STATE LABOUR Inspection DEPARTMENT

Azat Artsakh – Nagorno Karabakh Republic (NKR)
26 Jan 05

By the government decision the NKR State Labour Inspection Department
was established and has been operating since January 1, 2005 within
the NKR Ministry of Social Security. The State Labour Department is a
republic body of the NKR executive power and in accordance with the
law, and also the NKR legislation administers state control on
observation of the NKR labour code and other legal acts containing
articles on labour. According to the code confirmed by the NKR
government, the department fulfils its functions in cooperation with
the federation of the trade unions of the republic, the unions of
employers, the police, local governments, other state and public
organizations. We talked to the acting head of the State Labour
Department Andrey Musaelian for informationon the functions, aims and
problems of the department.

THE REASON FOR ESTABLISHING THE DEPARTMENT

According to Andrey Musaelian, job security is the most important part
in labour relationships. In recent years great attention is paid to
providing security of working conditions, improving professional
skills and increasing the duties of the inspectors. Therefore in many
different countries of the world information centers operate, training
courses on job safety are organized. Referring to international
statistic surveys, annually 2 million people die at places of
work. The number of people who receive injuries while working is also
increasing, and as a result annually 250 million people get injuries
and 160 million people suffer professional diseases. `These numbers
oblige us, especially the employers, to reform jobs in correspondence
with international standards,’ said the acting head of the
department. The role of the inspectors of the State Labour Inspection
Department is to control and check the safety of jobs in the framework
of the labour code. According to A. Musaelian, for already several
months the State Labour Inspection Department of Armenia has been
operating within the RA Ministry of Social Security. Last Decemberhe
left for Yerevan to study the nature of their work and to acquire
necessary information. It should be mentioned that the NKR bill `On
State Labour Inspection Department’ is still being worked out and soon
it will be adopted. The NKR State Labour Inspection Department will
have two sections with separate staffs and directors: legal inspection
and inspection of working conditions.

AIMS, PROBLEMS, FUNCTIONS

The aims of the department are to: a) control the observation of the
NKR Labour Code and other legal acts containing articles on labour; b)
take measures to prevent injuries and diseases caused by work; c)
provide working conditions, defend the rights and freedoms of workers,
including the right for safe working conditions; d) provide employers
and employees with information on effective ways and methods of
observing the NKR Labour Code and other legal acts containing articles
on labour. In correspondence with its aims the department fulfils a
number of functions of which the following is especially important:
control on the use of the social security card when paying salaries to
workers by the employers, improvement of working conditions and job
safety by the employers, analysis of the causes of injuries and
diseases connected with work and their prevention by employers. The
department also deals with cases of keeping illegal workers and not
paying salaries.

NVARD OHANJANIAN.
26-01-2005