Badanie warunków pracy w branży meblarskiej na przykładzie województwa opolskiego

Furniture sector is one of the five basic branch of woodworking industry. For many years, it has been one of the most dynamically developing branches of Polish economy, making it an important component of the country's economy. Production of furniture includes a wide variety of processes. Among the most important are: conservation of wood, sawing, drying and seasoning, production of laminate flooring, mechanical machining, grinding, bleaching, dyeing, polishing, sandblasting, painting, assembling and finishing. Typically, these processes take place in more than one plant. At each stage of production, the employees, are exposed to hazardous, nuisance or malicious agents to a greater or lesser extent. According to CSO data from 2012, every fifth worker of the furniture industry is working in the hazardous conditions. Generally, the employees are exposed to: - noise (present in about 97% of plants), - dust (present in about 93% plants), - chemical agents (present in about t 60%-70% plants), - mechanical vibration (present in about 10% plants), - improper lighting of the work place (present in about 5% plants). The aim of the study is to characterize the quality of working conditions in the furniture industry in the region of Opole Silesia based on twice conducted surveys. Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that, despite the development of science, technological and organizational progress, both the first survey and the second, shows that there were factors which deteriorate quality of working conditions, as well as inconsistency with compulsory standards, which is reflected in the high level of threats and a large number of accidents at work, that undermine human capital responsible for the competitiveness of enterprises nowadays.