The situation in the field of safety and health at work is rather serious. To promote culture in this field, a national program on safety and health at work needs to be worked out. It is important to periodically assess safety at work so as to determine its level. Such opinions were formulated by participants in a roundtable meeting entitled “Work in safe and healthy conditions, fundamental right of employees at workplace”, IPN reports.
Igor Chiloch, deputy head of the Labor Relations and Social Dialogue Policies Division of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection, said that safety and health at work are an indicator of the quality of life and this indicator is obtained by a set of measures aimed at ensuring the best work conditions, the physical and mental integrity of the employee. This set of instruments should be national in charter and should be based on a radical approach, on a national program centering on work. The Ministry of Labor and Social Protection is working out a national program on workplace relationships, with a component aimed at increasing the level of safety and health at work.
“The Ministry of Labor and Social Protection realizes that any accident at the workplace is worrisome and has consequences primarily for the injured employee who loses incomes, more serious ones for the salary earner who died and also for the family. The workplace accidents have repercussions for society as society loses confidence in the possibility of creating an efficient workplace safety and health system,” stated Igor Chiloch.
Together with the obtaining of the EU candidate status, the Moldovan authorities stepped up the implementation of the European strategy on health and safety at work and continue adjusting the national legislation to the international one. “Some of the directives that were transposed to the national legislation at European level are being reviewed, while others were modified. Our duty is to update them so as to create an integral system of legislative documents, institutions, procedures and also of support so as to implement the legislation on safety and health at work strategy and to guarantee a high level of work conditions,” said the functionary.
Igor Zubcu, chairman of the National Trade Union Confederation of Moldova, noted that even if Moldova has transposed a number of EU directives on safety and health at work, a lot of work is yet to be done to create a legal framework that would fully guarantee workplace safety. “We are convinced that by social partnerships and by the concerted efforts of the social partners, the Government, the employers and trade unions, the most efficient measures and solutions to problems related to safety and health at work can be identified,” he stated.
The work conditions and the noncompliant work environment, lack of individual protection equipment or the incorrect use of this are among the multiple factors that endanger the life of employees. According to data of the National Bureau of Statistics, over 500 workplace accidents are annually recorded in Moldova. In 2022, the figure stood at 562. Even if the number is by 10% lower than in 2021, it is much higher than in the EU member states.
