LABOR SAFETY – ALWAYS AT PRIORITY

Unions voiced a number of proposals to social partners on improving the labor protection system in Kazakhstan

On September 26, Deputy Chairman of the Federation of Trade Unions of the Republic of Kazakhstan Yerzhan Egemberdiev took part in a cluster seminar on the topic: “Ensuring safe working conditions” in Aktobe.

During the event, issues of compliance with labor protection safety, as well as current problems and solutions were discussed.

Speaking at the seminar, Yerzhan Yegemberdiev informed the participants about the measures taken by

the Federation of Trade Unions to ensure occupational safety and health.

The deputy chairman of FPRK made a special emphasis on the issues of industrial accidents, which are mainly related to preventable factors.

According to the analysis of FPRK, for the period of 2018, 221 people died at 191 enterprises of the country and in most cases the employer’s guilt was proved.

The largest number of deaths is noted in organizations of the mining and metallurgical industry, construction, in the field of rail and road transport, the chemical industry, budgetary organizations, and small business organizations.

Yerzhan Yegemberdiev expressed concern regarding compliance with safety and labor requirements at utilities. In 2018 alone, 45 workers were injured while working in wells, including 7 people. died.

Based on the results of the analysis, the Federation of Trade Unions developed a number of proposals for improving the labor protection system.

First Deputy Chairman of the FPRK noted the need to reform labor legislation in terms of strengthening the role of prevention of accident prevention.

In order to avoid the concealment of the facts of accidents by the employer, it is proposed to include in the Labor Code norms obliging employers to record any injuries to employees.

The need for legislative consolidation of the mandatory norm on the creation of Production Councils and strengthening their legal status, as one of the levers of strengthening internal control, was also noted. Currently, 11 754 production councils on labor safety and labor protection have been created and are functioning in trade unions, of which 79.4% were created on the initiative of trade unions.

Public control over the state of labor protection in the republic is carried out by 18 810 technical inspectors on labor protection

Over the past year alone, technical inspectors on labor protection conducted more than 106 554 inspections, within the framework of which 145 434 thousand violations of the requirements of legislation on labor protection were revealed.

To develop a safety culture, the Deputy Chairman of the Federation of Trade Unions suggested introducing the world-wide concept Vision Zero (zero injuries) as a model project. Along with this, it was proposed to conclude a regional agreement within the framework of social partnership to ensure 100% coverage by production councils of enterprises in the Aktobe region.

Currently, the coverage of production councils in the region’s enterprises is less than 20%.

In general, Y. Egemberdiev summarized that the implementation of the norms of the Labor Code – 2015 and the work of production councils made it possible to increase the level of interaction between representatives of the employer and representatives of the trade union.

As a result of the seminar, the participants developed specific recommendations aimed at creating favorable working conditions for workers and reducing occupational risks.

In addition, the seminar participants visited the company with zero injuries – the Aktobe branch of KazTransOil JSC, where the employer provides significant funding for the organization of safe working conditions. This enterprise is a participant in the IXth International Conference and Exhibition on Occupational Safety and Industrial Safety “KIOSH 2019”, as well as the Paryz contest of social responsibility.

The workshop was organized by the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population of the Republic of Kazakhstan in order to combine the efforts of state bodies, business and public organizations to preserve the life and health of workers and reduce occupational injuries.