Not every occupational hazard results in an incident that must be reported to the Labour Inspectorate. A significant number of employees working in offices, call centers, or administrative departments develop physical discomfort over the years caused not by an accident, but by the way their workplace is organized: a monitor positioned too low, an unsuitable chair, or a posture maintained for hours in front of a screen.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Government Decision No. 1028/2006 on the minimum occupational safety and health requirements relating to work with display screen equipment regulates precisely this type of risk, which is often overlooked compared to the more visible hazards found in manufacturing or construction. The regulation establishes obligations for any employer whose workers regularly use display screen equipment for a significant part of their normal working time.
The first obligation is to assess workstations in order to evaluate the safety and health conditions provided to workers, particularly with regard to risks to eyesight, physical problems, and mental workload. The screen must display well-defined characters of an appropriate size, with a stable image free from flickering or other forms of instability. The lighting level and the contrast between the screen and the surrounding environment must be properly adjusted to avoid both reflections and excessive glare.
Equally important are the requirements relating to the working environment: reducing any radiation, other than the visible spectrum, to negligible levels, preventing thermal discomfort caused by equipment, and maintaining an appropriate level of humidity. The workstation as a whole—including the keyboard, chair, and desk—must enable the worker to maintain a comfortable posture without unnecessary strain on the neck, shoulders, or back.
Perhaps the most frequently overlooked obligation under Government Decision No. 1028/2006 is the requirement to organize work so that daily screen use is periodically interrupted by breaks or by changes in work activities. This is not merely a general recommendation to “take breaks,” but an organizational obligation based on the fact that continuous, uninterrupted screen exposure is what leads to visual fatigue and cumulative muscular tension.
The consequences of ignoring these requirements do not appear overnight. Neck pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, chronic eye strain, and lower back pain caused by an unsuitable chair develop gradually, and their connection to the workplace often becomes evident only after the condition has already become established. Unlike an industrial accident, there is no single moment when the injury occurs, making prevention—through workstation assessments, appropriate equipment, and the proper organization of breaks—the only truly effective measure.
Workstation ergonomics is therefore not a matter of comfort but of long-term health. An improperly adjusted desk or a poorly positioned monitor may not cause an incident that appears in an accident report, but their cumulative impact on a worker’s spine, eyesight, and joints is just as real as that of any other occupational hazard.