In her remarks at the opening ceremony, Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets stressed that safe working conditions were an absolute priority for the government’s “social block.” “Today, even in the most demanding industries we are able to create the conditions, allowing but a very minimal affect of the external factors on human health,” O. Golodets said, adding that over the past ten years the inci¬dence of occupation-related injuries in Russia was reduced by half.

Maxim Topilin, Minister of Labour and Social Protection of the Russian Federation, pointed out in his speech that in the last 3 to 4 years the country saw “systemic changes” in the field of labour protection. In 2013, a law on the special assessment of working conditions was passed, which introduced more incentives for employers to invest in occupational safety and health. Of late, the government has approved amendments to that law, which sum up the outcome of monitoring the law enforcement practices in this field of occupational safety and health.

Recalling that the protection of workers from occupation-related death, disease and injury has been one of the main functions of the ILO since the founding of the organization in 1919, Dimitrina Dimitrova, Director of ILO’s Decent Work Technical Support Team and Country Office for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, stressed that industrial injuries and occupational diseases bore a catastrophic toll on workers, their families, the society, employers and the economy.

“We all share a common concern that these enormous human and economic costs are unacceptable, that urgent measures must be taken and efforts must be redoubled in order to create safe, secure and healthy jobs for all,” Dimitrova said. “Today, the Russian Federation has a strong legal system and shows the political will to strengthen the culture of prevention of industrial accidents and occupa¬tional diseases. The Russian social partners are also committed to achieving further progress in the field of occupational safety and health,” – she said.

Throughout the exhibition, ILO experts have been taking part in discussions. On the first day of the exhibition, two ILO Moscow specialists took part in the session on “State regulation of replacement of jobs with harmful working conditions”– Valentin Mocanu, Senior Labour Inspection and OSH Specialist, presented a reports on conducting OSH risk assessment, while his colleague Lejo Sibbel, Senior Specialist on International Labour Standards and Labour Law, made a presentation on“Hazard¬ous Work and Risk Management.”

On 9 December, Valentin Mocanu took part in a panel discussion on best practices in distance training of OSH specialists. On the same day, a workshop was organized to discuss the ways to support the initiatives of social partners related to the implementation of ILO’s Recommendation 200 concerning HIV and AIDS and the world of work. Taking part in the seminar on the part of the ILO were Brigitte Zug, Senior Advisor to the head of ILO’s programme on HIV/AIDS and World of Work, and Ekaterina Ivanova, Focal Point for HIV/AIDS in the World of Work at the ILO Office in Moscow.