ILO SUBREGIONAL OFFICE FOR EASTERN EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA Petrovka 15, office 23, 107031 Moscow, tel. (095) 933-08-10, fax (095) 933-08-20

CSR 5/7/4 Moscow, September 2004

Improved occupational safety and health (OSH) system in Northwest Russia Executive summary The ILO Moscow office has for several years worked successfully with Finnish Ministries and organizations of the social partners to transfer the high level of OSH experience and knowledge to the Russian Federation in general and to the Northwest Okrug of Russia specifically. The work of the Finnish organizations and trade unions has been of high relevance for the Russian colleagues and the ILO Moscow has disseminated the results to the broader Russian speaking community. To build on the work done and to further increase the effectiveness and to integrate the work done by Finnish organization both with the ILO Moscow activities and Russian OSH programmes the Government of Finland has funded a pilot project to integrate and further disseminate the long-term collaboration work between ILO Moscow and Finnish organization in the field of OSH. The project will be executed under the auspices of the Northern Dimension Partnership on Public Health and Social Well-being. The OSH project is a crucial cluster of the ILO programme “Poverty Reduction, Employment Generation and Local Economic Development in the North West Federal Okrug of the Russian Federation”. The main areas where work will be done are: • identification and determination of the scope of the OSH problem to facilitate the development of safety programmes (assessment of accidents, improvement of statistics, and the development of a safety culture, main partners the TACIS-project and Perm OSH centre) • promotion of practical and informed social partnership in OSH at enterprise level (increased creation of safety committees and their training, main partners FNPR and other Russian trade unions and SASK and Finnish trade union projects) • calculation and awareness raising of the economic costs of poor working conditions (main partners VCOT, Dublin Foundation and selected Finnish experts from FIOH, ministries, ETLA and universities) • development of OSH management systems at enterprises (improvement of OSH and quality management systems in a Russian context, main partners FNPR, Min of Social Affairs and Health) • information and dissemination of experience from Finland and from joint projects (main partners Virtual Academy of Safework, Barents Newsletters) A Russian expert in the field of OSH is funded separately. Safe and decent working conditions are not only reducing poverty. Safety and health is a basic human right.

2

Framework The ILO Moscow approach for poverty alleviation is based on the fact that job opportunities are needed for income generation. For this purpose development of SMEs and socially responsible enterprise restructuring are clusters of the ILO programme. Skills development is needed for workers to get the qualification for the available jobs. The level of wages and incomes need to suffice for a decent living in order to avoid working poor. However, creation of job opportunities at any cost is not in line with the ILO policy. The working conditions have to be safe and healthy to avoid occupational accidents and diseases, which prohibits the breadwinner to provide for his/her family. In worst cases, of which unfortunately there is too much evidence, poor working conditions and accidents can lead to the loss of family members and in the end forcing children to work and out on the streets. Sustainable development cannot be achieved without integration with community plans and social partnership.

Immediate objective of OSH cluster Whereas the overall objective is the reduction of poverty, skills development for increased employment and secure conditions of work and life, the immediate objective for the OSH cluster is improved working conditions for men and women working in the Northwest Okrug giving them a safe and decent working life. Safe working conditions is a part of normal quality and production management. Providing adequate working conditions is an investment in the human resources and skills of the work force at the enterprise, in quality and productivity and not an extra cost. On the contrary, poor working environment costs money for the enterprise and the society in the form of increased costs of hazard pay and added leave for work force employed in sub-standard working conditions, for personal protective equipment, for compensation costs for accidents and diseases and lost days of production and quality. Furthermore, hazardous working conditions can lead to personal disasters, loss of family members, social exclusion and child labour. The execution of the OSH project, with its components of social partnership, good governance and rule of law, is further diminishing the decent work and life gap at the Finnish border, being the border between the European Union and Russian Federation.

Activities under the ILO Poverty reduction programme – cluster OSH In the preceding years ILO Moscow is currently working jointly with several projects in the field of OSH, a few are listed below. The ILO Moscow has multiplied some of the products in other parts of Russian and CIS countries. All available products have been displayed in the Virtual Academy of Safework (www.safework.ru), the largest OSH web portal in Russian, also linked with the Russian governmental electronic OSH information system RISOT. TACIS project (Regional Finnish OSH authorities and Ministry of Labour in the Republic of Karelia) Development of the OSH system in the Republic of Karelia - comparison of Finnish and Karelian OSH legislation and accident statistics

3 -

training in risk assessment in mining and metal industry preparation of a country profile and OSH programme

Finnish Metal workers Union and IMF – Development of social dialogue in OSH at enterprises - setting up of safety committees and the training of members - pilot projects in selected enterprises in automotive and machine construction - development of a training manual ILO Turin centre - E4 50088 "Improvement of safety and health and working conditions in the maritime industry", St. Petersburg - support to ensure an adequate implementation of the labour protection policies and regulations within the maritime sector (shipping and ports) in the Russian Federation Other projects and activities not listed above have been executed by the Ministry of Labour, Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, the Centre of Occupational Safety, the Institute of Occupational Health, Tampere University of Technology, SASK, Paper Workers’ and other unions. ILO Moscow has contributed to these projects through its substantial network. The office is in the position to disseminate developed best practices as well as to support and follow-up short term project achievements through ILO’s long-term presence, thus achieving increased efficiency.

Key players and stakeholders Following the ILO’s tradition, the tripartite constituents, mainly at the enterprises, are the main beneficiaries. However, the integrated approach of the ILO Moscow office is having a broader impact by combining work in the field of occupational safety and health with the other clusters (see annex) aiming towards poverty reduction. The partners of ILO Moscow are ranging from oblast level administration and social partners, scientific and educational institutions to enterprises and the specialists working day-to-day to improve working conditions. Employers’ organisations Trade unions Industrial sectors, including local employers and trade unions Enterprises, specifically OSH specialists and members of safety committees Regional labour committees Labour inspectors, sanitary inspectors, technical inspectors, etc OSH research institutions and universities OSH information and training centres

Activities For the purpose of this project OSH is seen in a broader context, comprising occupational safety, occupational health, conditions of employment, technical safety as well as HIV/AIDS, Child labour, migrant workers, gender issues, small businesses and the informal sector. The OSH activities undertaken will be integrated with the on-going work of the local partners and utilising and supporting other OSH projects. The overall OSH strategy for the ILO Moscow office is defined in the attached strategy document of Feb 2004.

4 The main areas where work will be done are: • • • • •

identification and determination of the scope of the OSH problem to facilitate the development of safety programmes (assessment of accidents, improvement of statistics, and the development of a safety culture, main partners the TACIS-project and Perm OSH centre) promotion of practical and informed social partnership in OSH at enterprise level (increased creation of safety committees and their training, main partners FNPR and other Russian trade unions and SASK and Finnish trade union projects) calculation and awareness raising of the economic costs of poor working conditions (main partners VCOT, Dublin Foundation and selected Finnish experts from FIOH, ministries, ETLA and universities) development of OSH management systems at enterprises (improvement of OSH and quality management systems in a Russian context, main partners FNPR, Min of Social Affairs and Health) information and dissemination of experience from Finland and from joint projects (main partners Virtual Academy of Safework, Barents Newsletters)

ILO Moscow continues to work with specialists from the Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, Ministry of Labour, trade unions (SASK, metal, paper and others), employers’ organisations (Finnish Steel and Metal Producers), Centre of Occupational Safety, Institute of Occupational Health, ETLA and others. Individual activities will be agreed separately with each institution.

Outcomes The outcomes of the project is covering a broad scope including o capacity building for OSH institutions and experts o creation of policies and OSH programmes o production of training material o promoting social dialogue in OSH o awareness raining and information dissemination Indicators The indicators are equally covering a broad range, partly being based on joint work with other projects and partly increasing the efficiency and long-term effect of project activities. The following indicators are used: ¾ OSH policies and programmes developed ¾ specialists trained in OSH and social partnership issues ¾ safety committees set up with trained members ¾ training material published (paper, web and CD-ROMs) ¾ visitors to web-sites. Produced material and gained experience will be utilised in key conference and regular events, such as

-

- 28 April, the World Safety Day, an annual event, which receives much media attention (see http://www.ilo.ru/osh/osh.htm) covering all CIS countries - the ILO Moscow translation programme, over 25 000 pages of OSH material in Russian, and the ILO Moscow OSH information dissemination system, reaching approx 80 regional OSH centres and the Virtual Academy http://www.safework.ru/ (with additionally approx 4000 Russian OSH laws and regulations) and the RICOT; the official Russian OSH information system operated by the MinLabour in Russia.

5

- Table 1.

Federal level Socially Responsible Enterprise Restructuring SME

North West Federal Okrug Poverty Reduction and Employment Generation

Wage Policy

Social Security and Social Assistance

Regional Level Municipal Level

Skills Development

Social Partnership

Safe Working Conditions

6 Sept 2004

Operationalisation of the main areas of work

The SPROUT defines five main areas for OSH activities in 2005-2006. In addition combined activities with other related areas will be undertaken, such as HIV/AIDS at work and Child Labour. Gender issues, following ILO standard praxis, will be mainstreamed in all project activities.

---------------------------------------------------------------

The detailed plans are still under revision, and will follow later.