The administrative regulations for the provision by the Federal Service for Labor and Employment of public services for the implementation of state examination of working conditions were approved by Order of the Ministry of Labor of the Russian Federation No. 708n dated December 5, 2016. In accordance with the provisions of Article 126.1 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, examination is carried out on the basis of court rulings, appeals from employers and associations employers, trade unions and their associations, executive authorities, workers themselves, Social Insurance Fund bodies and other representative bodies authorized to take these actions by employees.
Why is the state examination of working conditions carried out?
The examination of working conditions takes place in order to assess:
- actual working conditions of workers;
- quality of implementation of special assessment of working conditions;
- the correctness of providing employees with legal guarantees and compensation for working under dangerous and harmful working conditions.
As a rule, the employer initiates a state examination only if he has reason to doubt the correctness of the establishment of guarantees and compensation for employees for work under dangerous and harmful working conditions after a special labor assessment. It is worth recalling that the employer’s expenses in providing such compensation and guarantees include expenses such as: increased wages, additional annual leave, as well as the cost of sending an employee for periodic or preliminary medical examinations.
This is important to know
- If during the state examination it is revealed that the employer provides compensation and guarantees to the employee in a greater volume than provided by law, including if, due to an incorrect special assessment of working conditions, the acceptable conditions were mistakenly accepted as dangerous and harmful, they may be revised downwards or cancelled.
- If, based on the results of an examination of working conditions, the hazard class was lowered, the employer should conduct an unscheduled assessment of working conditions in order to reduce compensation and guarantees. If the state examination confirmed the working conditions as safe, an unscheduled special safety assessment is not required.
- In case of cancellation of guarantees and compensations or their reduction, the terms of the employment contract are necessarily changed by agreement of the parties or for reasons directly related to changes in technological or organizational working conditions. At the same time, a reduction in the amount of compensation and guarantees is possible from the date of signing an additional agreement on changes to be made to the employment contract.
Examination results
Based on the results of the inspection, experts create a draft report. It contains the following information:
- the exact name and postal address of the body that conducted the state examination;
- Full name of the head;
- positions and names of experts;
- details and date of receipt of the application to organize an inspection;
- the applicant’s address for correspondence and name (for legal entities) or full name (for a citizen);
- period of inspection;
- parsed object;
- the name of the company visited by the commission;
- data on inspected workplaces;
- list of submitted documents.
Two copies of the draft conclusion are drawn up, and the document is adopted by voting. If the majority of the members of the expert commission vote, its head approves the project. The applicant receives the first copy, and the second is sent to the court or the state labor inspectorate. Copies are received by the employer (unless he initiates the inspection) and the organizers of the special assessment of working conditions. All information based on the results of the examination is submitted to Rostrud.
Important! If you disagree with certain points of the state examination for analyzing the quality of the special assessment of working conditions, the dispute is considered by the Ministry of Labor (clause 44 of the Procedure). In other situations, you need to go to court, but there is always the possibility of resolving the dispute peacefully if the parties manage to agree.
Who can conduct an examination of working conditions?
In accordance with the law, state examination of working conditions can be carried out by:
- executive authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation in the field of labor protection;
- Federal Labor Inspectorate, which carries out non-state supervision over compliance with labor legislation and other legal acts containing labor law norms.
The law establishes that persons carrying out examinations of working conditions are endowed with corresponding rights and responsibilities. So, they have the right:
- in the manner prescribed by current legislation, freely visit any employers to carry out an examination if they have a certificate of the established form (including employers - individuals);
- carry out the necessary observations, measurements and calculations, including, if necessary, involving research laboratories accredited in accordance with current legislation;
- request and receive documents and other materials necessary for the examination.
The responsibilities of persons conducting state examination of working conditions include:
- drawing up, based on the results of the examination, a conclusion on the compliance of working conditions with state regulatory requirements for labor protection and sending this conclusion to the judicial authorities, authorities, employers and others;
- ensure the validity and objectivity of the conclusions presented in the conclusion;
- ensure the safety of materials received for the examination and the confidentiality of the information contained in them.
This is important to know
- State examination is carried out in the manner established by the federal executive body authorized by the Government of the Russian Federation. Currently, this Procedure is approved by Order of the Ministry of Labor of the Russian Federation No. 549n dated August 12, 2014.
- The period for conducting a state examination of working conditions should not exceed 30 days from the date of registration with the relevant body of the basis for its conduct. In this case, the period for conducting the examination can be extended to 60 days, the grounds for the extension are established in paragraph 2, paragraph 18 of the specified Procedure.
State services for conducting examination of working conditions
Rostrud provides the opportunity to receive government services through the implementation of an examination. Clause 3 of the Administrative Regulations provides for obtaining information on the procedure for providing public services in the public domain:
- on the official website of Rostrud;
- on the Unified Portal of State and Municipal Services;
- at information stands in places designated for the provision of public services.
Information about the service can be provided using electronic, telephone and fax communications. The result of the provision of the service, which is sent to the applicant no later than 3 days from the date of registration, may be:
- sending the applicant a conclusion on the results of the examination of working conditions;
- sending the applicant a notification about the impossibility of providing the service with a mandatory indication of the reasons for its non-provision.
This is important to know
- In accordance with paragraph 15 of the Administrative Regulations, it is established that the public service is provided within a period of no more than 30 days from the date of registration of the application.
- There is no fee for the provision of public services.
To receive government services for conducting a state examination of working conditions, the applicant must provide a correctly drawn up application, which must indicate:
- full name of the applicant, including full name, if the applicant is an employee;
- contact information – postal address, email and telephone number;
- the name of the purpose of conducting a state examination of working conditions;
- names of professions/positions of employed workers and individual workplace numbers, name of the structural unit of the employer in which the workplaces where the public service will be provided are located (if the applicant is an employee, information about his workplace is indicated);
- justification for the need to conduct an examination;
- information about previously provided government services (if available).
Important! The application is signed personally by the applicant - the employee or the manager/deputy manager in the case of an application from the employer, trade union or their associations.
In accordance with paragraph 21 of the Administrative Regulations, the employer must attach to the application:
- a report on a special assessment of working conditions and other documents containing the results of research and measurements of dangerous and harmful factors in the working environment and the labor process;
- labor and collective (if any) agreement, which establish the employer’s obligations to respect the rights of employees to safe working conditions;
- regulations on the employee remuneration system (if any);
- local regulations of the employer, which establish the conditions and volumes of guarantees and compensation provided to employees for work under dangerous and harmful working conditions;
- a list of employees subject to periodic or preliminary medical examinations, and copies of the final report on the results of such examinations for the previous year.
This is important to know
- All documents provided must be legible and must not contain words or abbreviations the use of which is not permitted by applicable law.
- The application and documents are sent by the applicant to Rostrud by post with notification or handed over to an official at a personal reception or sent electronically using a special form.
- When receiving documents in electronic form, the official who accepted them confirms its receipt in the form of an electronic document.
- When accepting documents at a personal appointment, the second copy is marked with the date of acceptance and the official who accepted the application.
- An accepted application (including one sent electronically) is registered by an official within one working day from the date of receipt. After registration, the documents are transferred to the head of the service, who, in turn, reviews it on the day of receipt and sends it with the instructions of the head of the authorized structural unit - he also reviews it during the day and transfers it to the official for execution.
What does the Ministry of Labor do?
The state examination is carried out with the direct participation of representatives of the Ministry of Labor for the region in which the enterprise is located. As a rule, officials are responsible not only for the examination itself, but also for the implementation of standards and improvements in their jurisdiction that make labor protection more effective and efficient. Every year, new programs are created aimed at improving the conditions of workers, and it is the regional division of the Ministry of Labor that implements them.
In addition, government officials provide training to both line personnel and company managers. The topic of the seminars is labor protection. This allows you to obtain the necessary amount of knowledge in order to understand what working conditions are difficult, dangerous, harmful, in what cases workplace certification is necessary, what benefits and advantages it will bring, and when it will become a prerequisite for the continuation of the company.
Reasons for refusal to provide public services
In accordance with paragraph 27 of the Administrative Regulations, the law does not provide grounds for refusal to accept documents necessary for conducting an examination of working conditions. At the same time, certain grounds are allowed for suspension or refusal to provide public services. At the same time, suspension of a public service is possible if an incomplete set of documents submitted by the employer is provided, provided that they can be additionally requested from the applicant. The provision of services may be refused if:
- the application does not contain the information required by paragraph 20 of the Administrative Regulations;
- the application was received from a person not included in the circle of applicants provided for in paragraph 2 of the regulations;
- failure by the applicant to submit the documents specified in paragraph 21 of the regulations;
- providing false documents or knowingly false information.
What does the expert commission check?
If the state control suspects violations of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation in a company, the territorial service may make a statement regarding the need for an examination of working conditions. Its definition is given in Part 11 of Art. 209 Labor Code of the Russian Federation. This is a check of the employer's compliance with labor protection laws.
The following parameters are subject to assessment:
- correctness of accrual of incentives to employees for hard, harmful, dangerous work;
- quality of employee certification;
- compliance of construction projects, technical re-equipment processes, equipment manufacturing, technology changes with legislative norms;
- actual working conditions in the company (including the period immediately before the industrial accident).
