Safety norms in construction materials industry discussed today in the Ministry of Construction, Architecture and Housing of the Republic of Tatarstan

An enlarged meeting of the working group on the protection of health and safety in the construction industry took place today the Ministry of Construction, Architecture and Housing of the Republic of Tatarstan. The meeting was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Protection of the Republic of Tatarstan, the State Constructional Surveillance Inspectorate of the Republic of Tatarstan, the State Labour Inspectorate of the Republic of Tatarstan, Builders’ Trade Union, and the Administration of Ombudsman for Human Rights in the Republic of Tatarstan and the construction industry enterprises. The issues of labor protection and safety in enterprises of the construction materials industry were discussed during the meeting held by Deputy Minister A.S.Akhmetshin.

About 400 large and medium enterprises of the Republic produce construction materials, and also there are a lot of small enterprises of such kind. Recently, the amount of construction and production of construction materials has increased, but the number of accidents is still high. For 8 months of 2012 there have been four accidents, three of them were fatal.

Opening the meeting A.S.Akhmetshin noted that the number of occupational injuries in the construction industry was higher than that in the construction materials industry, but in this case, one should not talk about the numbers. He said that a human life was the main value. Until every manager understands it there will not be any significant progress in resolving this issue.

For example, Head of the Department for Occupational Safety of the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Protection of the Republic of Tatarstan T.N.Manzhasova noted that despite the technical development of the enterprises and the change of the approach in the work, generally, the labor protection measures remained primitive and outdated.

During the meeting reports were made by Head of the Department of the State Labour Inspectorate in the Republic of Tatarstan R.R. Babanazarova and Chief Technical Inspector of Tatarstan Republican Organization (Builders’ Trade Union of Russia) P.V.Glebov. Representatives of the construction materials industry shared their experience in the organization of prevention measures in work safety and accident prevention.

Deputy Minister of Construction, Architecture and Housing of the Republic of Tatarstan A.S.Akhmetshin noted that the commission of the Ministry regularly visited the plants and the work would be surely continued.