Article 229. Investigation procedure for accidents in production

To investigate a production accident in his organization, the employer shall immediately set up a commission comprising at least three people. The commission shall include a labor protection expert or a person appointed to be in charge for managing the work on labor protection by the employer's order, employer's representatives, representatives of the trade union body of other representative body commissioned by the employees, and the labor protection commissioner. The commission shall be headed by the employer or his authorized representative. The manager immediately responsible for work safety in the area/facility, where the accident took place, shall be not a member to the commission.

The investigation of a production accident at an employer's, who is a physical person, shall involve said employer or his authorized representative, a victim's proxy, and a labor protection expert, which can be also hired for the investigation on a contract basis.

The production accident, which happened to a person sent to carry out work at another employer's, shall be investigated by a commission set up by the employer, where the accident took place. An authorized representative of the employer, which had sent the person in question, shall be part of said commission. If said representative does not arrive or is tardy, that will not affect the time of the investigation.

The accident, which happened to an employee of the organization, which carries out works in an assigned area of another organization, shall be investigated and registered by the organization carrying out these works. In this case the commission, which has investigated the accident, shall inform the manager of the organization, at which premises these works were carried out, about its findings.

The accident, which happened to an employee, who combined his jobs doing the job for another employer, shall be investigated at the workplace, where the accident took place.

An accident in production, which took place as a result of a vehicle accident, shall be investigated by a commission set up by the employer. The commission must use the materials of the investigation carried out by the relevant government supervision and control agency.

Every employee or his authorized representative has the right to participate in person in the investigation of an accident in production, which happened to the employee.

To investigate a multiple accident in production, a heavy accident in production or a fatal accident, the commission shall also involve a public labor protection inspector, representatives of the executive power body of the Russian Federation's subject or local self-government body (by agreement), and a representative of the territorial association of trade union organizations. The employer shall set up the commission and approve its membership with the public labor protection inspector as the chairman.

At the request of the victim (or his relations, if the victim died) his proxy can participate in the investigation. In the case that the proxy does not participate in the investigation, the employer or his authorized representative, or the chairman of the commission shall acquaint the proxy with the investigation materials at the proxy's request.

In the event of acute poisoning or radioactive impact, which exceeded the established norms, the commission shall also include a representative of the relevant agency of the Russian Federation's sanitary & epidemiological service.

If the accident was a consequence of breaches in works affecting the assurance of nuclear, radioactive and engineering safety in nuclear energy facilities, the commission shall also include a representative of the territorial federal agency for federal supervision of nuclear and radioactive safety.

If an accident took place in organization and facilities accountable to territorial agencies of the federal mining and industrial supervision, the list of the commission members shall be approved by the manager of the relevant territorial agency. A representative of this agency shall be the chairman on the commission.

If there is a multiple accident in production, in which five or more lives have been lost, the commission shall also include representatives of the federal labor inspectorate, federal executive power body with regard to the specific affiliation and representative of the all-Russian trade union association. Chairman on the commission shall be chief public labor protection inspector with the relevant government labor inspectorate and in facilities accountable to a territorial agency of the federal mining and industrial supervision the manager of that territorial agency shall be the chairman. On board of a vessel the commission's membership shall be laid down by the federal executive power body managing transport matters or by the federal executive power body in charge of fishery according to the affiliation of the vessel.

If there are large-scale accidents, in which fifteen or more lives have been lost, the investigation shall be carried out by a commission, the membership of which shall be approved by the Government of the Russian Federation.

The investigation of the circumstances and causes of an accident in production, which only involved one person and did not fall into the category of heavy or fatal accidents, shall be carried out by the commission within three days.

The investigation of a multiple accident in production, a heavy accident in production or a fatal accident in production shall be carried out by the commission within fifteen days.

An accident in production, which the employer has not been advised of in due time or which did not result in the victim's inability to work at once, shall be investigated by the commission pursuant to the victim's or his proxy's application within one month, after said application has been filed.

Should additional verification of the circumstances of the accident, provision of the relevant medical and other findings be required, the time frames indicated in this article can be prolonged by the commission's chairman, however, not more than by fifteen days.

Every time an accident in production is investigated, the commission shall find and question the eyewitnesses of the incident and the persons, which committed breaches of regulatory labor protection requirements, obtain the necessary information from the employer and the explanations from the victim, if possible.

During the investigation of a production accident in an organization the employer shall secure at the request of the commission at his own expense the following activities:

execution of engineering calculations, laboratory tests, trials and other expert works and involvement of experts for these purposes;

taking photographs of the accident place and damaged objects, drawing up plans, sketches, and diagrams;

provision of transport, an office, communications, protective clothing, protective footwear and other means of individual protection required to conduct the investigation.

If an accident in production at an employer, who is a physical person, is investigated, the actions and conditions required to conduct the investigation shall be determined by the chairman of the commission.

To investigate a multiple accident in production, a heavy accident in production or a fatal accident in production, the following documents shall be prepared:

the employer's order to set up a commission for investigation of the accident;

plans, sketches, diagrams, and - if required - photographs and video records of the accident place;

the documents featuring the working place state and the presence of hazardous and harmful production factors;

excerpts from labor protection briefing registration logs and protocols of examination of the victims' knowledge of labor protection;

protocols of questioning eyewitnesses of the accident and officers, the victims' explanations;

expert findings of specialists, laboratory test and experiment results;

the medical findings about the nature and degree of the damage caused to the victim's health or the cause of his death, about whether the victim was intoxicated with alcohol, drugs or toxic substances at the moment, when the accident took place;

copies of documents confirming that the victim has been provided with protective clothing, protective footwear and other means of individual protection in line with the prevailing norms;

excerpts from the directions of public labor protection inspectors and officers of the territorial government supervision agency (if the accident took place in an organization or facility accountable to this agency) issued in this production/facility previously and excerpts from trade union labor inspectors' demands to eliminate discovered breaches of regulatory labor protection requirements as well;

other documents at the discretion of the commission.

If the employer is a physical person, the list of materials to be submitted shall be determined by the chairman of the commission, which carried out the investigation.

On the grounds of the documents and materials gathered the commission shall state the circumstances and causes of the accident. It shall determine whether the victim was engaged in the employer's production activity at the moment, when the accident took place, and whether he was staying at the place of the accident exercising his labor duties. It shall qualify the accident as an accident in production or an accident not related to production, identify the persons, which have committed breaches of labor safety and protection, laws and other regulatory legal acts, and specify the actions aimed at the elimination of the causes and prevention of accidents in production.

If in the course of the investigation of an accident to an insured person the commission finds that gross carelessness of the insured person has aided in initiation or an increase of the damage caused to his health, then, taking into account the findings of the trade union body or other representative body of this organization authorized by the insured person, the commission shall determine the degree of the insured person's gilt in per cent.

The procedure of investigation of the accidents in production considering the peculiarities of individual branches and organizations and the forms of the documents required for investigation of the accidents in production shall be approved in line with the procedure established by the Government of the Russian Federation.