The State Committee of Health and Safety at Work
The main aims and functions
1. The information about the Committee of the Supervision of Labour Safety.

With the order of the President of Ukraine from 18.0.2002 Ή 834 on the basis of the Department of the Supervision of Labour Safety there was established the Committee of the Supervision of Labour Safety (further referred to as the Committee). The number of the staff and top-management has not changed.

The main aims of the Committee are the following:
-participation in forming and realization of the state policy in the sphere of the labour safety in order to provide the industrial safety, industrial risks' insurance and natural resources safety;
-state supervision on the fulfillment of laws in the sphere of the labour safety, state mining supervision and in the sphere of the exploration of natural resources;
-complex supervision on labour safety;
-coordination with the executive branch of power within the sphere of the labour safety, industrial environment and occupational health.

There are more than 537 thousand of the enterprizes under the control of the territorial departments of the Committee (96605 – state enterprizes, 202452 – joint enterprizes and 238190 – private enterprizes).

The number of the occupied employees of these enterprizes is 12,5 mln. people.
Striving to create the technical support of the state supervision there were created 28 expert-technical centres.

With the aim of the improvement of the educational level of the inspectors the Main studying and methodology centre of the state supervision on labour safety was created.

In order to research and realize the scientific recommendations in the sphere of the labour safety there was established the National Research Institute of the labour safety.

The monthly Journal "Labour Safety" was created to inform the society on th issue of the occupational safety and health.

The Information Centre of the Committee is striving to highlight public awareness in the sphere of the labour safety and occupational health.

2. The level of industrial injuries in Ukraine

The aim of the statistics of the industrial injuries is to analyze it in order to create more safety occupational conditions for workers.

The level of the industrial injuries in Ukraine is being characterized by the reduction of the injuries as well as of the reduction of the death injuries. Within the last 10 years (1992 - 2002) the number of injured has reduced in 4 times.

Compared to the number of the death injured of other developed countries Ukraine, unfortunately, has very unsatisfactory statistics:

State
The level of general industrial injury
The level of death injury
Great Britain
-
0,016
Japan
-
0,02
Sweden
-
0,032
Finland
-
0,038
Germany
-
0,08
States with market economy
20,08
0,038
Former socialists states of Europe
3,65
0,053
Ukraine
2,1
0,104

One of the main reasons of the industrial injuries and occupational health of Ukraine are the following: unsatisfactory occupational and labour safety conditions, out of date technological machinery and provision, the lack of occupational safety awareness of the workers.

One of the priorities set by the Committee is the level of the industrial injuries at the coal mining enterprizes. The statistics shows that in 2002 from 1000 of miners – 25 were injured and the level of the death injuries s –0,5 from 100 workers that is 20,7% from all industrial injuries, the level of death injury for 1 mln. tones of coal is 3,25 people.

This was mostly the result of gas exposure and coal falling.

It becomes obvious that every year brings more and more difficulties for coal mining industry. The medium depth of the mining is now more than 700 m.

It should be emphasized that some industrial accidents are connected with the violation of technological and labour discipline, and the violation of the labour safety rules.

We should admit that due to the exploitation of the modern technologies from the USA in the sphere of lighters with gas alarm system, has resulted in reduction of the accidents in the region of Donbass.

There also some other industrial spheres that bring unfortunate results: metallurgy, agricultural complex, building complex.

In order to sum up the report, we have to admit that there are 2 main reasons of unsatisfactory situation in the sphere of occupational safety and health: firstly, this is connected with the out of date technologies, secondly, it is due to the so called "human factor" that leads to the violation of the occupational safety and health discipline.

3. Conclusions and suggestions.

The adherence to the constitutional rights of the citizens of Ukraine of safety and healthy labour conditions is not fully provided. The low level of special preparation of the employers and officials , their attitude to vital problems of the labour safety, insufficient financial support of the provision of the occupational safety and health conditions, the expired technologies and machines are the main factors that lead to the high level of industrial injuries.

The most critical situation is in the sphere of coal mining, agriculture, building and transport complex.

According to the above mentioned problems the key purposes of the State Committee on the Supervision of Labour Safety of Ukraine are the following:

  • the change of the attitude to the occupational safety on a tripartite level;

  • the setting of the priority industries of the state supervision;

  • the adaptation of the legislation of Ukraine to the EU legislation;

  • the increasing of the industrial safety level;

  • the establishing of the studying preparation system of the inspectors.

With these purposes we are striving to create the awareness of the society of the importance of the occupational safety and health.

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