Today in ccm: conference on "health and safety at work - basic labor law"

European directives are implemented, an additional challenge is the practical application.

Everyone has the right to personal safety in the workplace. You can bring new laws to adopt and implement EU directives, but further issue is the implementation of regulations in practice. As for Macedonia, there are many standards adopted from the EU, while President of CCM Zivko Mitrevski and the Minister of Labour and Social Policy Spiro Ristovski said for the media that close cooperation strategy is carried out to enhance the safety and health at work.

These are some of the statements of today's International Conference "Safety and Health at Work - Basic labor law," which is held in the Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia.

Established working platform between CCM and Ministry of Labour on safety at the workplace.

During the conference, CCM President Zivko Mitrevski gave statement for the media, who said that joint dynamics of cooperation was determined between CCM and the Ministry of Labour in terms of safety and health at work. This is according to the recommendations of the European Union and is planned to open a wider debate on the practical implementation of laws.
The new Law on health and safety generally regulates issues of safety and health in the Republic of Macedonia, said Mitrevski, but it is expanding the norms and standards.  Analysis will be made of current conditions and failures will be reduced.

Another question in this area is the fight against the informal economy, or unregistered work. The Ministry is discussing the introduction of electronic records, which would mean eliminating the unregistered work, and thus the injuries at workplace, said Mitrevski.

Sick leaves cost up to 4% of gross national product

Minister of Labour Spiro Ristovski informed that of the General Framework Directive of EU 89/39-1 arise 18 to 20 individual directives, of which 15 are already implemented in Macedonia. Sick leaves and absences can cost from 3% to 4% of gross national product, which are huge damages for employers and for the society as a whole. With a well designed concept for health and safety we will reduce medical treatments’ costs and increase productivity, while the state will have major savings.

Minister of Labour Spiro Ristovski also stressed the established and planned cooperation between CCM and the Ministry. He explained that in parallel with the implementation of a common platform there is also more rigid control on the field. 10.500 inspections were conducted, over 300 temporary controls, 112 decisions are adopted to ban, fines are imposed and filed and criminal charges are raised.

The conference debate on EU policies and strategies for health and safety, the practical application of European legislation, exchange of information regarding the safety and productivity. Presenters at the Conference are representatives of ECBOHS, who will speak at a Conference on several topics: Aykut Engin, Tunjay Yesilnil, Erkki Iryaneki, Miray Vurmay, Ahmet Ersoy and Heikki Laitinen. The conference was attended by representatives of the EU Delegation in Macedonia, the embassies of Slovakia and Turkey, representatives of Kosovo, while the Macedonian institutions were represented by representatives of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, Organization of Employers, Faculty of Law, the State Labour Inspectorate, the Institute for Occupational Medicine, Institute of Public Health, the Macedonian Association for Occupational Safety and other institution