New strategy to improve health and safety at work
Published: 22 July 2007
The State Labour Inspectorate (Valsts Darba Inspekcija, VDI [1]), which is the state supervisory and control institution responsible for labour protection in Latvia, reports that despite a developed legislative basis, labour protection rules are at best formally implemented. With increasing economic activity, the number of workers who have had accidents in the workplace, and the number of deaths arising from workplace accidents, have increased over the past few years. This worsening situation has forced the government to seek improvements in the current occupational health and safety strategy.[1] http://www.vdi.lv/
On 27 March 2007, Latvia’s Ministry of Welfare presented the results of the EU Twinning project on the further development of the occupational health and safety strategy. The project included four components: development of the National Action Plan for the occupational health and safety strategy, strengthening of institutions in the field of occupational health and safety at work, capacity building of the State Labour Inspectorate and enhancing social dialogue.
Current high rate of accidents and fatalities at work
The State Labour Inspectorate (Valsts Darba Inspekcija, VDI), which is the state supervisory and control institution responsible for labour protection in Latvia, reports that despite a developed legislative basis, labour protection rules are at best formally implemented. With increasing economic activity, the number of workers who have had accidents in the workplace, and the number of deaths arising from workplace accidents, have increased over the past few years. This worsening situation has forced the government to seek improvements in the current occupational health and safety strategy.
According to the annual report of VDI, some 1,568 workers out of a total of 1.048 million employed people were victims of workplace accidents in 2005; some 56 of these persons died and 275 were seriously injured. In 2004, 1,402 workers were victims of occupational accidents, 61 of whom died and 254 of whom were seriously injured.
The table below outlines the number of workplace accidents per 100,000 workers; these findings are also drawn from the VDI Annual Report 2005, which the inspectorate prepares for the International Labour Organization (ILO). If one compares the number of casualties per 100,000 workers given in the table with the data in the aforementioned paragraph, an obvious discrepancy emerges, despite the fact that both data come from official sources. This discrepancy can be explained by the fact that different data sources were used to compile the workplace accident statistics.
| Year | Number of casualties |
|---|---|
| 1995 | 173 |
| 1996 | 163 |
| 1997 | 136 |
| 1998 | 135 |
| 1999 | 137 |
| 2000 | 146 |
| 2001 | 140 |
| 2002 | 150 |
| 2003 | 145 |
| 2004 | 136 |
| 2005 | 169 |
Source: VDI, Annual Report 2005, p.6
Aims of new project
On 28 March 2006, the Ministry of Welfare (Labklājības ministrija, LM) began to implement the EU Twinning project on the further development of the occupational health and safety strategy. The project’s main quantitative targets are to reduce the number of accidents at work by 3% a year, as of 2009, along with the occupational sickness rate by 3% starting from 2012. The project engaged experts from several institutions across Europe, namely from the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Labour (Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Soziales, BMAS) and the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health (Työterveyslaitos, FIOH), as well as from Latvian organisations, namely the VDI, the Work and Environmental Health Institute of Rīga Stradiņš University (Rīgas Stradiņa universitātes Darba un vides veselības institūts), the Latvian Employers’ Confederation (Latvijas Darba Devēju konfederācija, LDDK) and the Free Trade Union Confederation of Latvia (Latvijas Brīvo Arodbiedrību savienība, LBAS).
The project included four components: development of the National Action Plan (NAP) on occupational health and safety, strengthening the current institutional setting in this field, capacity development of VDI, and enhancing social dialogue.
Results of project
The results of the project were presented at the conference ‘Secure work in Latvia’ on 27 March 2007. The current situation and priorities were analysed in relation to all aspects of the project, and recommendations for measures and actions to be taken to improve labour protection were elaborated.
Development of National Action Plan
The objective of the NAP on occupational health and safety was to facilitate the implementation of the national strategy on occupational health and safety. The Ministry of Welfare has issued two important strategy documents outlining the ‘Conception of the development of labour protection from 2007–2013’ and ‘The programme for development of labour protection from 2007–2010’, which is to be carried out as part of the project. The panel of experts has recommended several improvements for the existing legislation, especially with regard to clarifying the functions of the public organisations involved and the introduction of a new instrument – namely, the standard of the labour protection practice. The latter practice encompasses a labour protection model created on the basis of the existing legislation. This has been deemed a necessary step in order to help employers and labour protection specialists interpret and apply labour protection legislation, while at the same time not forcing them to commit to anything more concrete.
Strengthening current institutional setting
In an effort to strengthen the current institutional arrangements, the panel of experts has suggested reorganising the Work and Environmental Health Institute into a National Institute for the Working Environment. This institute would serve the state information strategy in the field of labour protection.
Capacity building of State Labour Inspectorate
Capacity building of VDI included introducing new training models for companies and workers, as well as the implementation of a client’s oriented and sectoral approach.
Enhancing social dialogue
Enhancing social dialogue at company level and in the field of labour protection is seen as a necessary step because, according to the findings of the project team, social dialogue in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is quite poor. In general, motivational levels are very low and, because organised labour is almost non-existent in SMEs, collective agreements rarely cover occupational health and safety issues. VDI has been unable to promote social dialogue in these companies. In addition, economic incentives for employers to invest in occupational health and safety issues simply do not exist. It has been proposed that training be expanded for occupational health and safety, using the curricula for training seminars which were tested during the project. Training programmes and training aids were prepared for national trainers, and 16 people were trained to run this programme.
In March 2007, VDI organised seminars on ‘Social dialogue – gain for all’ in three Latvian cities. In these seminars, international experts reported on the economic impact of an efficient labour protection strategy and the benefit of social dialogue in companies. Linda Matisane presented the results of the study on ‘Working conditions and risks in Latvia’. This study is one of the research projects from the labour market research programme, subsidised by the EU Social Fund.
Commentary
The real impact of the project on labour protection remains to be seen. Meanwhile, statistics show that the situation regarding accidents at work has not improved. From 1 January 2007 to 7 May 2007, 28 people died and 78 were seriously injured as a result of occupational accidents. In 2006, these figures stood at 16 and 120 respectively for the same time period.
References
Information in Latvian about the project, available at: http://www.lm.gov.lv/index.php?sadala=723&id=3480
Brueckner, B., Twinning project: Occupational health and safety strategy (further development) (314Kb PPT), Presentation of project results, 27 March 2007.
Raita Karnite, Institute of Economics, LAS
Eurofound recommends citing this publication in the following way.
Eurofound (2007), New strategy to improve health and safety at work, article.
