Uzbekistan: published important draft occupational safety regulations
Uzbekistan has published drafts of seven regulations that have been developed as a set of measures aimed at the improvement of the occupational safety legal framework in the country
The following draft regulations were published:
- Model regulation on the organisation of works aimed at occupational safety in organisations
- Model regulation on the occupational health and safety service in organisations
- Regulation on additional training and qualification training of OHS specialists
- Regulation on the audit of occupational safety management system in an organisation
- Regulation on setting requirements for OHS service professionals and for maintaining a common registry of such professionals
- Regulation on the state expert assessment of working conditions
- Regulation on the investigation and record-keeping of occupational illnesses
The draft law is currently at the stage of public discussion and may be amended, supplemented or rejected.
The employer (the head of the facility or organisation) is ultimately responsible for the occupational safety management in the organisation. The employer is to set out and approve duties of employees related to occupational health and safety. The Occupational Health and Safety service of the organisation (OHS service) directly organises work aimed at ensuring compliance with OHS requirements in an organisation. The functions of the OHS service may be contracted to professional OHS service providers. Such service providers may also perform workplace assessment, train specialists on OHS issues and perform audits of occupational health and safety management system implemented in an organisation. These professionals must comply with certain qualification and organisaitonal requirements (e.g. have a comprehensive OHS legislation database available for them, etc.).
For some organisations an occupational health and safety audit would be compulsory. Such organisations would include those expecting a scheduled state OHS inspection, those where occupational accidents frequently occur, etc.