Each year, 2.3 million workers die due to occupational accidents and diseases (of which 2 million die from diseases) and 350 million suffer from occupational injuries.
Each year, 2.3 million workers die due to occupational accidents and diseases (of which 2 million die from diseases) and 350 million suffer from occupational injuries. In addition to the associated economic costs, there are also intangible costs, which are never reflected in the figures and represent immeasurable human suffering caused by occupational injuries and diseases. All of this is sad and regrettable, as – as research and practice have repeatedly shown – such suffering could largely have been prevented.
Current working conditions directly affect not only the health of workers but also the overall quality of life. Recent studies indicate that 3.2 billion workers worldwide feel unwell and are in conditions of economic instability, with 77% of them engaged in temporary, hazardous, or unpaid jobs. The average age of the workforce is increasing, while health indicators are steadily declining – 38% of workers experience excessive pressure and stress at work, which is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases.
The safety of production processes has been and remains one of the most important components of ensuring sustainable business operations and achieving expected results.
Occupational safety, like any other structural element of an organisation, requires a management system. Safety management in large organisations often boils down to implementing generally accepted occupational safety management systems and comprehensive tools, which does not always lead to a reduction in injuries. The reason is that workplace safety is primarily related to the attitude of employees, the professional competence of officials, the readiness to solve assigned tasks, and the motivation for safe work performance.
The implementation of international standards and advanced safety management practices, along with strict control, cannot change an individual's attitude towards the usual way of performing work or fulfilling their job responsibilities. Workplace safety begins with a safety culture.
Our safety culture is characterised by its specific features, associated with a careless attitude towards hazards, limited personal responsibility for surrounding events, fear of management, and a long-standing practice of perceiving occupational safety as a secondary function in production. At many enterprises, safety and occupational health management is perceived as a separate area of activity, more related to compliance with legislative requirements than to tools for improving business efficiency. This is likely why safety culture is particularly difficult to transform, without which it is impossible to effectively implement systemic changes that lead to a reduction in workplace injuries.
Studies have shown that almost half (42%) of respondents state that employees in their organisations follow safety rules only under threat of punishment. At the same time, according to the majority, employees demonstrate personal and team commitment to safe work practices, which clearly confirms the formation and development of a safety culture in organisations.
A lack of trust from employees towards management affects their ability to make independent decisions in the field of occupational safety. Formally, employees of all surveyed organisations are authorised to suspend production activities upon detection of gross safety violations (posing a threat to life and health), however, in 70% of organisations, this possibility is not utilised.
Furthermore, monitoring the causes of industrial accidents in organisations in the Vitebsk region shows that they are often the result of managers and specialists failing to fulfil their occupational safety duties, while violations of labour and production discipline, and occupational safety instructions by victims, indicate shortcomings and omissions by employers in ensuring control over the compliance of officials and employees with occupational safety requirements, and labour and production discipline.
The main causes of accidents in the Vitebsk region were:
- violation of labour and production discipline, requirements of regulatory legal acts, technical regulatory legal acts, local regulatory acts on labour protection by victims – 15.1 percent of the total number of causes;
- failure by managers and specialists to fulfil labour protection duties – 14.3 percent;
- personal negligence of victims – 10.3 percent;
- violation of safety requirements during the operation of vehicles, machinery, mechanisms, equipment, accessories, tools – 6.3 percent;
- admission of victims to work without training and knowledge testing on labour protection issues – 6.3 percent;
- violation of labour protection requirements by other employees – 6.3 percent;
- unsatisfactory maintenance and shortcomings in the organisation of workplaces – 5.6 percent;
- violation of traffic rules by other persons – 5.6 percent;
- other violations – 30.2 percent.
It is also worth noting that cases where employees were intoxicated at the time of death or severe industrial injury are not isolated.
Unfortunately, in recent years, the level of
Amidst the development of new technologies, demographic changes, climate change, and the emergence of diverse forms of employment and work organisation, it has always been and will continue to be necessary to anticipate new and emerging occupational safety and health (OSH) risks. Risk anticipation is the first crucial step towards successful risk management and fostering a prevention culture in OSH in an ever-changing world. Activities such as forecasting, technology assessment, and foresight studies are used for this purpose, enabling the identification of potential OSH risks and the development of effective preventive measures.
Currently, there is a growing need to integrate OSH into the core subjects of general education, so that individuals begin to study it before entering the workforce and continue this learning throughout their working lives. Incorporating OSH into general and vocational education programmes will help ensure the safety and health of future generations of workers. Through continuous learning, workers and employers will be able to learn about both persistent old risks and emerging new ones, adapt to them, and thereby improve the OSH situation throughout their working lives.
One of the most important tasks of the state's social policy is to create healthy and safe working conditions and to provide certain guarantees to employees.
Workplace health promotion is an integral part of overall efforts to protect occupational safety and health and promote public health. It concerns the health of individuals at their primary place of work. Since people spend most of their time at work, organising measures to maintain and improve people's health at their place of direct work activity is of paramount importance.
The Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee has declared a Unified Safety Day from 1 to 10 September 2020.
This initiative is driven by the desire to draw public attention to the scale of the problem and to how creating and promoting a culture of occupational safety and health can contribute to reducing workplace accidents.
The observance of the Unified Safety Day contributes to the formation of a global culture of occupational safety and health prevention, engaging its participants and all key stakeholders operating in this sphere.
A culture of occupational safety and health is the respect for the right to safe and healthy working conditions at all levels, where employers and employees actively participate in ensuring a safe and healthy production environment, clearly defining rights and responsibilities, and where the principle of prevention is given the highest priority.
The Unified Safety Day provides an opportunity to remind everyone once again of the necessity to comply with the requirements of occupational safety and health regulations.
In this regard, the Lepel District Executive Committee deems it advisable to hold the Unified Safety Day in the aforementioned period in all organizations located within the district.
We propose that during the Unified Safety Day in the district's organizations:
- Thematic days on occupational safety and health and the prevention of industrial injuries be held;
- Work be intensified on the creation and dissemination of social advertising aimed at promoting healthy and safe working conditions (designing occupational safety and health corners, stands, leaflets, etc.);
- Events aimed at preventing industrial injuries and occupational diseases in work collectives be held (seminars, round tables, classes, competitions, discussions, etc.);
- An inspection of the state of working conditions and occupational safety and health at workplaces (sections, workshops) be organized, with a focus on the readiness of facilities for the autumn-winter and heating periods;
- Meetings be held with the participation of deputies, heads of structural divisions, chief specialists, representatives of occupational safety and health services, trade unions (public inspectors), at which the state of occupational safety and health will be analyzed, and cases of violation of occupational safety and health requirements will be reviewed;
- Other events aimed at promoting and disseminating best practices in occupational safety and health within the organization be held.
To ensure the high-quality conduct of events, the main efforts should be focused on maximizing the information dissemination to the organization's employees (website, information sheets, visual agitation, etc.).
We recommend holding mass events with strict adherence to all sanitary and anti-epidemic measures.
CONCLUSION
The prevention of occupational injuries and occupational diseases is one of the most complex areas of labor protection. Real results can only be achieved here through daily, tireless work to minimize the negative impact of the production environment on the worker's body.
In addition, further work to ensure the safety of life and health of employees, and the prevention of occupational injuries, should also be ensured by implementing measures to increase the motivation of the employer's officials and the employees themselves to conscientiously fulfill their labor protection duties, and to increase the effectiveness of control over compliance with labor protection requirements.
