Working Conditions and Industrial Safety as a Public Investment in the Future
Translated from Russian with the help of AI. Original: Russian version
Skimping on occupational safety ends up as spending on healthcare: owners have little incentive to invest in working conditions voluntarily, so the state must enforce them, and industrial safety should come first when facilities are commissioned.
There are things that have a great influence on our long-term well-being but to which we pay almost no attention. In isolated cases it is very hard to assess their effect on us, but in aggregate they add up to serious systemic problems. Within the structure of the Government, the Ministries of Health, Enlightenment, Education and Ecology have the greatest influence on our future well-being, so any spending in these areas is an investment in the future. Moreover, these ministries' areas of responsibility are interconnected. For example, creating proper working conditions at our enterprises bears directly on healthcare costs. Looking at the issue more closely, owners acting on their own will pay very little attention to air quality, water or temperature conditions in the workplace, because people will not fall ill here and now. Only after they leave the job or retire does the state end up treating them for cancer, diabetes, heart disease and so on. That is why working conditions are regulated by the state everywhere in the world, primarily by the Ministry of Ecology.
I have worked a great deal at industrial enterprises, and at mines in particular, such investments are made last, whereas in developed countries you simply cannot open a mine unless proper working conditions are in place. In the cost structure, this is not a large amount of money, whereas in the structure of government spending it translates into billions of tenge on health. I remember visiting a uranium mine in Canada, a model mine where people come first, and when you compare it with our deposits, you realize that here profit comes first. If you were to tour the major industrial enterprises, plants, shafts, mines and so on and assess the state of occupational safety, I think the results would be dismal. I recently learned a trick: a call to a friend, and the ecology inspectors arrive for an inspection precisely when the enterprise is idle due to forced downtime.
There are plenty of such examples: no industrial or fire safety instructions, and there will be deaths and injuries; no medical checks before drivers set off on trips, and there will be road accidents and deaths; no sanitary control in catering, and there will be poisonings and illness; no aspiration and ventilation in production, and there will be cancer; no gas treatment in mines, and there will be deaths and injuries, and so on. Industrial safety must come first when a facility is commissioned.