The trade unionists assessed the results of the project of training on the implementation of ILO Conventions on OSH

The trade union leaders from the Republic of Moldova, representatives of the International Labor Organization (ILO) and of the social partners – employers and Government, have participated on Friday, October 23, at the evaluation event of project „Training of trade unionists on the implementation of ILO Conventions on Occupational Safety and Health”, held from May to October 2015 by the National Trade Union Confederation of Moldova (NTUCM) and by the International Labor Organization (ILO), with the financial support of the Norwegian Government.

According to Elena Carchilan, head of OSH Expert Team of NTUCM, during the project, people responsible for OSH, have benefited from a training program on OSH in order to contribute to the implementation of ILO Conventions and legislative and regulatory framework in the field.

Petru Chiriac, vice-president of NTUCM, said that the state policies in OSH field should be oriented towards the prevention of occupational accidents and diseases by taking all the necessary measures in order to minimize or to completely eliminate the risks in the work environment. „Unfortunately, in our country happens exactly the reverse. The delays of transposition in the national legal framework of requirements of ILO Conventions and the disintegration of the legal framework inherited from the past, of labor protection, inevitably lead to the continuous degradation of working conditions, and the consequences continue to be borne, in a direct way, by those who lose their health and life at the workplace” said Chiriac.

Ovidiu Jurca, senior specialist in Workers’ Activities, ILO DWT/CO- Budapest, said that in the Republic of Moldova there is a legal framework with a high degree of adjustment to the ILO conventions. „Here lacks, however, a unitary implementation and, especially, a practice and a body of procedures to do from the implementation, monitoring and supportive activity of the approaches in the health and safety matters a current activity, which would no longer need adjustments”, he said.

In his view, the tripartite nature of the legislative framework building activity in the field of OHS is a fundamental one. It is extremely important to exist, from the part of the Government, the will and political pragmatism required to ensure the implementation of a standard by stimulation, recommended Jurca, adding that in the countries that have made progress in OSH, the implementation of a standard with reaching the level of current practices is made by stimulation, namely to the extent of tax deductibility of expenses for OSH.

In his turn, Iurie Craciuneac, Vice Minister of Labor, Social Protection and Family, reiterated that „the creation of safe working conditions requires a lot of financial outlay, particularly from the employers, which, however, do not want to invest in this respect”. He stressed that one factor favoring the direct unsatisfactory conditions at the workplace and which prevents the state from providing safeguards to employees is the undeclared work.

As a result of carrying out the project „Training of trade unionists on the implementation of ILO Conventions on Occupational Safety and Health” identified several problems in this regard, NTUCM coming up with proposals to amend the national legislation in the field of OSH.

Thus, the trade unionists consider necessary to develop and implement a new social security system based on the differentiated social security contributions, dependent on the quality of working conditions, of indexes of occupational accidents and occupational diseases; amendment of OSH Law introducing the obligation of the employer to establish, organize and finance the Committee for OSH; speeding up the process of ratification and implementation of ILO Convention no. 161 concerning occupational health services; amending the Rules of Accident Research work in accordance with the European standards; financing by the National Health Insurance Company of quality assurance and timeliness of carrying out periodic medical examinations and at admission to employment for the employees, as well as the development of the Regulation on the minimum requirements for the organization and operation of the „External protective and preventive services”.

Information Department of NTUCM