Mining University held a seminar dedicated to the World Day for Safety and Health at Work. Its participants noted the high level of measures taken by the university’s management to improve the safety and quality of work and educational processes. Constant modernization of infrastructure, regular sanitation of premises, medical examinations of employees, reimbursement of food expenses, and a number of others are among them.
Anatoly Suslov, the vice-rector for the operation and development of the property complex, opened the meeting. He emphasized that the main threat to society today is certainly the coronavirus pandemic. Around the world, almost 148 million people have been infected with it, and more than 3 million of them have died.
COVID has not passed Mining University unaffected. In order to minimize its spread and create safe working and learning conditions, the university authorities undertook unprecedented efforts. In particular, on the basis of Rospotrebnadzor instructions recommendations were developed to regulate the rules of conduct for employees, students, and graduate students in conditions of sanitary and epidemiological restrictions; thermal and pyrometric control of their temperature upon entering the university was introduced; personal protective equipment - medical masks, gloves, sanitizers, antiseptic was purchased; floor non-contact machines for hand disinfection were installed; daily wet cleaning of the premises was carried out and so on.
“The occupational safety and fire safety service have organized a vaccination procedure for everyone who wants to be vaccinated on the basis of polyclinics. To date, 235 employees and students have been vaccinated. This is very little, but the statistics are not correct, many were vaccinated privately, while everyone who wants can now get vaccinated directly on the territory of the university,” said Anatoly Suslov.
He also noted that the total amount spent on measures to prevent coronavirus amounted to more than 19 million rubles. In addition, at the initiative of the rector Vladimir Litvinenko funds were allocated to compensate for the meals for students (174 thousand meals) and employees with payment up to 150 rubles per day (82 thousand).
Olga Baranovskaya, head of Labor Protection and Fire Safety Department at Mining University, emphasized that preliminary and periodic medical examinations occupy a special place among preventive measures. They are carried out, among other things, at the entrance to work to determine the professional fitness of workers for the state of health.
“Over the past five years, 100% of employees have undergone medical examinations. According to their results, a conclusion about the employee's admission to perform his/her professional duties is issued. If he or she is found to be ill, he or she is referred for further examination. In addition, for the past 10 years, at the beginning of the school year, the university has been conducting field fluorographic examinations. It covers about 1,300 people annually,” explained Olga Baranovskaya.
The seminar was attended by Dmitry Kruglov, the technical inspector for occupational safety and health, Vadim Melnikov, captain of Fire and Rescue Unit #72 in Vasileostrovsky District, and Andrey Didkovsky, head of the Civil Defense and Mobilization Activities Department at Mining University. All of them noted the high level of attention from the rector's office to measures in the field of labor protection, coronavirus prevention, and improvement of the quality of work and educational places.
