It is well known that the operation of the Law of Ukraine “On obligatory state social industrial accident insurance and occupational disease, leading to disability” applies to persons who work in conditions of a labour agreement or contract at enterprises, establishments and organizations irrespective of their form of ownership and type of activity.
The main principles of industrial accident insurance are the following: timely and full compensation of damage by the insurer, i.e. the Fund for social industrial accident insurance and occupational disease; provision of state guarantees on realization of the rights of the insured persons; formation and expenditure of insurance means on a solidary basis.
To the credit of the Zaporozhye city fund division, which started its work in April 2001, it should be noted that during the first year of its existence they paid all the enterprises’ debts on injuries. Today the Fund goes on paying insurance money for injuries, which happened long before the Fund was founded. For example, this year a woman was paid for an injury she had in 1949. It is not out of place to mention that the basis for paying the injured person the expenditures on medical treatment, carrying out of medical, professional and social rehabilitation is only the availability of an investigation act of the accident or the investigation act of occupational disease. The foundation and the activity of the Fund is the state guarantee of realizing the rights of the insured persons in the field of labour protection.
The Fund workers have investigated approximately 6 000 accidents and occupational diseases since the foundation of the Fund. Each and every injured person has received timely financial, social and other types of assistance in full volume in correspondence with the legislation. At present approximately 30 000 insured persons are registered in the city fund department. Together with such industrial giants, such as “Motor Sich” JSC, Zaporizhstal JSC and “DSS”, thousands of minor enterprises exist, where our citizens work. If an accident happens at such an enterprise leading to heavy consequences or even death, then the payment sum for such traumas may lead to, and did lead, before the Fund was founded, to bankruptcy or reduction of work places. At present the main insurance principle, i.e. the solidary basis, comes into force.
Every enterprise of our industry belongs to this or that class of professional risk. It is quite natural that industrial enterprises have a larger risk class than minor ones. Large industrial enterprises remit larger sums of insurance fees than minor ones, that is why part of the payments, when an accident with heavy consequences or death of the worker at the place of work occurs, is carried out at the expense of the fees of powerful enterprises. This is a solidary basis which is included in the Law of Ukraine “On obligatory state social industrial accident insurance and occupational disease, leading to disability”, thanks to which each worker is guaranteed equal rights when being provided with an industrial accident insurance and occupational disease.
Vladislav Bondarenko,
Insurance agent