Parliamentary Hearing on Occupational Safety and Health (November 17th 2010)

The Parliamentary Hearing was organised in order to review the current OSH situation in Ukraine. After the Parliamentary Hearing, recommendations on OSH will be adopted by the Ukrainian Parliament. A Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine will follow, urging the relevant ministries and institutions to develop an Action Plan in order to implement the Parliamentary recommendations. This gave an excellent national visibility to the project, which was also mentioned in the first speech of the Head of the State OSH committee.

First steering committee of the project (November 18th 2010)

The first steering committee of the project was held at the State OSH Committee office venue. The terms of reference of the steering committee were discussed and approved. The steering committee was named National Tripartite Supervisory Council of the Project (Supervisory Council). Its members were agreed upon and Mr. Gennadiy Syslov, Deputy Head of the State OSH Committee, was elected as Chairman of the Supervisory Council. It was agreed that a detailed work plan with a timeframe should be elaborated by the project team and the State OSH Committee within a month.

Training workshop on the development of a national programme on OSH (November 18th and 19th 2010)

This two-day workshop aimed at promoting the necessary skills to elaborate a draft version of a National OSH Programme for Ukraine.

The 20 participants included the Chief Adviser of the Secretariat of the Supreme Council of Ukraine (Parliament) on Social Policy and Labour, Heads of Departments and Senior Specialists of the State OSH committee, representatives of the OSH Institute (including Deputy Director), representatives from the State Nuclear Regulatory Committee, the State Statistic Committee, the Social Insurance Fund and as well as representatives from Employers and workers’ organizations.

After elaborations on the development of a national OSH profile and programme, the main areas identified for improvement were: reform of occupational accident and disease insurance system; awareness raising and promotion of a safety culture; new methodologies for risk assessment; data collection on accidents and diseases; building partnerships; training (including in vocational schools); reform of legislation; in addition to the enforcement of legislation.

Follow-up

After the training workshop, the State OSH Committee sent a letter to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine informing them that the Concept Paper should be circulated again among all relevant institutions in order to receive their input and validation. As a consequence of the training workshop, there is thus a renewed motivation on behalf of the State OSH committee to involve other actors, and in particular social partners, in the drafting of the national OSH programme. The most relevant stakeholders are now informed of the need and steps for the elaboration of a national programme and of their possible role in its elaboration.