In brief
Article 4 of Law No. 6331 gives the employer the duty to ensure workers' health and safety in relation to work, and divides this into five parts - taking measures, monitoring, having a risk assessment carried out, considering fitness for the job and restricting access to dangerous areas. Obtaining services from an OSGB does not remove this responsibility, and the cost of OHS measures cannot be passed on to workers.
What does Article 4 say?
The employer's occupational health and safety obligations begin with a single sentence in Article 4 of Occupational Health and Safety Law No. 6331: the employer is obliged to ensure workers' health and safety in relation to work. The provisions on risk assessment, training, health surveillance and emergencies in the rest of the Law are the details of this general obligation. That is why Article 4 is the first place looked at in an inspection and after an accident.
The article has four paragraphs:
- 4/1: The general obligation and its five items: (a) taking all kinds of measures, making the organisation, providing tools and equipment, adapting measures to changing conditions and improving the existing situation; (b) monitoring and checking whether measures are complied with and eliminating non-conformities; (c) carrying out or having a risk assessment carried out; (ç) considering the worker's fitness for the job in terms of health and safety when assigning tasks; (d) ensuring that those not given adequate information and instructions do not enter places with life-threatening and special dangers.
- 4/2: Obtaining services from specialists and organisations outside the workplace does not remove the employer's responsibilities.
- 4/3: Workers' OHS obligations do not affect the employer's responsibilities.
- 4/4: The employer cannot pass the cost of OHS measures on to workers.
What do the employer's occupational health and safety obligations mean on site?
The wording of Article 4 of Law No. 6331 is broad; who in a company does "all kinds of measures" fall to, and as what task? The table below turns each item into concrete tasks and the evidence you can show in an inspection:
| Item | What the Law requires | Concrete task in the company | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4/1-a | Measures, organisation, tools and equipment, adapting to changing conditions, improvement | Setting a budget and an owner for OHS, providing PPE and guards, getting an OHS opinion first for a new machine or process | Purchase records, job descriptions, pre-change assessment notes |
| 4/1-b | Monitoring, checking, eliminating non-conformities | Regular site walks, PPE and instruction checks, closing findings with an owner and date | Walk forms, approved logbook tracking list, close-out records |
| 4/1-c | Risk assessment | Setting up the team, having the assessment carried out, renewing it on time and after changes | Signed risk assessment document and action plan |
| 4/1-ç | Considering fitness for the job | Examinations on recruitment and change of job, separate assessment of groups requiring special policies | Pre-employment/periodic examination forms, fitness for work results |
| 4/1-d | Restricting access to places with life-threatening and special dangers | An authorisation list, locks and signs, and work permits for places such as the boiler room, transformer, confined spaces and high voltage areas | Authorisation lists, work permit forms, training records |
The weight of the items on site varies from company to company. For example, in a machining workshop in Bursa with 35 workers, 4/1-a means maintaining machine guards and swarf extraction, 4/1-ç means the pre-employment examination and reviewing, together with the physician, the workstation of a worker with dermatitis complaints, and 4/1-d means keeping the electrical panel room and the compressor room locked with the key held only by the authorised maintenance technician.
The last column of the table is important. In an investigation after an accident, saying "we took measures" is not enough; records are sought showing when, by whom and how the measure was taken. We explained how to carry out a risk assessment in our risk assessment guide, and where to obtain a pre-employment report in our article on the pre-employment health report.
Daily, monthly and annual tracking rhythm
The employer's general obligation is not a one-off task but a management duty requiring continuity; employer responsibilities in OHS can only be met with a regular tracking rhythm. A realistic tracking rhythm for a medium-sized manufacturing company in Bursa is as follows:
Every day: At the start of the shift, machine guards and PPE use are checked; near misses and minor injuries are recorded. Article 14 of the Law requires incidents with the potential to cause harm to be investigated even if they do not lead to injury or death. Setting up a near miss reporting system is the most practical way to do this.
Every week: A short site walk is carried out with the production manager; findings written in the approved logbook by the specialist and physician that have been closed are marked off. Findings and recommendations written in the approved logbook are deemed to have been notified to the employer; in other words, the defence "I didn't know" no longer applies.
Every month: Periodic inspection, training and medical examination dates are reviewed; whether a change in the number of workers affects the specialist's and physician's time is checked.
Every year: A drill is held, the annual work plan and annual evaluation report are prepared, and the training calendar is set. To see these dates in one place, you can use the OHS calendar tool.
Obtaining services from an OSGB does not transfer responsibility
Article 4/2 is the most misunderstood provision in practice. A contract with an OSGB (joint health and safety unit) fulfils the obligation to assign a specialist and physician (Art. 6); but the obligation to take measures remains with the employer. Article 8/2 of the Law states this clearly: the specialist and physician identify deficiencies and report them to the employer in writing, and the employer is responsible for correcting the deficiencies and implementing the recommendations. Allocating a budget, stopping a machine and changing the layout are the employer's decisions.
Similarly, 4/3 states that workers' obligation to follow the rules does not relieve the employer. A worker who does not use the PPE given to them acts in breach of Article 19 of the Law; but if the employer does not monitor and warn them, the employer has not fulfilled the monitoring and inspection obligation in 4/1-b. That is why written records of warnings, training and the steps taken in response to recurring non-conformities matter. We covered the division of responsibility between the OSGB and the employer in a separate article.
Informing and consulting: two complements to the general obligation
The phrase "all kinds of measures, including training and providing information" in Article 4 is set out in detail in Articles 16 and 18 of the Law. Under Article 16, the employer informs workers and worker representatives about the risks they may encounter in the workplace and the measures, their legal rights and responsibilities, and the persons assigned to first aid, firefighting and evacuation. It is also ensured that people coming from other workplaces to work in your workplace receive this information.
Article 18 regulates consultation. Support staff and worker representatives are consulted in advance on the assignment of the specialist and physician, the designation of persons for first aid, firefighting and evacuation, and the measures to be taken as a result of the risk assessment.
In day-to-day operations this is simple: holding a short meeting with the worker representative before buying a new machine or changing the layout of a department, writing down the decision and the reasoning, and keeping the emergency team list posted on the noticeboard up to date. These records show that the employer is carrying out its general obligation together with workers, not just on paper.
OHS costs cannot be passed on to workers
Article 4/4 is short but definitive: the cost of OHS measures cannot be passed on to workers. This rule is repeated in other provisions too. Article 15 of the Law states that the cost of health surveillance cannot be passed on to the worker, and Article 17 that training time counts as working time. Art. 9 of the Regulation on OHS Services also requires OHS services to be provided without placing a financial burden on workers.
Practices on site that breach this rule are:
- Deducting the cost of safety shoes, gloves or goggles from wages, or making the worker buy them.
- Asking a job candidate to pay for the pre-employment examination or tests.
- Holding OHS training outside working hours, unpaid and "voluntarily".
- Asking a worker you have appointed as a first aider or support staff member to pay for their training.
For selecting and distributing personal protective equipment, see our article on PPE selection.
Principles of protection from risks: the order of measures
Article 4 says what is to be done, and Article 5 in what order it is to be considered. When fulfilling their obligations, the employer observes the following principles: avoiding risks, analysing risks that cannot be avoided, combating risks at source, adapting the work to the individual, adapting to technical progress, replacing the dangerous with the less dangerous, developing a coherent prevention policy, giving collective protective measures priority over individual protection, and giving appropriate instructions to workers.
In practice, this means that the "let's hand out PPE first" approach is wrong. On a noisy machine, the source must first be silenced or isolated, then working time adjusted, and only last of all hearing protection provided. For details, see our article on the hierarchy of controls.
Fines that may be faced for breaches
Some of the 2026 base administrative fines for detailed obligations are: failing to carry out or have carried out a risk assessment TL 66,725, and TL 100,119 for each month the breach continues; failing to assign a specialist or physician TL 111,263 for each person not assigned, and the same amount every month; failing to provide training TL 8,980 per worker; failing to have health surveillance carried out TL 22,194 per worker. Fines other than those calculated per worker are increased according to the number of workers and the hazard class under Article 26/3 of the Law. For your own situation, you can use the OHS administrative fines tool.
At Bursa Sistemer, in the OHS specialist service we provide to companies in Bursa and the surrounding provinces, we turn the findings in the approved logbook into an action list the employer can track. To see your minimum obligations, you can also use the OHS obligation calculator tool.
Frequently Asked Questions
If I obtain services from an OSGB, who is responsible when an accident happens?
Under Article 4/2 of the Law, outsourcing does not remove the employer's responsibility. The organisation providing the service, the specialist and the physician are also responsible to the employer for negligence in their service (Art. 8/3); but the obligation to take measures lies with the employer.
If a worker does not follow the rules, is the employer still responsible?
Workers' obligations do not affect the employer's responsibility. The employer must be able to show through records that they provided training, instructions and monitoring, and took steps in response to recurring non-conformities.
Can I deduct the cost of PPE from wages?
No. The cost of OHS measures cannot be passed on to the worker. Providing, replacing and maintaining PPE is the employer's responsibility.
Does Article 4 carry a fine of its own?
Yes. Article 26/1-a of the Law provides for a separate administrative fine for each obligation in items (a) and (b) of 4/1. Fines for obligations such as risk assessment, training and health surveillance are applied separately under their own articles.
A certified specialist matched to your hazard class: site inspections, approved logbook, training plan, annual plan and report follow-up.
Bursa SİSTEMER OSGB Technical Team — written from the field experience of our OHS specialists and workplace physicians. Legal information is valid as of the publication/update date; contact us for an assessment specific to your business.