Obligatory investigation and recording of occupational diseases

The Committee on Social Policy, Health, Labor, Family and Childhood Issues has prepared draft laws for consideration in the second reading that propose to establish at the legal level obligatory investigation and recording of not only every industrial accident, but also every occupational disease.

The PMR Government proposed to make amendments to the current legislation. The current version of the Labor Code contains rules on the procedure and recording of only industrial accidents, as the author noted in the explanatory note to the draft law. The procedure for investigating occupational diseases is not enshrined in either laws or regulations at the same time.

The legislative initiative proposes to consolidate in the Labor Code of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic the legal basis for the investigation and recording of occupational diseases. According to the text of the law-in-draft, acute and chronic occupational diseases of workers that arose as a result of single or prolonged exposure to high concentrations of chemicals contained in the air of the work area, as well as levels and doses of other unfavorable factors, are subject to investigation and recording. Specialized doctors of treatment and preventive institutions together with specialists from the sanitary and epidemiological service with the participation of representatives of the employer will investigate and keep records of occupational diseases.

It is proposed to prescribe legislatively the responsibilities of the employer in the event of occupational diseases among its employees. The law-in-draft provides that in this case, the employer is obliged to organize an investigation and records, prepare all the necessary materials and documents for conducting an examination of the connection between the employee’s disease and the profession, and provide all the necessary information to the specialists who will directly conduct the investigation. The procedure for investigating and recording occupational diseases, as well as the forms of documents required for their investigation, as in the case of an industrial accident, will be approved by the Government of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic.

The draft laws on amending the Law of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic “On Labor Protection and Safety” and on introducing changes and additions to the Labor Code of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic will be recommended by the relevant parliamentary Committee for adoption in the second final reading at one of the next plenary meetings.