A failure in the Ministry of Labor’s information system may cause confusion in the assignment of early pensions
[ad_1]
Russian employers say their workers risk facing confusion when taking early retirement due to a glitch in the Ministry of Labor’s information system. The companies state that the data from the special assessment of jobs, which determines the harmfulness and danger of working conditions, has partially disappeared or is displayed incorrectly, and they are necessary for the Social Fund to calculate early pensions, which about 8 million people in the Russian Federation can claim. The Ministry of Labor claims that the Social Fund has alternative data sources, but Kommersant’s sources in the Social Fund and trade unions speak about the priority of the data from the damaged system and the need to sue due to incorrect calculations.
The Unified All-Russian Reference Information System for Occupational Safety and Health (EISOT) incorrectly displays some of the data on the results of special labor assessments and occupational safety training that employers upload into it, which can lead to incorrect calculation of early pensions by the Social Fund. A number of employers interviewed by Kommersant spoke about the problem; the information was also confirmed in the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of the Russian Federation and in associations in the field of labor protection. According to the Social Fund, in the Russian Federation approximately 8 million people are employed in workplaces with harmful and dangerous working conditions. Their employers are required to pay increased insurance premiums to the fund depending on the class of occupational risk at work – it is assigned to a workplace based on the results of a special assessment. In turn, those working in harmful and dangerous working conditions can count on a number of benefits from the employer, as well as accelerated retirement – men at 50 years old, and women at 45.
Since 2016, employers have electronically uploaded the results of special assessments to the FSIS SOUT information system, but in 2021 the Ministry of Labor reformed the tenth section of the Labor Code, which regulates labor protection issues, and began to actively develop specialized information systems (see “Kommersant” dated September 7, 2021). FSIS SOUT was integrated into the UISOT, subsequently adding several registers, including registers of companies accredited to provide services in the field of labor protection and experts. A number of employers encountered problems using the UISOT in the spring of 2023 (see Kommersant of May 30), but in November the breadth of the problem increased. “Obviously, they tried to improve the system – data on the corresponding government contract No. 1771091497123000054 is in the Unified Information System for government procurement. But on the contrary, it began to function worse,” says a Kommersant source in one of the companies providing special assessment services. Thus, according to him, the data on the special assessment of working conditions for 2019–2022 have partially disappeared or are displayed incorrectly. “Somewhere the wrong professions of workers are visible, somewhere the hazard class has changed. For example, some of the jobs of office employees were assigned the third class of working conditions (harmfulness), and many blue-collar workers in industry, on the contrary, received the second class, which is clearly underestimated,” agrees Valery Korzh, a member of the specialized committee of the RSPP. Employers often cannot correct these data – only accredited companies, some of which have already left the market, should do this, says Kommersant’s source.
EISOT data is a priority source of information for the Social Fund: this follows from the amendments to Article 18 of Federal Law No. 426 “On the special assessment of working conditions.” “After some time, we will get a situation in which the insured will believe that he has the right to early retirement, and the Social Fund will not see evidence of this,” says a Kommersant source in a large industrial company. Every year the Social Fund assigns about 250 thousand early pensions, this is 30% of all old-age insurance pensions.
The press service of the Ministry of Labor told Kommersant that “information determining the period of work in harmful and dangerous conditions and the length of service of workers who are entitled to early retirement are aggregated in another system – personalized accounting of the Social Fund.” “Organizations-insurers submit reports to the Financial Markets Service with personalized information about individuals, including indicating harmful and dangerous working conditions in the workplace, if any, in relation to those who are entitled to early retirement. It is this information that is taken into account in the future when assigning a pension,” the ministry explained.
“Since 2013, when an insured person applies for an early pension, an employee of the Social Fund branch first of all requests information about his length of service and working conditions from the Unified Information System,” argues a Kommersant source in one of the regional branches of the Social Fund. Let us also note that, although the reporting form submitted by employers (EFS-1) contains data on insurance periods for paying increased social contributions, some of the indicators in it are directly related to the Unified Social Security System – for example, information on a special assessment of jobs. “In our practice, there were cases when an employee in the past applied for an early pension, being confident in his right to it, since he had previously requested from the Social Fund data about himself from the personalized accounting system, but the fund, if they diverged from the data from the Unified Information System, gave priority to the latter, and we had to go to court,” says Oleg Babich, head of the legal service of the Federal Union of Air Traffic Controllers. An alternative source of part of the data on the results of a special assessment to confirm work experience could be paper documents about it, notes the chief technical labor inspector of the FNPR, Alexey Bezyukov. “At one time, foreseeing problems with the digitalization of the labor sphere, we insisted on duplication, and if the data is lost in the system, the employee can request it from the employer and confirm his right to compensation and early retirement,” he says. This, however, is only possible for special assessments carried out in 2023. “The question arises why such digitalization was needed,” complains Mr. Bezyukov.
Repetition is the mother of learning
According to a number of employers, the incorrect operation of the EISOT is already causing them difficulties. Thus, from March 1, 2023, it is necessary to upload data on employees who have completed occupational safety training into the system. “We organized it for all employees to whom we had such an obligation, and entered this data into the UISOT during 2023, but in the fall we discovered that it was not in the system,” explained Kommersant in one of the largest industrial companies in the Russian Federation . The presence of the problem was confirmed by Kommersant at one of the large chemical enterprises, a source in the Union of Employers of the Nuclear Industry, Energy and Science of Russia and trade unions. As Alexey Bezyukov said, the EISOT register, where data on training conducted is entered, did not work for about three months.
“At the beginning of January, we asked Rostrud for clarification, since as long as the Unified Information System and Information System incorrectly displays training data, all employers risk facing fines. We were told that the checks would take into account the period of system failure. But what if supervisory authorities ask questions about the absence of fines to Rostrud?” — notes the head of the Association of Developers, Manufacturers and Suppliers of Personal Protective Equipment Vladimir Kotov. “We, as follows from the explanations of Rostrud, need to train everyone again and re-enter information about this. This creates inconvenience for us as an employer and for employees who will have to take the same courses and pass the same tests again,” explained Kommersant in one of the largest industrial companies in the Russian Federation. “Re-entering information into the Ministry of Labor system is the work of specialized accredited companies. Who will pay for it? — asks the general director of the National Association of Occupational Safety and Health Centers Nikolai Novikov. In turn, the Ministry of Labor told Kommersant that the SOUT is operating as normal, and employers can contact technical support.
At the same time, a Kommersant source in the occupational safety and health industry notes, the ministry is aware of the problem, in particular, on March 1, a meeting was held there with the participation of business, the Social Fund and Rostrud. “We told them about the problems in the work of the EISOT, and they answered that these were “the machinations of Ukrainian saboteurs,” do you understand? Even if it were so, why then does the system not provide protection from external attacks?” — one of the meeting participants shared his impressions with Kommersant. From the minutes sent to the participants of the meeting following its results on March 13, it is clear that companies will have difficulties with the Unified Information System for a long time – the Ministry of Labor is waiting for a report from its IT department on the completion of technical work only on June 3.
[ad_2]
Source link
