Poland's Labour Code specifies the following:²⁶ "Under Article 15, employers are required to provide workers with "safe and hygienic working conditions." Article 227 mandates that they "take appropriate measures for the prevention of occupational diseases and other conditions connected with performed work." Article 229 requires them "to submit employees to entrance and periodic medical examinations." Moreover, "employers with more than 50 workers are obliged to appoint a committee on the safety and hygiene of working conditions ... as an advisory and opinion-formulating body".

These regulations have a direct bearing on the role of the occupational medicine services. According to Article 2 of the Occupational Medicine Services Act of 1997,²⁷ the services consist of "medical doctors, nurses, psychologists, and other professionals having qualifications necessary for fulfillment of this service's multidisciplinary tasks." The Act mandates that the service supervise the material and psychosocial environment of the workplace, in terms of its organisation, methods, and conditions, to identify health risk factors. According to the Act, representatives of the occupational medicine services serve on the committees for the safety and hygiene of working conditions established by the Labour Code.

Article.18 of the Labour Code establishes the State Labour Inspectorate to "supervise and control adherence to labour law provisions, including the regulations and rules on safety and hygiene of working conditions." Physicians in the occupational medicine service are responsible for monitoring the health status of disabled employees, implementing health prevention in high-risk groups of employees, and creating conditions for the provision of occupational rehabilitation. According to Article 6 of the Occupational Medicine Services Act, the occupational medicine service staff must "advise employers and workers on work organisation, ergonomics, physiology and psychology of work." This implies their collaboration in adapting the workplace to the needs of employees whose working ability is limited due to mental or psychosomatic disorders. No data on the implementation of these regulations was available from the National Inspectorate of Labour when this report was in preparation.

There is no overall data permitting evaluation of the effectiveness of government policy on people with mental retardation or mental health disorders.* In the year 2000, funds to supplement the income of the disabled with mental health disorders, mental retardation, or epilepsy should cover over 20.000 employees. The funds are expected to meet 100% of their needs, as estimated by regional sections of the PFRON (State Fund for Rehabilitation of the Disabled). In 2000, supported employment for the mentally ill, mentally retarded, and epileptics is planned to increase by more than 2,000 jobs over the 1999 level. According to the Plenipotentiary for the Problems of the Disabled, at the end of 1999, 438 social co-opera-

PFRON's responsibilities are two-fold: It provides aid for restructuring sheltered workshop cooperatives, especially those in regions of high unemployment and makes loans to the disabled for launching small businesses or agricultural enterprises.