The International Labour Organization marked April 28th as the World Day for Safety and Health at Work.

On the eve of this day, the Lepel Regional Gas Supply Department, a branch of the "Chashnikygaz" enterprise, was visited by Sergey Makarsky, Head of the Department of Social and Labor Relations of the Department for Labor, Employment and Social Protection of the District Executive Committee, and the Chairman of the Lepel District Trade Union Association.

As Yuri Vladimirovich noted, addressing the staff, this year's central theme is "the impact of climate change on occupational safety and health."
Speaking about the climatic peculiarities of the past year, the average air temperature in 2023 was +8.7 degrees Celsius, which is 1.5 degrees above the climatic norm. During the summer period, the air temperature reached +30 degrees Celsius and above.
Such temperature anomalies require specific actions from employers to prevent accidents and deterioration of the health of workers, especially those performing work outdoors or in premises not equipped with ventilation (air conditioning) systems. Work in construction, housing and communal services, and other sectors during warm and cold periods of the year is carried out outdoors, posing a potential risk of illness and serious injury from low or high temperatures for workers.
In accordance with Article 29 of the Law of the Republic of Belarus "On Labor Protection," workers performing work outdoors or in unheated enclosed spaces during the cold period of the year, as well as those performing specific types of work, are provided with additional special breaks during the working day, in addition to breaks for rest and meals, which are included in working hours (breaks for warming up, rest during loading and unloading, and other work). The types of such work, their duration, and the procedure for granting these breaks are determined by the internal labor regulations or the collective agreement.
For the aforementioned workers, the employer is obliged to establish a work regime that excludes harm to their life and health during extreme heat and extreme cold.
The labor protection regulations define extreme heat and extreme cold as follows: extreme heat is a maximum air temperature of +30 degrees Celsius and above; extreme cold is a minimum air temperature of -25 degrees Celsius and below.
To provide practical and methodological assistance to managers and specialists of organizations in ensuring labor safety when organizing and carrying out work in 2023, 136 mobile units continued their work in the republic.

groups established by local executive and administrative bodies. In the reporting period, they conducted 15.3 thousand inspections, during which employers were recommended to eliminate over 158 thousand deficiencies in ensuring the safety of workers.
The mobile group of the Lepel District Executive Committee conducted an inspection of 69 district organizations in 2023, during which employers were recommended to eliminate over 802 various violations in ensuring the safety of workers.
— There will be no effective production where labor protection requirements are not met. And the head must be primarily interested in this. There is nothing more important than health and human life. The main thing for trade unions is not just to identify a violation, but to help the employer eliminate all shortcomings, draw the attention of employees to the need to comply with labor protection requirements and norms, in order to minimize the risks of injury, — noted Yuri Mily in his speech.

Natalia Khrapovitskaya. Newspaper "Lepelsky Krai"