In developed in economic and military-technical relations Western states (primarily in the United States and the countries of the European Union), supervision in the field of industrial safety - for compliance by economic entities with the requirements of the legislation, as well as compliance with the specified requirements of buildings and premises used in the production process, structures, technical devices, equipment, materials and technologies - differs from the Russian model.
While both in the West and in Russia, industrial safety issues are the subject of public-private partnership (PPP), in Russia the state component prevails in PPP, and in the West - the private one. For example, in Russia, government agencies do not carry out industrial safety expertise - this function is given to business and is implemented by one of the licensed companies. But the conclusions of the latter are subject to mandatory registration by Rostekhnadzor. The current model in the United States and the European Union can be characterized as a public-private partnership rather than a public-private partnership.
AMERICAN APPROACH
In the United States, occupational safety is the responsibility of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) of the Department of Labor (DoL), which deals with occupational health and safety and the prevention of occupational diseases. This organization was established by the US Congress under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, signed by President Richard Nixon on December 29, 1970, and was formally established on April 28, 1971, when the Occupational Safety and Health Act came into force.
The main task of the department is to ensure safe and healthy working conditions for employees by developing standards in the field of occupational health and safety, ensuring their implementation (including through inspections, imposing fines, etc.), specialized training on industrial safety; and advice to employers. The department is authorized to make proposals for improving the legal regulation in the established area of activity.
The territory of the United States under the administration is divided into 10 numbered districts, in each of which there are territorial government bodies. Their representatives regularly inspect industrial sites, where they conduct scheduled inspections and certification of workplaces in the most dangerous and harmful industries and technological processes, and inspect hazardous production facilities. Such inspections can be unscheduled and carried out on the basis of complaints from employees and at the request of third parties.
In addition to implementing measures to ensure compliance with the requirements of labor protection and safety regulations developed in accordance with the Labor Protection Law, the department is also responsible for fulfilling the requirements of laws protecting employees, informing about various types of offenses committed by the employer, regardless of whether whether they are related to labor protection or not (whistleblower laws). This authority has been delegated to the administration of the US Congress under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, signed by President Barack Obama on July 21, 2010.
Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act, states and territories can implement their own federal health and safety programs. These programs supersede federal programs and are partially funded by the federal government. Legislation stipulates that they must be just as effective in protecting employees as the programs of the Federal Office of Occupational Safety and Health. 22 states have such programs.
Speaking at the 40th anniversary of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in April 2011, Chief Executive David Michaels, who serves as US Deputy Secretary of Labor, illustrated his agency's accomplishments with the following data:
- the death rate at work has decreased from 14 thousand people in 1970 to 4, 4 thousand people in 2009;
- the level of injuries and occupational diseases decreased from 10.9 cases per 100 people in 1972 to less than 4 in 2009.
Nevertheless, David Michaels pointed out that 4, 4 thousand deaths at work is an unacceptable number: 12 people a day! In addition, every year about 3 million people become victims of industrial injuries, and many thousands get occupational diseases.
The department supervises about 8.7 million production facilities and over 106 million employees in the private sector. Territorial labor protection management bodies have 80 local offices subordinate to 10 regional offices. Every year, department inspectors conduct about 30 thousand inspections of industrial facilities. The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), the largest American union of trade unions, estimates that it will take 129 years to verify and certify all workplaces. In this regard, the labor protection department, along with measures for compulsory certification of workplaces, also implements Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP).
CARROT AND STICK
The key word here is "voluntary". Applicants for the status of a participant in such programs send an application to the territorial body of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, on the basis of which the latter sends them a technical assignment focused on demonstrating specific results (performance-based criteria). On the basis of this assignment, applicants develop and submit their proposals to the regional management body, upon consideration and approval of which a comprehensive verification of enterprises and certification of workplaces (on-site verification evaluation) are carried out. The composition of the inspection team varies from three to six people.
Those businesses that successfully complete due diligence are eligible for inclusion in one of three Voluntary Workplace Safety Programs (VPP). Subsequently, program participants annually conduct an internal audit (self-evaluation) of occupational safety programs, and a scheduled on-site inspection of them with a periodic on-site assessment is carried out by representatives of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration not annually, but once every three to five years., either on an unscheduled basis in the event of an industrial accident or on the basis of employee complaints.
Participants in voluntary occupational safety programs are divided into three categories, with the appropriate official status assigned:
- VPP Star - the highest level of achievement, exemplary enterprises that successfully implement comprehensive occupational safety programs with minimal occupational injuries and diseases among full-time employees (50% below the national average in their industries for at least one of the last three years preceding the next scheduled inspection), the actual results of production activities correspond to the terms of reference of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration;
- "Good" (VPP Merit) - the next level of achievement, enterprises that demonstrate the determination to rise one step higher within the next three years and have the corresponding potential, the results achieved indicate insufficient efficiency in a number of areas;
- VPP Star Demonstration - enterprises that have just started implementing an alternative or new set of industrial safety measures, following which they can be assigned a higher status.
In small enterprises with up to 500 production personnel, based on the results of on-site consultations with representatives of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, incentive programs (Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Program, SHARP) are implemented, providing for exemption from annual scheduled inspections for up to three years subject to the exemplary fulfillment of industrial safety requirements.
Participants of the programs can use banners, flags and logos corresponding to their status on their advertising products and in the external design of the territory and buildings.
The above statuses are assigned based on the results of three types of certification:
- certification of individual industrial sites (site-based certification);
- certification of production personnel rotating between several geographically dispersed industrial sites (mobile workforce certification);
- certification of the corporation as a whole (corporate certification).
By the end of 2013, 2,333 businesses were participating in voluntary work safety (VPP) programs, the vast majority of which were VPP Star. The programs covered over 1 million production personnel. The cumulative economic effect of the participants in these programs since their deployment in 1982 to date has exceeded $ 1 billion. This is a result at the macroeconomic level.
At the microeconomic level - the level of an individual company - the United Space Alliance, a joint venture between the two giants of the US defense industry, Boeing and Lockheed Martin, is a prime example. The firm is a contractor for the US National Aerospace Agency for the provision of a complex of launch services and the operation of the launch site at Cape Canaveral. United Space Alliance received the status of "excellent worker" in industrial safety in 2004 and retains it to the present day. The rate of accidents and industrial injuries decreased in various divisions of the company by 15-25%. In one of the divisions with up to 100 employees, it became zero, which resulted in a bonus of $ 47,000 from the employer and another $ 48,000 in payments from the insurer.
The leading companies in the Russian defense industry already have advanced production facilities. Photo from www.irkut.com
In addition to carrots, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration also has a painful financial whip in the form of penalties imposed on violators of occupational safety rules. For example, in November 2014, Colonna's Shipyard in Norfolk, which specializes in the repair of surface warships and support vessels of the US Navy, was fined $ 100,000 for inadequate security of production personnel. The reason for the unscheduled inspection was a complaint about the lack of fencing of open hatches when welding at a high (more than 10 m) height. During the inspection, 12 more violations were found. In 2010, the same enterprise was fined $ 85,000 for four violations of industrial safety rules during the year.
The successes achieved made it possible to begin translating the regulations of voluntary programs into mandatory ones: representatives of both parties in the lower house of the US Congress made a corresponding legislative initiative at the end of May this year.
Supervision issues in the field of atomic energy use are the exclusive competence of the US Department of Energy and are under the jurisdiction of the Federal Technical Capability Panel, which is one of the structural divisions of the department.
Technical certification of lifting mechanisms, pressure equipment, power supply systems of industrial enterprises is referred to the jurisdiction of non-profit self-regulatory organizations: boiler inspection (National Board of Boiler and Pressure Vessel Inspectors), energy inspection (Board of Electrical Examiners) and technical inspection (Occupational Safety and Health Administration), which, in turn, delegate their powers to a number of commercial and non-profit organizations. For example, in the case of certification of lifting equipment, including cranes and hoists, it is the commercial organization Crane Institute Certification (CIC), as well as the non-profit National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCER), National Commission for the Certification of Crane Operators (NCCCO) and Operating Engineers Certification Program (OECP). Authorized certification bodies coordinate closely with insurance companies.
EUROPEAN INTENTION
In the European Union, the situation is even more complicated from the point of view we are accustomed to. There, industrial safety issues are formally referred to the jurisdiction of the European Commission - the supranational executive body of the European Union, separated from the governments of the member states. Since all decisions of the European Commission are exclusively advisory in nature, and all controversial issues are settled at the level of national governments, on the one hand, and since there are objective requirements for regulating the daily life of the common economic space, on the other hand, the practical aspects of industrial safety in the territory of the European Union are the prerogative of the international non-commercial organization (Association internationale sans but lucratif - Aisbl) - the European Conference of Control and Supervisory Bodies (Colloque Europeen d'Organismes de Controle International - CEOC International), uniting 29 independent control and certification bodies from 22 countries.
These control and certification organizations are accredited by the state authorities of the member states of the European Union for the implementation of certification and control and supervision activities in relation to hazardous production equipment (lifting mechanisms, equipment operating under pressure, electricity and heat supply systems, nuclear power facilities), as well as buildings and structures, vehicles, conventional manufacturing equipment, medical equipment, consumer goods and children's toys.
The specialized technical committees of the European Conference of Control and Supervisory Bodies (CEOC International Technical Committees) are empowered with the powers of technical expertise in relation to pan-European regulations governing industrial safety and standardization.
The activities of authorized control and certification organizations of the European Conference are reduced to the implementation of two main functions - regulatory (on a compulsory basis) and certification (on a voluntary basis). The first of them has a state-power nature and is associated primarily with the protection of human life and health, as well as environmental conservation through minimizing anthropogenic risks and adjusting the existing socio-economic model, the second is focused on serving the needs of the economy and is aimed at meeting the image and technical and economic interests of market entities.
The European Conference has a very strong commercial component associated with the second (certification) function. The annual volume of services in the world market of independent examination, certification and control tests (Testing, Inspection & Certification, TIC) is estimated at 100 billion euros, market participants are about 2 thousand control and certification organizations with a total number of employees of about 600 thousand people. The vacant share of the world market (addressable market) is estimated at more than 70 billion euros. The remaining nearly 30 billion euros falls on the 15 largest transnational control and certification organizations, of which 11 have European roots (SGS-Group, Bureau Veritas, DNV-GL Group, DEKRA, etc.).
In addition to resolving current issues, the European Conference of Control and Supervisory Bodies plays a significant role in defining the main directions of scientific, technical and innovation policy of the European Union states in the short and medium term. Since this year, the European Conference has been the official partner of the European Technology Platform on Industrial Safety (ETPIS) - an interstate self-regulatory network of leading scientific organizations, industry leaders in production, as well as reputable non-profit organizations in terms of the platform profile. 750 organizations from all countries of the European Union participate in the work of the platform. The platform is one of the elements of the VIII European Union Research and Development Framework for the period 2014-2020, called Horizon 2020, which aims to prioritize science, technology and innovation policies that can respond to modern challenges.
THERE IS WHAT TO LEARN
Western experience in ensuring industrial safety can become not just a subject of abstract interest ("what do they have there?"), But also be in demand in conditions of severe resource constraints (financial, time, human, etc.) for the domestic system of state technical supervision in terms of further mastering the mechanism of public-private partnership and extending its action to areas that until recently were considered the exclusive subject of the state.
At the same time, the transfer of control and supervisory functions of the state to business and professional self-regulatory organizations is effective only if there is a mature civil society in which ethical restrictions affect the behavior of economic entities - both individual entrepreneurs and legal entities - no weaker than legislative, administrative and and criminal.
At the present stage, the level of development of Russian society lags behind the level of development of the state, in connection with which the latter is forced to educate the former: recognizing in principle his legal capacity, to limit - for the time being and to a certain extent - his legal capacity.
In particular, the recently adopted Federal Law of the Russian Federation of July 13, 2015 No. 224-FZ "On Public-Private Partnership, Municipal-Private Partnership in the Russian Federation and Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation" applies only to transport, energy and telecommunications infrastructure, healthcare and education facilities, as well as individual utilities. The regulation of the activities of market entities in the field of industrial safety is not yet subject to the regulatory action of this law. And the point here is not so much in the state as in society, which has yet to prove its maturity in the discussed sphere of economic relations.
