It is dangerous to work in Russia

On February 19, Russian minister of labour and social development, Alexandr Pochinok reported at the ministery’s collegium, that Russia lost more people in works, than in wars. According to him, the losses in Chechnya in Afghanistan were “much less.” Pochinok noticed that people died first of all because of untidiness of works’ administration that tried to maximally decrease cost of production, while neglecting industrial safety. Moreover, equipment in most of industrial works has not been renewed for dozens of years. According to Russian State Committee on Statistics, works with unsatisfactory conditions of work make about 45 percent. In such factories, over 6 million people work. As a result, over 500 thousand of Russians became disabled workers every year. As a matter of fact, there are troubles not only in protection of labour sphere. Every year, several thousands of people die or are injured in car accidents. These problems seem not to be connected with each other. Though really they have something in common – untidiness of administration. Of course, works’ directors and city administrations’ functionaries have many things to do. Though it cannot justify their criminal negligence. Russian citizen however are guilty of the situation too. If they are more active while defending their rights in the court, leading persons would be more chargeable. However, recently the number of suits brought by Russian citizens concerning industrial injuries seriously increased. Most of such suits are connected with determination of guilt’s degree and of statute of limitation. Thanks to these addressed, the sum of the compensation could be fixed. In Russia, such compensations are being paid by Federal Fund of Social Insurance. If the victim dies, his family gets single compensation. If the victim remains alive, a monthly compensation is paid, while its rate corresponds with the degree of the lost ability to work. This system of the payments is rather complicated, though it is effective enough. The problems of industrial injuries must have been noticed long ago. The state should be interested in reduction of dangerous works. Otherwise, Russia will further lose thousands of able-bodied citizens.

Oleg Artyukov PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Vera Solovieva

Read the original in Russian: http://www.pravda.ru/main/2002/02/19/37312.html