According to statistics, today in Russia out of over 12 million people employed in the industrial sector, more than 5 million (about 40%) work in enterprises related to hazardous production. Such are any production of non-ferrous and ferrous metallurgy, mining, various types of engineering (economic, tractor, construction and road), enterprises for the production of building materials, logging and many others. There is a whole list of harmful professions whose workers are at increased risk of injuries and occupational diseases.
What are these harmful factors? They are understood as the conditions of professional activity that can lead to a decrease in working capacity, the risk of poisoning and the occurrence of occupational diseases, which, in turn, can cause long-term adverse health effects, including the risk of unhealthy offspring.
Harmful production factors are divided into factors of the working environment and factors related to the labor process. Harmful factors of the working environment are physical (high and low temperatures, dust, noise, vibration), chemical (gas contamination, inhalation of harmful impurities, etc.) and biological nature. Biological factors include, first of all, the risk of infection by pathogenic microorganisms, tuberculosis bacillus and other dangerous viral infections, to which medical and veterinary workers are exposed.
Adverse factors of the labor process - increased physical or nervous stress (high labor intensity).
The list of harmful professions is very extensive, it is an officially approved document and provides for a number of additional benefits and compensations for workers in harmful production. According to the legislation of the Russian Federation, such employees enjoy the right to:
1. Paid additional leave, which must be granted annually for a period of at least 6 working days (up to 36) or more, if this is provided for by the internal policy of the enterprise. The legislative basis for the provision of such leave is the “List of industries, workshops, professions and positions with harmful working conditions, work in which gives the right to additional leave and shortened working hours”, which was adopted by resolution of the USSR State Committee for Labor in 1974 (N 298 / - 22) and in the absence of other official acts, it is still the main regulatory document in this area. This list of preferential professions is approved for individual industries and workshops, and also contains a list of harmful professions common to all industries.
The employer does not have the right to refuse to grant the employee such leave or withdraw the employee from the leave, in addition, additional leave must be granted annually and cannot be replaced by monetary compensation. The main categories of workers entitled to such leave are persons employed in underground work or in open work in mountain quarries, in radioactive contaminated zones, medical personnel, and veterinarians.
2. Shortened working hours, as well as breaks for rest and heating.
3. Wages in an increased amount, as well as compensation for difficult working conditions.
4. Personal protective equipment, medical nutrition, milk dispensing.
5. Regular medical examinations carried out without fail at the expense of the employer of any form of ownership. When accepting a candidate, the employer is obliged to organize a preliminary preventive medical examination of the employee in order to identify possible contraindications to this type of work and to warn the candidate about the presence of adverse labor factors. Otherwise, the responsibility for the possible loss of incapacity for work by the employee with the payment of material compensation and other consequences lies entirely with the employer. The list of harmful professions provides for a number of health disorders in which one or another activity is contraindicated.
6. Grace period for calculating a pension. It should be borne in mind that for persons included in the list of harmful professions, to confirm a preferential retirement period, it is necessary to have a record in the work book about the job title in strict accordance with the officially adopted classification in order to avoid misunderstandings, and also remember that the preferential experience is calculated according to the actual worked time. This includes periods of work when the employee spent half or more of the working day in appropriate conditions.