Russia

The  recent amendments to the Labour Code concerning the application of professional standards by employers have resulted in country-wide discussions on whether the application of professional standards and professional re-training of occupational health and safety (OHS) specialists is mandatory for employers.  The Labour Code provisions have failed to provide a clear and unambiguous answer to this question.

The Government has announced the development of occupational safety rules for works in restricted and confined spaces. The reason for such an action is that currently in Russia there is no regulation that contains unified requirements applicable to works in restricted and confined spaces. The requirements applicable to this type of works are insufficient, unclear and scattered over a number of regulatory instruments, including occupational safety rules and norms.

The draft revised medical surveillance procedure for workers is to be adopted in the near future. The public discussion of the revised draft procedure has just been completed and the draft procedure is undergoing the procedure of regulatory impact evaluation. The probability that the current draft of the procedure is around 65%.

What would change if the revised procedure is adopted?

Federal Agency on Technical Regulation and Metrology has signed the Order on the application of the national intra-state standard GOST 33984.1-2016 “Lifts. General safety requirements for the design and installation of lifts. Lifts intended for persons or persons and cargo.”

As of 18 March 2017 state supervision bodies (inspections) are to be taken risk-oriented approach when performing additional 33 types of supervision. The added types of supervision include environmental, transport, land use, ethanol handling, pharmaceutical handling and some other types of supervision.