of risk of the activity, classified within the civil construction, and the number of employees of the organization.
Given the cross-checking of this information, it is possible to define the number of professionals that will be in charge of the SESMT, who will be: occupational physician, occupational safety engineer, occupational nurse, occupational safety technician and occupational nursing assistant.
Continue reading this article, as we will explain what are the functions of each of the professionals that make up the SESMT.
Therefore, we can summarize that NR 4 was developed to reduce the exposure of workers to risks inherent to the construction activity, since it is one of the sectors with the most accidents at work in Brazil.
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What are the regulatory references?
Like any standard, we must understand NR 4 as part of a set of standards that go in the same direction of providing safe and healthy work environments. For this reason, the activities of the SESMT are determined by NR 4, but there are other regulations that complement the issue and are essential to understand this whole issue of occupational safety.
Among them, we can mention NR 12, which provides instructions on how to reduce the risk of accidents with machines and equipment; NR 06, which provides guidance on the use of EPI's; NR 18 and 35 are also essential for regulating construction work.
They are closely related and must be understood together so that it is possible to understand the whole idea of work safety in civil construction. In our blog, you have access to the most important NR's on this topic and also to the NBR's, which are also essential to guide technical procedures in this area.
Why is NR 4 important for civil construction?
We have already made it very clear about the importance of NR 4 for civil construction, but so that there are still no doubts, let's highlight its relevance in this topic.
Well, NR 4 is essential to guarantee safety in construction work environments, since it is the sector with the most accidents, leave and occupational diseases. In addition to avoiding fines for the employer, who doesn't want to work in a safe and healthy environment?
In addition, civil engineering has a deep-rooted culture about the non-use of PPE's and lack of safety in the work environment. If this already happens and there are mandatory regulatory standards, imagine if they didn't exist?
So, if you ever wondered about the relevance of NR' s, I believe there are no more doubts, right?
So, study the NR' s and the NBR's Take it easy, because bringing them to practice makes all the difference in the final quality of any work!
What are the steps to comply with NR 4?
Now that you understand why complying with NR 4 is so important in civil construction, let's give you tips on the steps you must follow so that you can comply with the main requirements established by the standard.
1. Creation of SESMT
The first step you must take is to select the professional team that will be part of the SESMT grid. As we said before, the team involves 5 classes of professionals, each responsible for a function: occupational physician, occupational safety engineer, occupational nurse, occupational safety technician, and occupational nursing assistant. In general, we can divide the functions of each professional as follows:
Occupational physician: carrying out appointments and visits; preventing illnesses among employees and diagnosing and treating health issues;
Occupational safety engineer: occupational safety and health management, focusing on reducing possible losses that a company may experience, be it human, machinery, equipment, fines and even environmental degradation;
Occupational nurse: leader of the nursing team. Provides assistance to employees in hospitals and outpatient clinics;
Occupational safety technician: collaborates in the implementation of the health and safety policy at work. It performs audits and monitoring, among other functions;
Occupational nursing assistant: assists the nursing team, providing assistance to hospital employees and outpatient clinics.
2. Definition of SESMT sizing
As mentioned before, the SESMT size varies according to the activity carried out and the number of workers. Thus, NR 4 determines the degree of risk of the company's activity through a classification and the number of employees. By combining these two data, it is possible to define the required number of each professional to compose the SESMT.
3. SESMT registration with the Ministry of Labor
The SESMT, for its validation, must be registered with the Ministry of Labor and Employment, which can be done online through the MTE website. For registration, it is necessary to submit some data regarding the company.
4. Conference
Once you have done the SESMT, it is important to do some checks. On the MTE website itself, it is possible to consult a list of questions and answers to answer the remaining questions and to make the changes that need to be adjusted. Also, there is a checklist that can be useful to identify possible problems with the SESMT and, thus, you can verify that you are fully meeting the requirements determined by NR 4.
Conclusion:
Meeting the requirements of NR 4 is essential to provide not only a safe and healthy environment for workers, but also to avoid fines and guarantee quality seals for the entire work. Therefore, failing to comply with NR 4, as with the other NR' s, is not an option! Therefore, we recommend that you read all of them carefully and, if necessary, count on Blok for any challenge. We hope this article helped you!
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