On the organization of industrial safety production control
Thousands of enterprises operate in the Republic of Belarus, posing potential hazards to both the working personnel and nearby residents, as well as the environment.
To address the task of preventing emergency situations and ensuring the readiness of enterprises operating hazardous and potentially hazardous facilities to localize and eliminate the consequences of accidents and incidents, the Law "On Industrial Safety" (hereinafter referred to as the Law) is in effect in the Republic of Belarus.
Industrial safety requirements encompass all cycles of the production process, including the stages of design, manufacturing, construction, reconstruction, acceptance, installation, commissioning, maintenance, repair, technical inspection and diagnostics, operation, and, when necessary, conservation and decommissioning of hazardous and potentially hazardous facilities.
Every industrial safety subject operating hazardous and (or) potentially hazardous facilities must independently carry out industrial control.
Industrial control is one of the primary sources of information on the state of industrial safety during the operation of hazardous and potentially hazardous facilities. It is a key element of the management system, ensuring constant monitoring of safety at the facility, timely informing management, and developing and adopting necessary corrective and preventive measures.
actions.To address the task of preventing emergency situations and ensuring the readiness of enterprises operating hazardous and potentially hazardous facilities to localize and eliminate the consequences of accidents and incidents, the Law "On Industrial Safety" (hereinafter referred to as the Law) is in effect in the Republic of Belarus.
Industrial safety requirements encompass all cycles of the production process, including the stages of design, manufacturing, construction, reconstruction, acceptance, installation, commissioning, maintenance, repair, technical inspection and diagnostics, operation, and, when necessary, conservation and decommissioning of hazardous and potentially hazardous facilities.
Every industrial safety subject operating hazardous and (or) potentially hazardous facilities must independently carry out industrial control.
Industrial control is one of the primary sources of information on the state of industrial safety during the operation of hazardous and potentially hazardous facilities. It is a key element of the management system, ensuring constant monitoring of safety at the facility, timely informing management, and developing and adopting necessary corrective and preventive measures.
To this end, the head of the enterprise shall, in the established manner, ensure the existence of a structural unit responsible for the implementation of industrial control (hereinafter referred to as the industrial safety service), or shall introduce the position of an industrial safety engineer into the staff,
or shall assign the relevant duties for the implementation of industrial control
to a person with higher technical education and training necessary for the exercise of powers on industrial safety issues, and who has passed an examination on industrial safety issues (hereinafter referred to as the responsible person).
In this case, the head of the industrial safety service, as well as the persons responsible for the implementation of industrial control, shall report directly to the head of the enterprise or his deputy responsible for the organization of industrial safety (in most enterprises, this is usually the chief engineer).
Article 29 of the Law "On Industrial Safety" allows the head of an industrial safety entity to introduce the position of an industrial safety engineer into the staff with the aim of assigning him the duties of carrying out industrial control over compliance with industrial safety requirements.
Many managers wished to expand their staff with such a specialist, but did not take into account many important aspects.
Industrial safety engineer – isposition, the qualification requirements for which are contained in the first edition of the Unified Qualification Handbook of Labor Positions (EKS D), approved by the Resolution of the Ministry of Labor of the Republic of Belarus of December 30, 1999, No. 159. In particular, this document states that to be appointed to this position, an employee must have special education, namely: higher education in the relevant field (type of professional activity). Such education can be obtained today, for example, at the Educational Institution "University of Civil Protection of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Belarus," which trains engineers in industrial and fire safety. In the absence of the specified education, specialists cannot be appointed to these positions, including on the terms of combining positions or part-time employment.
What should be done if there is no specialist with such education on the company's staff, and there is still a lot of time until the graduation of young specialists from the University of Civil Protection of the Ministry of Emergency Situations (or until the relevant employee of the entity obtains a second higher education)? Who will carry out industrial control (and this is the responsibility of the head of the entity)? The answer to this question is given in the same Article 29 of the Law, namely: the head of the entity retains the choice, i.e., instead of an industrial safety engineer, the relevant duties can be assigned to a responsible person (who has higher technical education in any field and the necessary training).
Undoubtedly, more high-quality and comprehensive industrial control can be achieved at the enterprise by introducing a separate position ("industrial safety engineer") into the staff, as this specialist's primary job is the organization and conduct of industrial control. Whereas, assigning the duties of conducting industrial control to officialsis carried out without relieving them from their primary work (in their position), i.e., the manager assigns additional duties to such persons, which require additional time to perform, and not every specialist has such time available at all times.
Current legislation in the field of industrial safety does not establish a clear regulation for enterprises on conducting industrial control, as was previously defined in the "Rules for the Organization and Implementation of Industrial Control for Compliance with Industrial Safety Requirements at Hazardous Production Facilities," approved by the Resolution of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Republic of Belarus of June 28, 2000, No. 11 (the document lost its force on August 10, 2016, due to the adoption of a new Law).
Enterprise management must establish requirements for conducting industrial control by approving a relevant regulation on the procedure for organizing and conducting industrial control in the field of industrial safety (hereinafter - the Regulation), taking into account the applied technology and technical features of the hazardous production facilities and equipment in operation, which is developed based on the model regulation on the organization and implementation of industrial control in the field of industrial safety," approved by the Resolution of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Republic of Belarus of July 15, 2016, No. 37. Having studied the main tasks and components of industrial control, it is worth noting that the functions of industrial safety engineers or responsible persons are not limited only tocarrying out control over the safe operation of facilities, and include a number of other measures, such as:
control over the timely conduct of necessary tests, technical inspections, and technical diagnostics of equipment and devices used at hazardous production and potentially hazardous facilities, repair and calibration of measuring instruments;
development and revision (jointly with heads of departments) of industrial safety instructions, other local regulatory legal acts of enterprises containing industrial safety requirements;
development and submission for management review of work plans and measures to ensure industrial safety, including plans for measures to localize accidents and incidents and eliminate their consequences;
participation in the technical investigation of the causes of accidents and incidents that have occurred;
analysis of the causes of accidents and incidents that occurred at the facilities;
preparation for industrial safety expertise of hazardous production facilities;
informing employees about changes in industrial safety legislation;
organization and control of training and knowledge testing on industrial safety issues for enterprise employees involved in the operation of hazardous production facilities.objects and/or potentially hazardous objects.
It should be noted that, unfortunately, almost no inspection by Gospromnadzor is carried out without remarks on the procedure for conducting and/or organizing industrial safety control.
In recent times, achieving industrial safety has become an increasingly complex task due to constantly changing working conditions and production processes. Safety laws and regulations are constantly being improved, creating safer workplaces. Employers must understand and adapt to these changes, as well as communicate them to their employees and ensure that they can act in accordance with them.In conclusion, we would like to remind you that, according to Article 29 of the Law, information on the organization of industrial safety control shall be submitted no later than December 25 of the current year:
to the territorial administration of Gospromnadzor – by subjects of industrial safety without departmental subordination;to the republican bodies of state administration and other state organizations subordinate to the Government of the Republic of Belarus, the central apparatus of the State Committee of Forensic Examinations – by their subordinate (included incomposition, system) by industrial safety entities.
Vitebsk Regional Department of Gospromnadzor