Last week the Parliament of Azerbaijan adopted amendments toughening up the punishments for breaking the labor legislation. For this purpose, the meeting of Azerbaijan Parliament on 8 December made annexes and amendments to the Code of Administration Breaks.
According to the new amendments, those who break the labor legislation will be punished by the State Labor Inspection. If before the changes, the punishment amounted to AZN 3,000, according to the new document, this amount for the physical entities will vary between AZN 1100 and 2750 - 3300, for legal entities - AZN 5500 and 38500, for officials - AZN 770 and 1650.
Possibly through toughening up the money punishments, the enterprises will beneficially implement the requirements of the labor legislation and support the high level of labor security.
Mostly breaking the labor legislation in Azerbaijan takes place in the construction sphere. Thus, in January to November, the Labor Inspection of Azerbaijan's Ministry of Labor and Social Protection held inspections on the fulfillment of the technical security regulations and signing of labor contracts in 168 construction companies. The Labor Inspection intensified its activities after the collapse of the 16-storey building in August in Baku which resulted in death of 25 people. The experts said that the building collapsed due to the wrong implementation of the construction works, use of low-quality construction materials and breaking of the technical security regulations.
Generally in January to November, 273 accidents took place in the production, with 100 lethal outcomes and 173 trauma. Generally in the past eleven months, 133 people died and 214 people were wounded in the production (not only in the construction). Some 65 accidents took place in the construction and as a result, 62 people died and 44 people were wounded. These are official data, but the number of the secret cases of breaking the labor legislation remains without punishment.
The employers should understand that the minimal expenses that they spend on support of the labor security regulations in their enterprises come back to them as huge profits. For more convincingness, examples are being brought from the International Labor Organization's report 'Decrease risks - reduce expenses! Economy and labor protection in the enterprises'.
Why is it necessary to pay attention to the economy and labor protection?
Unsatisfactory situation with the labor protection brings to the decrease of the productivity because accidents and illnesses due to the work will take more expenses and may have many serious direct and indirect impacts on the lives of workers, their families and employers. The expenses due to the accidents are not underestimated by the heads of the enterprises:
Reasons:
- statistics of accidents are not tracked;
- the expenses on the accidents are not fixed;
- only obvious material losses are taken into consideration (damages to buildings, equipment, inventory);
- the indirect expenses and loss of profit are not taken into consideration;
- the expenses due to the accidents are not compared with other indicators of the enterprises
Of course, it is impossible to fully become insured for expenses due to the accidents. However, it is possible to significantly increase the security of the production and it will absolutely yield results as decrease of the unforeseen costs. The amount of all expenses as a result of the accidents may be equals the annual expenses of the enterprises.
What expenses does it deal?
Firstly (it is the main fact), the workers lose their health and sometimes, their lives and it is irreplaceable. Secondly damages are being inflicted to the equipment, inventory and ready products of the enterprises. Thirdly due to the accidents, other workers of lose their jobs. Fourthly not manufacturing products and not rendering service, the enterprises lose their profits that could be gained if the accident was absence. Finally the enterprises may be fined, amount of social insurance may be increased, etc.
Each accident in the production brings both direct and indirect expenses. As a rule, the indirect expenses are more or equal to losses.
Direct expenses:
- salary of injured worker on the day of accident;
- payment for members of the investigation commission;
- expenses on investigation, payment of fine and other;
Indirect expenses:
- loss of the working time:
- damages to equipment, inventory, ready products, termination of the production;
- expenses of re-establishment of the security;
- working time of other workers distracted from the work;
- increase of the insurance tariffs (amount of payment) to the Social Insurance Fund.
The indirect expenses on the accidents exceed the direct expenses
How is it possible to decrease the losses of the enterprises?
It needs to make clear what reasons may bring to the accidents in the production and what workers may injure as a result of the accident in the production. It is important to determine what it needs to do in order to prevent possible accidents. If necessary, for help, appeal:
- to workers of enterprise - they may offer the simplest way of settling the problem;
- to committee (commission) on labor protection, trade unions or other organizations;
- в органы исполнительной власти, органы местного самоуправления;
- в учебные центры по охране труда
How to calculate expenses?
The amounts of the expenses and losses should be compared with other indicators of the financial and economic activities - with current expenses, annual turnover and measures that should me taken to fill up the expenses and losses resulted from the accident. After such review, the real amounts of the losses and accident are assessed.
Thus, becoming familiarized with the above-mentioned materials, employers should make conclusions for themselves and select beneficial variant. The industrially developed countries, including G8, have understood that the traumatism in the production, professional diseases and general sickness rate of the workers can not be concomitant of the business, economic and social development of the State and it has been confirmed by the practice.
Each dollar allocated for improving labor conditions enables to save almost five dollars.