All-Russia OSH Week: Work-Related Accidents Get Younger

According to the ILO statistics, there are 542 million young workers worldwide. In Russia they make up almost 7 million. These numbers are significant. Thus, it is no accident that this year the Fourth All-Russia OSH Week had “Generation Safe&Healthy” as its main subject while a specialized conference on this matter became one of its key events.

13 April 2018

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Valentin Mocanu, Senior Specialist on Labour Inspection and OSH, ILO DWT and Country Office for Eastern Europe and Central Asia: “Informality of young workers’ employment causes their vulnerability more than anything else. In informal labour relations, young people are less protected, and their rights are less respected. In addition, this category of workers largely ignore OSH issues, do not have adequate training, lack the experience of using individual protective equipment etc”.

According to Valentin Mocanu, it is extremely difficult to change the situation at small firms while it is there that informal labour relations normally prevail. As a matter of conclusion, alternative rather than classical methods should be developed to address these issues. This regards not only inspection but, most importantly, advisory and training activities.

The 2018 World SafeDay campaign and its slogan “Generation Safe&Healthy” highlights the critical importance of improving safety and health for young workers.