The leadership of the Labor Inspectorate of Trade Unions presented a report on the situation in the field of health and safety at work

In 2019, at the State Labor Inspectorate, 497 incidents of workers’ injuries were reported in the field of work, as a result of which 515 people suffered, including 72 fatal cases. The number of accidents at work is higher compared to the year 2018, when there were 421 workers’ accident events. The data were communicated on Thursday, February 20, at the meeting of the CNSM Confederal Committee, by Elena Carchilan, head of the Labor Inspectorate of Trade Unions.

Elena Carchilan informed that during the year 2019, IMS employees were involved in the investigation of 23 work accidents, 8 accidents that occurred in 2017-2018 and 15 accidents produced in 2019, including 2 collective work accidents, in which trade union members were involved.

Also, last year, the IMS labor inspectors detected 7899 of violations and deviations from the provisions of normative acts in the field of labor. The violations concerned are related to the non-compliance of the work places with the minimum requirements of health and safety at work; failure to provide personal protection and work equipment free of charge; failure to perform occupational risk assessment at workplaces; failure to inform employers about the occupational risks to which employees are subject; lack of internal or external protection and prevention services, etc.

In this context, it was mentioned that the reform in the field of state control on the respect of safety and health at work, represents a regressive situation in the given field, which can be ascertained after the meetings organized by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Social Protection and State Labour Inspectorate with representatives of the 10 competent authorities in the field of occupational safety, attended by the head of IMS.

As has been reported, following the repeated insistence of the trade unions, at all levels, both at home and abroad, the reform of the state control on the respect of safety and health at work could be revised in order to return to an integrated system of the labor inspection, by restoring the powers of control in the field of labor relations and in the field of occupational health and safety, according to the international standards to which the Republic of Moldova is a party.

At the meeting, the members of the Confederal Committee approved the list of entities that has to be visited by the representatives of the Labor Inspectorate of Trade Unions in the year 2020. The IMS task was to control the observance of the Conventions of the International Labor Organization ratified by the Republic of Moldova, the Labor Code, the Law on occupational safety and health and other normative acts in the field, collective agreements, collective labor contracts, decisions of the General Council, the Confederal Committee of the CNSM, concerning the realization of the rights of the trade union members to safety and health at work.

Also, the national-branch trade-union centers will ensure the operational information of the IMS on the occurrence of work accidents in the primary trade union organizations in the branch; to ensure the active participation of the leaders of the primary trade union organizations, the representatives of the trade unions with specific responsibilities in the field of occupational safety and health in the working visits made by the representatives of the Labor Inspectorate of Trade Unions, the State Labor Inspectorate, the territorial labor inspections and the competent authorities in the field of occupational safety.

The presidents of the national-branch trade-union centers appreciated the accreditation of the Laboratory Control of Risk Factors of the Labor Inspectorate of Trade Unions by the National Accreditation Center of the Republic of Moldova (MOLDAC) as an important achievement of the CNSM and IMS, which will contribute to ensuring the safety and health of the workers through the provision of services. assessment of risk factors in the workplace.

For 2020, the Labor Inspectorate of Trade Unions has set several objectives: active involvement in the process of harmonizing the legislative and normative framework of safety and health at work and constantly adapting the legislation in the field to the changes imposed by European standards; working visits to entities; improvement and modernization of the inspection activities of the working conditions in the work places; performing the instrumental measurements of the working conditions based on the requests; intensifying and deepening the collaboration with the State Labor Inspectorate, etc.