Pursuant to the instruction of the Head of State, given in the Address to the people of Kazakhstan from September 1, 2023 "Economic course of Fair Kazakhstan", the Concept of safe labor in the Republic of Kazakhstan for 2024-2030 was developed. The purpose of the document is to improve the quality of working life of workers and saving labor resources. on the main aspects of the Concept at the Government session chaired by Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov told the Minister of Labor and Social Protection of the Population Svetlana Zhakupova. 

According to her, the Concept provides for new approaches to systematic improvement of working conditions of employees based on factor analysis of the current situation and world trends in the field of labor protection management.

The Concept provides for 4 main directions of development of the labor protection management system, including:

• modernization of the national occupational safety and health system (OSHMS) based on a risk-oriented approach;
• economic incentives for measures to reduce occupational risk at workplaces;
• development of professional competencies and scientific potential; 
• increasing the efficiency of control and monitoring in the field of labor protection.

The key indicators of safe labor are indicators of occupational injuries and occupational diseases.

"Analysis of the current state in the field of labor safety shows that there is a tendency of growth of such indicators from year to year. According to official statistical information, in 2022 the number of occupational injuries compared to 2021 increased by 15% and occupational diseases by 8%. Occupational injuries and occupational diseases are the result of working in harmful working conditions, including working conditions that do not meet sanitary and hygienic standards, heavy labor and unsafe equipment," Svetlana Zhakupova stated. 

Taking into account the identified problematic issues, a set of the following measures will be implemented as part of the modernization of the national occupational health and safety management system (OHSMS):

First, normative and methodological support of the new classification and assessment of working conditions. This will make it possible to identify the complex impact of harmful factors in the production environment. 

Second, specialized organizations that conduct occupational risk assessment will be required to:

• accreditation of laboratory and equipment; 
• certification of experts in occupational risk assessment;
• mandatory integration with the Ministry's information system and provision of assessment results via a mobile application.

Third, establishing the responsibility of specialized organizations through automated monitoring in the Ministry's information system with exclusion from the register in case of revealing the results of poor quality assessment.

Application of the matrix method of distribution and ranking of personal protective equipment on the basis of a specific hazardous factor will simplify the employer's choice of PPE. It will also make it possible to move away from the current standardized norms and provide employees with means of protection against risks specific to a particular workplace.

The introduction of the risk-based approach will be accompanied by full-scale digitalization through the integration of information systems for monitoring working conditions. A Digital Map of enterprises has already been created, which will allow real-time monitoring of working conditions from July 1, 2024.

"The costs of ensuring safe labor are mostly related to the provision of social guarantees to employees engaged in harmful working conditions. For these purposes in 2022, employers allocated more than 227 billion tenge. Over the past 3 years, these costs have increased by 47%," the Minister said.

The current guarantees for employees do not take into account the actual working conditions and do not encourage employers to improve them. As a result, a compensatory model of social protection of employees has been formed, which provides for a list approach to the provision of guarantees to employees. In addition, there is a low interest of employers to insure employees against accidents. Today only 54% of employees are insured. 

"Within the framework of measures to transform the mechanism for the presentation of guarantees, a new procedure for determining the types and amounts, including a proactive format for their assignment based on the assessment of pro-risk will be established. It is necessary to introduce new financial and economic measures to increase the employer's contribution to improving working conditions. In this regard, methodological approaches to economic planning of labor protection costs, as well as assessment of its effectiveness will be developed, with the introduction of an online application for budgeting costs," the head of the social department said. 

That is, the preventive orientation of the system of compulsory accident insurance will be expanded, which will ensure the achievement of key insurance objectives: the validity of the tariff, compliance with the sum insured, completeness of data to establish the risk. 

The implementation of these measures will ensure full coverage of employees, taking into account the targeting and systematic nature of the guarantees provided to them, and employers - to increase the efficiency of investment in improving working conditions.

"One of the causes of high occupational injuries is deficiencies in safe labor training. In 2022, this was the cause of 20% of accidents, shortage of qualified personnel, lack of responsibility of training centers for the quality of training. At the same time, the lack of records does not allow to track the number of labor safety specialists, to assess the level of their education. In order to address these issues, it is planned to differentiate the procedures of training and testing of knowledge on labor protection with the creation of an online platform," the Minister said.

Requirements for training centers will be strengthened, and a Unified Training and Methodological Center will be established, one of the functions of which will be to develop standard training programs and control questions for knowledge testing.

Among the innovations is the coverage of mandatory advanced training for state and technical inspectors of labor protection, managers and members of Production Councils. 

"At the same time, there is low interest in obtaining education in the field of labor protection. Every year only about a thousand applicants choose the direction of "Hygiene and occupational health and safety at work", which subsequently affects the shortage of qualified personnel. In order to resolve this problem it is proposed to implement a number of measures aimed at improving the image of the profession of labor safety engineer, including in the framework of career guidance work with an increase in the volume of educational grants," Zhakupova said.

According to the head of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection, an important role in ensuring safe labor is given to monitoring of labor conditions in the country, which is implemented through state and departmental statistical recording of indicators, state, public and internal control. There is a lack of interconnection and joint work between these types of accounting and control.

"Today there is no reliable statistical information on the state of labor conditions, there is low coverage of enterprises by state and public control. The selection of the subject of control is carried out manually based on the results of previous inspections and the type of activity of the enterprise. The realization of the task to improve the effectiveness of control and monitoring in the field of labor protection will be carried out through automated information systems, digital platform and mobile application for the assessment of profrisks," the Minister said. 

For this purpose, the forms of state and departmental statistics on labor protection will be updated with the introduction of indicators that adequately reflect the state of working conditions, with simplification of the data collection system. 

A mechanism of preventive state control will be introduced by comparing data obtained from various sources of information. An expert examination of the results of the assessment of risks at enterprises after the occurrence of an accident will be introduced. This will make it possible to focus state control and monitoring on high-risk areas, take preventive measures in time and avoid negative consequences. A positive effect is expected from strengthening the powers of state labor inspectors, as well as trade unions in terms of public control.

As part of the introduction of additional mechanisms of social protection of workers employed in hazardous working conditions, special social payments will be introduced on the instructions of the Head of State from January 1, 2024.

Employees who have reached the age of 55 and for whom compulsory professional pension contributions have been transferred for at least 7 years are entitled to these payments. 

The key condition for the payment is the cessation of work in harmful working conditions. Employment measures will be offered to such workers.

The special social payment will be made from 4 sources, including:

• special professional state benefit in the amount of 2 monthly wages;
• insurance payment under the pre-retirement annuity insurance contract in the amount of 1 monthly salary; 
• professional payment at the expense of the employer in the amount of 1 monthly wage;
• pension payment from the Unified National Pension Fund, taking into account accruals.

Employees will receive a special social payment until they reach retirement age. 

As a result of the Concept implementation, a positive effect is expected for all parties of social partnership.

For employees – improvement of the quality of life and health saving.

For employers – economic interest in creating safe workplaces and increasing labor productivity.

For the state – increased socio-economic development and competitiveness of the country.

#Government session #Ministry of Labor