How Do You Find Your Hazard Class? NACE Code and the Communiqué

Almost every duration and obligation in occupational health and safety depends on the workplace's hazard class: specialist and physician durations, training hours, renewal periods of the risk assessment and emergency plan, and frequency of medical examinations. So the first job is to determine your hazard class correctly.

Three classes, three different loads

In legislation workplaces are divided into three classes: low hazard, hazardous and very hazardous. For example, offices and retail are generally low hazard, metalworking and food production hazardous, and construction and mining very hazardous. With the same headcount, the specialist time to be allocated to a very hazardous workplace is four times that of a low-hazard one.

Finding the class step by step

• Find the NACE activity code on your SGK workplace registration certificate (for example 25.62 – machining of metal parts)
• Look for this code in the list in the Hazard Classes Communiqué published by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security
• Whichever class the code is listed under is your workplace's class
• If there is more than one activity, the class of the main activity carried out at the workplace is decisive

Common mistakes

Some businesses appear in a less hazardous class than they really are because they declared the NACE code wrongly. This leads to under-calculated specialist and physician durations and an administrative fine at inspection. If the activity has changed (for example a workshop was opened along with the office), the SGK record must be updated.

What if the class changes?

When the hazard class changes, the risk assessment, emergency plan and training plan are updated for the new class and service durations are recalculated. Assignments in ISG-KATİP also change.

How to reach us

It is enough to write your SGK workplace registry number on our quote form. We confirm your hazard class, calculate the specialist and physician durations needed for your headcount and present a written package quote. You can also see an approximate value beforehand with the service time calculator on our site.

Example

A furniture workshop with 30 employees in Istanbul falls into the hazardous class under the furniture manufacturing NACE group (31); for this workshop the specialist time is 600 minutes a month (10 hours), the physician time 180 minutes (3 hours), basic OHS training 12 hours and the risk assessment must be renewed every four years. An accounting office with the same headcount is low hazard and these durations fall by half or less.

Why does it matter?

If the hazard class is declared wrongly, specialist time falls short and at inspection that shortfall leads directly to an administrative fine. Having the class confirmed from day one therefore protects the employer in the long run.