On June 20, the team of the Regional Office of U-LEAD with Europe in the Zaporizhzhia Oblast held an information event in partnership with the Department of Inspection in the Zaporizhzhia Oblast of the South-Eastern Interregional Department of the State Labour Service.
“The main goal of the event is to provide municipal officials with clarifications on the organisation of employment, occupational health and safety and psychological support of employees in wartime,” said Anastasiia Pavliuk, Adviser on Municipal Management and Recovery at this Regional Office.
According to Andrii Adamchuk, Head of the Department of Inspection in the Zaporizhzhia Oblast, the reform of the State Labour Service of Ukraine has been completed in 2024:
“The Department of the State Labour Service in the Zaporizhzhia Oblast is now subordinate to the South-Eastern Interregional Department of the State Labour Service headquartered in Dnipro.”
He added that the scope of competence and duties of the Department of Inspection stayed the same. The objective of the institution is to implement measures of state supervision and control in the relevant areas of adaptation and compliance with employment laws, as well as measures of state supervision of occupational safety.
Andrii Adamchuk pointed to the legal documents that regulate the relations between the employee and the employer in creating proper and safe working conditions. He also emphasised the authority of local self-government to approve targeted regional programmes for improving the safety of working conditions and the industrial environment, as well as occupational health and safety measures included in social economy programmes, etc.
“I just don’t want to wait for accidents to happen. Please pay attention to your functions and ensure their actual implementation in your municipalities,” he said.
The management experts also presented a new direction for the civil service, the implementation of the programme “Wartime and Post-War Psychosocial Support of Employees at the Workplace”. Given the daily stress and upheavals, employers should do something about the mental health of their employees. A mental health support programme should become part of the organisation’s policy or be integrated into the occupational health and safety programme.
According to Andrii Adamchuk, this direction is now gaining traction, and surveys for studying the needs as well as guidelines have already been developed. Note that the Department of Inspection in the Zaporizhzhia Oblast has already started implementing this programme for its employees.
Next, the event focused on occupational health and certification of workplaces. According to the speakers, the employer must provide funding and organise an annual mandatory medical examination of persons under the age of 21, initial and regular follow-up medical examinations of employees tasked with physically demanding jobs, working in hazardous or dangerous conditions or those that require professional selection.
“Why are medical examinations important? Let me tell you about a case. An employee, despite having a disability with contraindications to working night shifts, got a job as a night-shift security guard and died at the workplace at night. An investigation was launched to find out whether the employer was aware of this restriction. If the worker had passed the examination, the liability would be on the medical board that cleared him. Otherwise, the liability lies with the employer,” explained Andrii Adamchuk.
As he added, martial law does not mean that medical examinations are suspended, especially when hiring workers for hazardous industries.
In addition, officials of the Department of Inspection in the Zaporizhzhia Oblast answered a number of questions from the participants on the specific aspects of the application of the employment laws in wartime.
Finally, the speakers called on local self-government to cooperate, be open to dialogue and comply with the employment laws.