Victoria Arutyunyan Speaks at Meeting of Russian Managers Association Commission on Occupational Health and Safety

Victoria Arutyunyan, Partner at FBK Legal, delivered a speech at a meeting of the Commission on Occupational Health and Safety of the Russian Managers Association (RMA) titled ‘Disease Prevention among Working Population: Effective Employer Programmes and Accessible Government Support Tools’. The Commission strives to promote sustainable development and a socially responsible trajectory for Russian businesses.

In her speech, Victoria honed in on how the Russian regulatory framework for disease prevention among working citizens is structured:

‘Owing to the amendments to the Russian Labour Code that came into force in March 2022, the approach to assessing employee health has undergone a change, resulting in a shifted focus: disease prevention has stepped into the spotlight. The employer is obligated to identify hazards and occupational risks in working conditions, and to conduct their regular analysis and assessment; without this, no technological process can be launched. Even in case a risk is deemed acceptable, is must still be reduced to a minimum. The employer is to suspend work if hazardous working conditions are identified, while retaining the employee's position and average earnings. Thanks to the amendments, provision of employees with Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and training is now the priority, which also encompasses accounting for minor injuries and reviewing the circumstances and causes of their occurrence.

Despite existing regulatory documents, not all employers clearly comply with legal requirements. According to a report on the activities of the Federal Service for Labour and Employment, in 2024 nearly 12,000 violations in the field of labour protection were recorded. These included 4.6 thousand violations of the procedure for training and instructing employees on labour protection, 3.7 thousand violations of the procedure for providing employees with PPE, 2.5 thousand violations of the procedure for conducting workplace condition assessments, and 2.4 thousand violations of the procedure for conducting employee health checks’.