Abstract
By decree, the Minister of Health abolished the obligation to carry out periodic examinations at certain fixed intervals. Unfortunately, the laws to which this decree is an implementing regulation do not provide for such a change.
On the contrary, they require, as provided for by EU law and international conventions binding on the Czech Republic, that preventive examinations continue to be carried out on a regular basis. The present article draws attention to the contradiction between the law and the implementing regulations, as well as to the legally weak meaning of the medical opinion that results from the periodic examination.
The ministry knows it must change the very laws in question and that this will be difficult, not only because of the different requirements arising from EU law and ILO conventions, but especially because all this is happening in the field of creating a new national policy on occupational safety and health, in which the Czech Republic is lagging behind not only Western European countries, but also neighbouring countries.