LABOUR PROTECTION AND INDUSTRIAL SAFETY IN UKRAINE: PROBLEMS OF TRANSITION PERIOD AND PERSPECTIVE WAYS OF DEVELOPMENT

Based on comparative analysis of the industrial accident causes in Ukraine and EU countries this article establishes that the main accident reasons are organizational ones (50 to 70% of the total number of cases), however such indicators as the registered in Ukraine fatal cases frequency coefficient (per 1 thousand of employees) and the fatal accidents-total accidents number ratio are greater than the similar indicators in Europe by about 2- and 100-fold, respectively. It is noted that the issues of improving the work safety in Ukraine towards the association with the European Union should be considered in the context of two main planes, which are associated with changes in the legislative and educational systems. Within this article, the authors analyse the main inter-sectoral and sectoral regulatory legal acts on labour protection, in particular in the field of providing for fire, explosion and electrical safety, and relevant documents relating to the creation and maintenance of a comfortable environment at work. Based on the conducted analysis, the problems of adapting the national legislation in the field of labour protection and industrial safety to the legal framework of EU, the problems concerning the unsystematic character and selective approach to the implementation of appropriate changes, and potential hazards that can occur at all stages of the life cycle of technical systems in the event of their introduction are determined. The main differences in the systematic approach to the professional training of students in higher educational institutions (HEI) of Ukraine and EU countries (Poland, for example) in the field of labour protection and industrial safety are singled out. It is noted that in the Republic of Poland numbering the population correlative with Ukraine the quantity of special educational institutions preparing specialists in the field of labour protection in relation to the total number of higher educational establishment is 1.9 fold greater than the corresponding figure in Ukraine, and the number of subjects with regard to the issues of the labour protection and industrial safety, which are taught to students in fulfilling the work programmes at nonspecialised Polish higher educational establishments is greater than that in Ukrainian several fold. The statistical data regarding the dynamics of the accident number increase in Ukraine and their causes within a period of 2015 and 2016 are presented and analysed in the context of recent negative changes including the reduction of class hours for students learning the disciplines of "Sectoral Labour Protection", "Basics of Labour Protection", "Foundations of Life Activity Safety" and "Civil protection", merging such subjects, and cancellation of the graduation project relevant sections in most HEI of Ukraine On the grounds of the research, priority directions for developing the labour protection and industrial safety in Ukraine on the stage of European integration are proposed.