Public control over labor protection at the enterprise in 2020

The issue of labor protection is absolutely the most important for any modern organization. However, despite this, existing practice includes a huge number of cases in which the rights of employees were violated. It is to ensure maximum protection by the current legislation that special measures have been developed on this issue.

From a legal point of view, labor protection is a broad concept that includes a huge number of different measures. These measures, in turn, must be implemented promptly and efficiently by employers.

In general, three main areas of labor protection in our state can be distinguished:

State control. Such control is carried out by various supervisory and other authorities. As a rule, the basis for visits by such an authority to employers are official written requests received from employees. In their complaints, employees of a particular enterprise can always express their complaints, as well as talk about certain violations regularly committed by the employer.
Departmental control. This type of control is also called local. As a rule, it exists at the level of a specific organization.

The emergence of such control in most cases is associated with the initiative taken by the employer himself. It is he who has the right to create such a body as a trade union. The tasks of this body should include constant monitoring of compliance with the rights of employees of a particular organization or enterprise.

Public control. Its essence lies in the fact that sometimes employees themselves can take full part in solving important problems of the enterprise that are directly related to occupational safety issues. For example, employees have the right to give their recommendations or make formal complaints to the employer regarding the insufficient level of safety provided by those in charge. To conduct public control in organizations, a body such as a labor safety commission is most often created. It is officially endowed with all necessary powers.

Public control over compliance with labor safety standards

In modern provisions of labor legislation, quite a lot of attention is paid to such an issue as labor protection. However, the existence of official standards does not mean that employers should not take various independent measures to ensure the maximum level of protection for the rights of their subordinates. That is why the managers of the enterprise, as well as other responsible persons, were given official obligations for the regular and timely implementation within the organization of a variety of measures and activities in the field of labor protection.

The most important among the above measures, of course, will be the creation of a special commission within the institution. The following persons must be included in its composition:

Representatives of employer interests. As a rule, such persons are employees of the relevant services, namely the security service, if there is one in the organization, etc. In addition, this commission often includes lawyers, as well as heads of personnel departments.
Representatives of the interests of the subordinates themselves. The creation of a commission will be an absolutely useless procedure if only representatives of the employer are included in the composition of this body. Defenders of the interests of employees must also take part in the work of the commission. For this purpose, the employer may select one or several employees at once to fulfill the additional obligations assigned to them. The main thing is that the procedure for imposing these obligations itself should be carried out in an official manner. For this purpose, the employer prepares and approves a written order.

If we talk about the main and most important functions that will be assigned by the head of the organization to the created commission body, these include the following:

consideration of various proposals for improving current working conditions in a particular organization. Drafting formal responses to these proposals;
active assistance to the employer in organizing training in the field of labor protection;
informing employees about any changes that have been made to the safety and labor discipline rules in force in the organization;
development of a program of measures to increase the level of current safety, as well as to prevent injuries and emergencies at the enterprise.

Organization of public control in the field of labor protection

Public control in the field of labor protection is a whole system of various supervisory measures, each of which is carried out with the aim of creating and subsequently maintaining the safest working conditions for employees of modern enterprises and organizations.

This task is accomplished by regulating the following important aspects:

Conducting periodic analyzes of current working conditions at enterprises. This procedure must be carried out in an official manner. Upon completion, the responsible persons draw up a special report. It contains information regarding current working conditions, harmful or dangerous factors detected at work, etc.
Analysis of the most common causes and other aspects that contribute to employees receiving various injuries and occupational diseases. It is possible to bring current injury statistics to a minimum level only through a clear analysis of the safety system in force at the enterprise.
Conducting competent accident investigations. As you know, absolutely no enterprise, even with the most accurate security system, can be insured against such negative incidents. However, the very fact of such an event will always mean the need for a detailed and timely investigation. During this procedure, the responsible person must establish the immediate causes of the special situation, as well as other important aspects.

The very procedure for organizing public control in the field of labor protection implies the establishment of special persons who will be responsible for the high-quality fulfillment of their obligations. These obligations may be assigned to:

trade union bodies. This organization has many goals, each of which must be fulfilled in the process of activity. The main goals include: constant monitoring of compliance with the interests of the employer, checking current working conditions for compliance with the information that was previously specified by the manager in the collective agreement or in other internal documents of the company, etc. Now the trade union body can be found in a very small number of enterprises. As a rule, we are talking about fairly old and large organizations, such as plants, factories, etc.;
special commissions. The creation of such a labor safety commission can be carried out in absolutely any organization. Her responsibilities will include regularly performing a fairly large number of different tasks. The main ones include: identifying and recording violations in the workplace, developing internal company regulations that are directly related to the issue of labor protection, etc.;
authorized persons. Each employer has the legal right to appoint a special employee who will be responsible for carrying out a variety of activities in the field of labor protection. The main tasks of this employee will include developing various acts and ways to improve safety in the institution, taking an active part in the investigation of various incidents, etc.

Authorized

In what areas can the authorized person work?

The tasks are:

assistance in organizing safe working conditions;
monitoring the state of labor safety in the organization;
protecting the interests of workers in the process of considering labor disputes;
supervision of employees' compliance with safe work standards;
organizing the correct use of devices to protect workers (PPE, collective equipment);
participation in the functioning of commissions to check the condition of buildings and equipment;
participation in the development of measures to prevent accidents;
providing information to employees about violations of safety requirements.

Thus, the functions of social activists are reduced to performing work on compliance with labor legislation.

Journal of public control on labor protection

The public control journal is a special internal document of the company, which includes information regarding various labor protection activities carried out in a particular organization. In addition, such a document can be used by the employer for some other purposes. In particular, information about various inspections, both regular and unscheduled, can be placed there.

The form of the journal itself can be developed and approved by the employer independently. However, the responsible person must also ensure that it includes the following basic information:

Number of the entry being made.
The date the relevant information was entered into the journal.
Basic information regarding the control method used by the employer.
Data regarding the actions performed and the results obtained. If necessary, various comments, some additional amendments, etc. can be indicated here.
Information regarding the person who carried out the inspection. Here you need to indicate the full name of the responsible employee, as well as the name of his position.

Once created, the magazine must be numbered and laced. The personal signature of the person responsible for maintaining this journal is also affixed in the appropriate place. The signature is also affixed with the organization's corporate seal.

Concepts

Public labor protection includes a number of actions aimed at ensuring safety at work, such as:

technical;
organizational;
sanitary;
rehabilitation;
social;
economic.

The head of the enterprise, public control, trade union organizations and authorized persons are responsible for carrying out the above activities.

The concepts also include the following terms:

Labor protection is a set of measures that ensure human life and health in production conditions and in accordance with the legal framework.
Working conditions – organization of the workplace and resting place for the employee.
Harmful factors at work - violation of sanitary and hygienic regulations.
Danger at work is violation of the rules for operating devices and mechanisms.
Safety – compliance with the necessary requirements by employees and management.
Safety precautions are a set of measures at an enterprise aimed at preventing injuries and occupational diseases.

Public control bodies in the field of labor protection

The most effective type of public control in the field of labor protection is that carried out by trade union bodies. They are special public organizations that are assigned a large number of different functions. All these functions, in turn, should be aimed at ensuring the protection of the interests and legal rights of modern employees.

To perform their assigned functions, trade unions are vested with the following basic powers:

The right to request official information from various authorities, provided that this information is directly related to the issue of labor protection within a particular organization.
The possibility of presenting formal demands to the employer regarding the suspension of the enterprise’s activities. Such demands may be made if working conditions do not meet established norms and standards, and also pose a threat to the life or health of subordinates.
The right to receive information regarding an accident that occurred in the organization. Such information should be used by the authorized body in order to draw appropriate conclusions and carry out the necessary preventive measures.

Normative base

The main legal document is the Constitution of the Russian Federation. Article 37 of this law gives the right to work to every citizen and prohibits forced labor. The Constitution states that every working citizen has the right to safe work, pay and state protection from unemployment.

Control over compliance and protection of labor relations is regulated by the Labor Code of the Russian Federation.

Labor Code of the Russian Federation

Since 2006, the Labor Code of the Russian Federation gives the right to organize labor protection services in organizations, provided that the number of employees exceeds 50 people. The staffing table can include the position of a safety engineer or other specialist responsible for labor protection.

There are also many decrees of the President of the Russian Federation and various resolutions of the Government of the Russian Federation in the field of labor protection.

Organizations or enterprises approve local documents defining the rights of workers to safe work.

Results

The procedure for organizing public control in the field of labor protection consists of the following stages:

Assigning responsibilities for labor protection to certain persons or creating a separate body. As mentioned above, such a body may be a trade union. In addition, responsibilities for carrying out activities in the field of labor protection can be selectively assigned to individual employees.
Drawing up plans and instructions for further actions. Such documents develop standards for the work of the created body, prescribe all actions necessary to ensure proper protection of the rights of employees, etc.
Fulfillment of assigned tasks in practice. All activities in the field of labor protection that are carried out within a particular organization must be recorded in writing. To do this, the employer must maintain special journals, as well as other necessary documents.