Safety and record keeping in warehousing and logistics

Labour inspectors recorded 41 338 findings in 2025. The largest share fell to transport and storage, at 8 978. Manufacturing is second with 7 733.9

With fatal accidents the lead is even clearer. Of the 24 fatal accidents in 2025, eight fell to transport and storage, a third of them. No other sector has a higher share.9

Why that is shows up in the statistics on the sources of accidents better than in any other figure.

The first two rows together are 58,39 % of all registered accidents. Walking through the hall and handling loads, the two activities that make up warehouse work. Lifting equipment and conveyors added 202 accidents and vehicles 644.9

The European figures fit the same picture. According to Eurostat, Slovak transport and storage accounted for 772 non-fatal accidents at work in 2023, the third highest count after manufacturing and trade.11

Handling loads has a regulation of its own, Government Regulation No. 281/2006 Coll. It has been in force since 1 July 2006 and has not been amended since.1 Its logic is the same as with protective equipment: remove the risk first, limit it only afterwards.

Where handling cannot be eliminated, organisational measures to reduce the risk follow under Section 4(2). The employer must also give employees the weight of the load and provide training on correct handling under Section 6.

Annex 1 lists the factors the risk arises from: the characteristics of the load, the physical effort, the working environment and the demands of the task. Annex 2 then holds what people look up most often in practice and comply with in full least often.

The table has two columns and sites usually watch only the first. The second, the total weight carried over a whole shift, is harder to keep to when picking is constant. Eight thousand kilograms sounds like a lot until you convert it into parcels over an eight hour shift.

The limit is not only weight, it is frequency

The least quoted part of the annex says how often lifting is allowed. At the highest value for men there is a restriction that explains why fifty kilograms is closer to a theoretical figure in practice.

Rules on continuous lifting go with it. Men may lift loads of 30 to 50 kg continuously for one hour, and the breaks between those periods must not be shorter than 30 minutes. For women, loads of 10 to 15 kg may be lifted continuously for 10 minutes and loads of 5 to 10 kg for 15 minutes, with breaks of at least 10 and 15 minutes respectively. When seated and lifting with one hand, a load for women must not exceed 5 kg.1

The annex also gives separate values for young people. Boys aged 17 to 18 may lift 20 kg and girls of the same age 15 kg; aged 16 to 18 the figures are 15 and 10 kg. For pregnant women, mothers up to the ninth month after birth and breastfeeding women, values below half the usual ones are recommended, and the doctor's advice has to be respected.1

There is a coherent set of Slovak technical standards for static steel racking. With three of them it is worth checking the edition, because older versions have been withdrawn and still turn up in enquiries and documentation.10

The first of them matters most in day-to-day use. STN EN 15635 is titled Use and maintenance of storage equipment, runs to 61 pages and is listed in the catalogue with implementation level idt EN 15635:2008. It was published in English only; there is no Slovak translation.10

How often racking is inspected

One thing has to be said here that runs against a widespread belief. No Slovak rule sets an interval for racking inspections. The annual interval that appears in service firms' offers is not a statutory deadline. Racking is a work device and Section 5(3) of Government Regulation No. 392/2006 Coll. applies to it: where no rule sets inspections, the employer sets their scope and frequency.2

The German trade publication DGUV Information 208-061 Lagereinrichtungen und Ladungsträger, in its November 2023 edition as updated in July 2024, puts it the same way. The operator has to assess whether its storage equipment is exposed to influences that cause damage and, if so, arrange repeat inspections at the intervals it has set on that basis.12

For an ordinary pallet warehouse that condition is met practically always. Inspections are therefore needed; only the interval has to be derived by the site itself, and the derivation has to be evidenced. The same publication gives one criterion that can be measured on the spot: the maximum deflection of load bearing parts at the permitted load is one two-hundredth of the span for metal materials and one hundred and fiftieth for other materials.12

Who may carry out the inspection is a second question. The German publication asks for a person competent to inspect, with the relevant training, experience and current practice in the field, who during the inspection must not be subject to technical instructions or disadvantaged because of its result.12 The Slovak rule speaks of an authorised person in Section 5(2) of Government Regulation No. 392/2006 Coll.

There is a belief around forklift trucks that they are designated technical equipment, with all the official tests that go with it. Decree No. 508/2009 Coll., which defines designated technical equipment, however does not contain the term forklift truck at all.5 It can be confused with the stacker crane, which does appear there, in two groups at once.

• Group A contains "a stacker crane with an operator position on the crane and its transfer carriage".
• Group B contains "a stacker crane without an operator position on the crane and its transfer carriage, except equipment forming part of automated handling and storage systems".

The exception at the end of the second entry matters for modern warehouses. Equipment forming part of an automated handling and storage system does not belong in group B.

The fact that a truck is not designated equipment does not exempt it from anything. Government Regulation No. 392/2006 Coll. on work devices applies to it, and on this point it is very specific.2

The second sentence is where warehouses most often trip up. Issuing internal traffic rules is not enough. In the same sentence the rule asks for compliance to be ensured, and that is a checking activity, not a document.

The general duties for work devices come on top: regular inspection by an authorised person and a special inspection after a modification, a fault, an accident or a longer break under Section 5(2), keeping records so that they are available to supervisory authorities at any time under Section 5(4), and demonstrable operator training under Section 8(4).

Since the most common source of accidents is falls in working and traffic areas, Government Regulation No. 391/2006 Coll. on minimum health and safety requirements for the workplace deserves attention, in the wording in force since 15 January 2023.3 Its Annex 1 is short for a warehouse, but specific.

• Traffic routes must be clearly marked under point 12.4.
• Workplace floors must have no dangerous bumps, holes or slopes, under point 9.1.
• Each employee should have at least 2 m² of free floor area, excluding equipment and access routes, under point 15.2.1.
• Each employee should have at least 12 m³ of air space, under point 15.2.6.

The signs themselves are dealt with by Government Regulation No. 387/2006 Coll. on requirements for safety and health signs at work, in the wording in force since 1 June 2015.4 Marking the routes is therefore not a question of tidiness in the hall but of complying with two regulations at once.

Annex 3 to Government Regulation No. 395/2006 Coll. names the warehouse directly. Where there is a danger of static compression of parts of the body, footwear with a safety toecap is prescribed for the foot, the work listed is load handling, and among the sectors it expressly names transport and storage.8 The same annex deals with anti-slip footwear for work on slippery surfaces and protective gloves for handling items with sharp edges.

The duties around issuing are the same as at any other site; in a warehouse it is the size of the place that complicates them.

• The list of PPE provided comes out of the risk assessment and must state specific types for each kind of work, under Section 5(1) of the PPE regulation.
• Where the same item is used by more than one employee, it must be available to the employee whenever it is needed under Section 3(3)(b).
• The employer provides the equipment free of charge and keeps records of what was issued under Section 6(2)(b) of Act No. 124/2006 Coll.6
• The documentation and records must be kept for five years from the last entry, under Section 6(1)(n) of the same act.
• The employer must check continuously that the equipment is properly used, under Section 9(1)(d).

Compared with a production hall, a warehouse has one extra feature: part of what is issued comes back. Scanners, terminals, measuring instruments and tools go out for a shift and are meant to return. The records are then not only about issuing but also about the return and the condition the item came back in.

On protective equipment, the 2025 report on the state of occupational safety names a problem that is not about equipment being scarce.

The statistics on causes match. Missing, inadequate or unsuitable PPE caused eight accidents in 2025, and failure to use the PPE prescribed and issued caused eighty-four.9 In the area of protective equipment, inspectors recorded 598 findings, 27.78% fewer than in 2024.

The same group of shortcomings keeps coming up: no list of PPE provided or an inadequate one, difficulty in naming a specific type for each activity, records of issued equipment not kept or kept wrongly, employees not informed or instructed, and no checks on proper use.9

International prevention work outside state supervision reaches the same conclusion. The Vision Zero strategy, led by the International Social Security Association, sets the safety of machines, equipment and workplaces, raising qualifications, and involving employees as three separate rules out of seven.13

Act No. 125/2006 Coll. on labour inspection, as in force since 7 June 2026, lists serious breaches of duty. Two entries standing next to each other matter for a warehouse: failure to provide a guard or safety device, and failure to provide the necessary effective PPE or to keep it in working order.7

For a serious breach the inspectorate does not consider a penalty, it imposes one.

In setting the amount, Section 19(6) takes into account, among other things, whether the breach results from an ineffective safety management system or is an isolated case, and whether the same shortcoming has been found repeatedly. A documented system of issuing and checking is therefore part of what gets assessed when a penalty is set.

In a warehouse the requirement that equipment be available runs up against distance. One central issuing point means an employee at the far end of the site walks several minutes for it, which is exactly why a damaged glove does not get replaced straight away. More issuing points, in turn, mean more places where the stock picture gets lost.

Controlled issuing settles both sides at once.

• The machine or terminal stands where the work is and is available on every shift. That is precisely what Section 3(3)(b) of the PPE regulation asks for.
• Every issue is tied to a named employee by card or PIN, which produces the record of provision that the health and safety act requires.
• Issued and returned items are recorded together, so a scanner or a measuring instrument always has a holder against it.
• Stock in every hall is visible from one place, even where issuing happens in five.

For a warehouse, our range is most often combined as the L40 for scanners, terminals and tools, with charging inside the locked cabinet, W40 DROP for gloves, goggles and consumables, and the T10 BASIC as an issuing point in the next hall.

Ten questions every warehouse and logistics operation should be able to answer.

Legislation is cited as in force on the date this guide was updated, and standards according to the ÚNMS SR catalogue as at 31 August 2026. Sources that are not Slovak legislation are marked in the list and are informative. This text is for information and does not replace legal advice or an assessment of a particular site.