Zero Injuries Concept introduced at 216 enterprises of Kazakhstan — Shapkenov

The rate of accidents per 1,000 employees in Kazakhstan has decreased from 0.32 to 0.23. This was announced by the Minister of Labor and Social Protection of the Population Serik Shapkenov, reading a report on measures taken to ensure safety and labor protection at the country's enterprises during the government session chaired by Prime Minister Askar Mamin.

“More than 400 cases of occupational diseases are registered in Kazakhstan every year. Over the past 3 years, their number has decreased by 21%. As a result of the comprehensive measures taken over the past 5 years, the number of injured at work has decreased by 10%, including the number of deaths — by 16%, and the rate of accidents per 1,000 workers has decreased from 0.32 to 0.23,’’ said Shapkenov.

Following the results of five months of this year, 564 people were injured as a result of accidents. Of these, 19.5% — at the enterprises of the mining and metallurgical complex, 4.5% — in the utilities and 10% — in the construction industry.

According to official statistics, in 2020, out of 1.6 million employees of the surveyed enterprises, 367 thousand were employed in hazardous working conditions. The largest number of them were employed in industrial regions — in Karaganda, Pavlodar, East Kazakhstan and Mangystau regions.

As the Minister of Labor and Social Protection of the Population noted, every second (46%) worked in conditions of an increased level of noise and vibration, and every third (32%) worked under the influence of increased gas pollution and dustiness of the working area.

In the context of economic sectors, the largest number of people employed in hazardous working conditions is in the mining and processing industries.

At the end of 2020, 14.7 thousand citizens who became disabled at work were provided with social support in the amount of 15.5 billion tenge. Of these, about 10 thousand were paid from the republican budget and insurance companies, and 6 thousand citizens - from the State Social Insurance Fund.

The number of citizens who received a degree of loss of professional ability to work from 30 to 59% amounted to 46%, many of whom were transferred to light work. Over the past 3 years, the number of employees with a loss of primary professional working ability has decreased by 19%.

In 2020-2021 state labor inspectors revealed more than 11 thousand violations, of which 34% are in the field of labor safety and protection, namely:

  • failure to ensure safe working conditions (20%);
  • failure to train and instruct workers on labor safety (12%);

More than 4.3 thousand orders were issued to employers and more than 1.6 thousand fines were imposed in the amount of 278 million tenge.

In order to consider the responsibility of officials guilty of committed violations, more than 1.4 thousand materials were sent to law enforcement agencies, according to which 193 criminal cases were initiated.

“Currently, in order to improve the tools of state control, work is underway to automate sources of information and risks to strengthen preventive control. In order to introduce a modern professional risk management system, more than 2.8 thousand enterprises of the country have implemented safety and labor protection standards. At the enterprises of the republic, 15 thousand production councils have been created and are operating, whose tasks include organizing inspections of working conditions at workplaces with the participation of more than 17 thousand technical inspectors for labor protection,” the head of the ministry noted.

In 216 enterprises of the country, the concept of zero injuries or Vision Zero, developed by the International Social Security Association, has been introduced. To encourage employers to implement safety and health standards and the concept of zero injuries, proposals will be considered to exempt them from preventive control based on the principles of declaration.

Serik Shapkenov stressed that the unfavorable situation with working conditions entails economic losses.

Every year, employers pay 1.5 billion tenge (payments for temporary disability) to citizens who have received work injuries. To insure workers against industrial accidents, employers annually transfer more than 30 billion tenge to insurance companies. In 2020, they spent 141.5 billion tenge on various compensations for work in harmful working conditions, which is 10% more than in 2019.

In relation to persons employed in hazardous working conditions, since 2014, more than 13 thousand employers annually transfer compulsory professional pension contributions (OPPV) in the amount of more than 40 billion tenge. Employees, in favor of whom the CPPC was transferred (for 5 years), have already begun to receive payments since 2019.

In pursuance of the instructions of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan to strengthen work to ensure safe working conditions, the ministry developed and submitted to the Government an Action Plan for ensuring safe labor until 2025.

The action plan for the next five years provides for:

  • modernization of the national OSH management system based on a risk-based approach;
  • development of proposals for economic incentives for employers to reduce occupational risk in the workplace;
  • development of professional competencies and scientific potential in the field of labor protection;
  • development of social partnership.

As a result of the implementation of these measures, by 2025, it is expected to reduce industrial injuries by 10%, the number of employees employed in hazardous working conditions — up to 20%.

According to the Minister of Emergency Situations Yuri Ilyin, the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Republic of Kazakhstan exercises state supervision over 9,157 industrial enterprises, including more than 230 thousand hazardous production facilities.

Supervision is carried out by conducting inspections, which is aimed at preventing the harmful effects of hazardous production factors on personnel and the public, by ensuring that hazardous production facilities and organizations operating hazardous technical devices comply with safety requirements.

For 5 months of this year 418 special checks were carried out. Based on the results of inspections, 12,777 violations of industrial safety requirements were revealed, 505 administrative fines were imposed in the amount of more than 70 million tenge. For gross violations of industrial safety requirements that pose a threat to human life and health, 224 facilities were suspended.

“Measures to reduce the requirements for business and the weakening of state regulation in the field of safety have created the preconditions for a decrease in the level of production discipline in industry and, as a result, for an increase in accidents and related injuries. In recent years, there has been a tendency for an increase in accidents at an average of 15% at hazardous production facilities,” noted Ilyin.

The analysis shows that the risk of man-made accidents in production still remains at a high level. This year, 11 accidents and 146 incidents were registered at hazardous production facilities of the country. As a result of the accidents, 5 people were injured.

The main causes of accidents at hazardous production facilities are:

  • violations of industrial safety requirements in terms of carrying out work with deviations from design solutions;
  • high moral and physical deterioration of the operated equipment;
  • low production and labor discipline of workers.

“In order to reduce the violations of industrial safety requirements, based on the results of inspections, inspectors take prompt response measures, initiate cases of administrative offenses, draw up instructions, and investigate accidents. In order to resolve existing issues in terms of the gradual decommissioning of obsolete, morally and physically worn-out equipment, together with supervised enterprises, a Consolidated Plan for the technical re-equipment of a hazardous production facility is developed annually, within the framework of which it is planned to replace 2,196 equipment for the current year,” the Minister of Emergency Situations said.

In addition, according to him, in order to improve production and labor discipline, the inspectors carry out explanatory work; this year, 214 speeches were made in the media.

Also, work is underway to improve legislation in the field of industrial safety. On April 1, 2021, the Law "On Amendments and Additions to Industrial Safety Issues" was adopted, within the framework of which work is being carried out to approve 41 normative legal acts, the implementation of which will improve the production and labor discipline of workers at hazardous production facilities, increase the level of protection of citizens from harmful effects of hazardous production factors and reduce the likelihood of harm to third parties as a result of an accident.

In the Kostanay region, the situation in the field of social and labor relations is stable. Akim of the region Archimed Mukhambetov reported on this.

So, according to him, for 5 months of this year. in comparison with the same period of the last year at the enterprises and organizations of the region, the number of accidents related to the labor activity of employees decreased from 52 to 39 cases, or by 25%.

There is a decrease in the number of victims of accidents related to the work of employees from 55 to 40 people. or by 27.0%, including fatalities from 4 to 0 people. or 100%.

The most susceptible to industrial injuries in the region remain: the mining and metallurgical industry, agriculture, construction and small business organizations.

The analysis shows that injuries sustained by workers in the workplace are mainly caused by typical manageable organizational causes on the part of employers.

“Taking into account that ensuring healthy and safe working conditions in production is one of the most important functions of state policy, the region is implementing the Roadmap measures to reduce industrial injuries and jobs with harmful working conditions for 2019-2023. In May of this year. to improve the efficiency of social partners in ensuring safety and labor protection, the Labor Inspection Department of the regional akimat, the territorial union of trade unions of the region and the Association for the Promotion of Entrepreneurship in the region approved a joint program "Safe Labor" said the akim.

As part of the activities of the Roadmap and the program, work is being carried out to introduce international and national labor safety and health standards at enterprises and organizations in the area. To date, 241 standards have been introduced at the enterprises of the region.

Attention is paid to the certification of workplaces by employers in terms of working conditions. This work is primarily due to the fact that more than 16,600 employees work in hazardous, harmful and other unfavorable conditions in the region.

1,476 workplaces were certified in terms of working conditions at 18 enterprises.

Work is being carried out on professional training and advanced training in safety and labor protection of responsible employees of enterprises. In the training centers of the region, 398 responsible persons of enterprises on labor safety and protection were trained.

For the purpose of mutual cooperation on the stabilization of production processes, ensuring labor rights and guarantees of workers, the akimats of cities and districts of the region concluded 11,256 memorandums with employers, affecting the rights of more than 215,051 employees of enterprises and organizations.

Akim of Pavlodar region Abylkair Skakov said that the number of workers in the region is 326.2 thousand people, of which 259.3 thousand work at traumatic enterprises (79%), including 39 thousand in the manufacturing industry, the metallurgical industry — 35 thousand, in the energy -— 13 thousand people.

“At the same time, it is important to note that for a long time, there has been a steady decline in occupational injuries, including fatalities, in the region. So, if in 2016 there were 27 deaths and 191 work-related injuries, last year fatal injuries decreased by 78%, work-related injuries decreased by 41%. Also, no fatal accidents at work have been registered since the beginning of the year,” Skakov said.

In turn, a number of comprehensive measures are being taken to reduce industrial injuries and jobs with harmful working conditions in the region:

  • for 2019-2023, the Roadmap in the field of occupational safety and health was adopted;
  • modern labor protection standards have been introduced at 107 enterprises of the region (OHSAS 18001, ILO-OSH, etc.);
  • in order to improve working conditions, 93 production facilities have been certified since the beginning of 2021;
  • almost all large and medium-sized enterprises have production councils (840 in total);
  • the project People's Control was introduced at 7 enterprises;
  • 12 enterprises have joined the international program "Vision Zero».

Occupational safety engineers of large and medium-sized organizations of the region, which are united on one digital platform, are constantly met on the basis of exemplary enterprises, which allows for close interaction and exchange of experience. For 2018-2021 more than 500 large and medium-sized organizations were involved in the meetings.

At such large enterprises as PNHZ, Kazakhstan Electrolysis Plant, KAZ Minerals Bozshakol, UPNK and others, digitalization and process automation systems are being introduced, which allow workers to remotely organize work in hazardous and hazardous areas.

Other large enterprises, such as Aluminum of Kazakhstan and Bogatyr Komir, plan to carry out similar work.

The issues of ensuring safe working conditions in the region are under constant control.

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