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Work safety is a matter that bears on the safety of people's lives and property and on the overall situation of reform, development and social stability. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council have been attaching great importance to the matter of work safety, and have taken a string of major actions to improve work safety since the founding of the people's republic of China or since the adoption of reform and opening-up policies in particular. The state has promulgated and implemented a series of laws and regulations including the Work Safety Law of the People's Republic of China (hereinafter referred to the Work Safety Law), and specified work safety-related responsibilities. The state has established on a preliminary basis a work safety supervisory and administrative system in an effort to enhance the supervision and administration of work safety. The state has conducted specialized work safety rectification by focusing on key industries and areas, thus bringing a moderate improvement of the production and business order and work safety conditions, and stabilizing and bettering the work safety situation from an overall perspective. However, China's current work safety situation is still serious in that: the trend of frequent occurrence of casualty accidents in coal mines, road traffic and transportation, construction and other areas has not been essentially reversed; the country's work safety foundation is vulnerable; the safety guarantee system and mechanism are imperfect; some local authorities and production and business organizations have insufficient safety awareness, ascertain no responsibilities for and make inadequate investment in work safety; and the build-up of departments and personnel for work safety supervision and administration and the effectiveness of their work have yet to improve. Responding to the need for achieving as soon as possible a radical improvement of China's work safety situation, the following decision is hereby made on further enhancing work safety. I. UPGRADING OUR UNDERSTANDING AND SPECIFYING THE GUIDELINES AND GOALS 1. Having a full understanding the importance of enhancing work safety. By ensuring the safety of people's lives and property, work safety enhancement represents the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the people as well as the development trend of advanced productive forces and the orientation of advanced culture. Work safety enhancement is an important element of building a well-off society in an all-round way and of coordinating the overall economic and social development, a integral part of implementing the strategy of sustainable development, a basic task for the government to perform the functions of social administration and market supervision, and an essential requirement for the survival and growth of enterprises. As China is still in the primary stage of socialism, sustained efforts are a must for realizing a radical improvement of work safety conditions. All localities and departments must take work safety as a long-term and arduous task, stay on constant alert and make unceasing efforts in this regard. All localities and departments should, at a height of fully implementing the important thought of the "Three Represents" and protecting the safety of people's lives and property, come to a full understanding of the importance and urgency of enhancing work safety and mobilize all social forces to drive forward the safety undertaking in common efforts. 2. Guidelines. While enhancing work safety, we should earnestly implement the important thought of the "Three Represents" and adapt ourselves to the requirement of building a well-off society in an all-round way and to the new situation of improving the socialist market economy. We should uphold the basic policy of "giving top priority to safety among other things and focusing our attention mainly on accident prevention", further strengthen the government's leadership over work safety, propel work safety enhancement on all fronts, clarify safety responsibilities of production and business organizations, and improve work safety supervision and administration. We should propel the building of the system of supervision and administration of, the legal system for and the law enforcement team on work safety, establish a long-term mechanism for work safety, implement the strategy of brightening China's work safety prospects through science and technology, and vigorously adopt advanced safety management methods and safe production techniques, in an effort to achieve a radical improvement of the national work safety conditions. 3. Goals. We should, by the year 2007, establish a sound system of work safety supervision and administration, stabilize and better the national work safety situation, reverse the trend of frequent occurrence of accidents in key industries and areas such as coal mines, dangerous chemicals, and construction, and lower by a certain margin the accident-related death toll in industrial and mining enterprises, the death rate per million tons of coal production in coal mines, the death rate per million vehicles in road traffic and transportation, and other indexes. We should, by the year 2010, form on a preliminary basis a standardized and well-rounded legal order concerning work safety, markedly improve the national work safety situation, effectively keep serious or extremely serious accidents in check, and lower by a large margin the number of work accidents of all kinds and the death toll resulting there from. We should, by the year 2020, radically improve China's work safety conditions such that the indexes including the death rate per hundred million GDP (in RMB) and the death rate per hundred thousand population reach or approximate those of the mid-ranking developed countries in the world. II. IMPROVING POLICIES AND PROPELLING WORK SAFETY ON ALL FRONTS 4. Enhancing the guidance over industrial policies. The state will formulate and improve industrial policies and restructure and optimize the industrial structure. We should phase out outdated techniques and equipment that lead to the waste of resources or serious pollution as well as enterprises failing to satisfy safe work conditions. We should, through merger, acquisition, alliance, restructuring and other like measures, cultivate big companies and enterprise groups as well as large production and supply bases, and increase the production capacity of those with work safety guarantees. 5. Increasing the government's investment in work safety. We should enhance the construction of work safety infrastructures and the building of supporting systems, and make greater efforts in supporting work safety-related technological renovations by enterprises. We should use long-term treasury bonds for construction as well as the budgetary investment in capital construction to support work safety-related technological renovations by large and medium-sized state-owned coal enterprises. The people's governments at all local levels should highlight investment of capital in the construction of work safety infrastructures and positively support work safety-related technological renovations by enterprises. For special funds arranged by the state for work safety purposes, the local governments shall intensify their supervision and administration, ensure their exclusive use and arrange for supporting funds as a guarantee. 6. Deepening the specialized work safety rectification. We should take the specialized work safety rectification in areas such as mines, road and water traffic and transportation, dangerous chemicals, blasting equipment for civil use, fireworks and crackers, fire prevention in crowded places, as an important task of rectifying and regulating the order of the socialist market economy, and make unremitting efforts in this regard. Continuing efforts must be made to shut down and outlaw those small mines, workshops and businesses that are illegally operated or fail to satisfy work safety conditions, so as to keep the low-level redundant construction in check. Rectification must be conducted against overloaded cargo by highway trucks so as to ensure the safety of road traffic and transportation. Specialized work safety rectification must be combined with the implementation of the work safety guarantee system for production and business organizations, the enhancement of regular supervision and administration and the establishment of a long-term work safety mechanism, in accordance with the law, so as to ensure the effectiveness of such rectification. 7. Improving the legal system for work safety. We should intensify our efforts in formulating the supporting rules and regulations for various legal regimes established by the Work Safety Law. We should do a good job in formulating and revising various technical norms and standards concerning work safety. All localities should formulate and improve the supporting rules and measures for the implementation of the Work Safety Law. Greater efforts must be made to study, publicize and implement work safety-related laws and regulations in a way to popularize the legal knowledge among the general public and increase their legal awareness, on work safety. 8. Establishing a work safety-related emergency rescue system. We should speed up the building of a national work safety-related emergency rescue system, establish as soon as possible a national command center for work safety-related emergency rescue operations, make full use of emergency rescue resources now existing, build up professional and quick-response rescue teams, upgrade the rescue equipment and enhance the capacity of disaster relief and emergency rescue in time of work accidents. While strengthening the construction of regional bases for work safety-related emergency rescue, we should handle well the general survey and registration of sources of grave danger, enhance the monitoring of such sources at four levels [namely, the state, the province (autonomous region, municipality directly under the Central Government), the municipality (prefecture), and the county (city)], and establish emergency rescue plans and a early-warning mechanism for work safety. 9. Enhancing scientific research and technological development on work safety. We should enhance the building of the academic discipline of work safety science, vigorously develop work safety-related programs in higher education, and cultivate a lot more talents on work safety science, technology and management. We should increase the investment in science and technology, make optimal use of work safety research resources such as institutions of higher learning, research institutions and social groups, and strengthen both the basic research and the application research on work safety. We should establish a national work safety information management system so as to make work safety information and statistics more accurate, scientific and authoritative. We should vigorously conduct international exchange and cooperation in various fields of work safety and accelerate the process in which advanced work safety technologies are brought in, digested, absorbed and later, created on our own. III. STRENGTHENING THE ADMINISTRATION AND CLARIFYING THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF PRODUCTION AND BUSINESS ORGANIZATIONS AS THE SUBJECT OF WORK SAFETY 10. Strengthening and improving safety management of production and business organizations in accordance with the law. We should strengthen the role of production and business organizations as the subject of work safety, further clarify their responsibilities for work safety, and fully implement all laws and regulations concerning safety guarantee. Production and business organizations shall, in accordance with the relevant laws such as the Work Safety Law, set up work safety management institutions or install full-time (or part-time) work safety management personnel. Production and business organizations shall guarantee the necessary investment in work safety, positively adopt new techniques, technologies, equipment and materials that are both safe and reliable in quality, and continuously improve work safety conditions. Production and business organizations shall improve their safety management, positively take approaches such as the occupational safety and health management system certification, risk assessment and safety appraisal, implement various precautionary measures and upgrade their work safety management level. 11. Conducting activities on safe quality standardization. The state will formulate and promulgate safe work technical norms and safe quality standards for key industries and areas, and popularize nationwide activities on safe quality standardization among enterprises engaged in industrial production and mining, commerce and trade, traffic and transportation, construction, etc. Enterprises shall establish a stringent safe quality responsibility system for all links and all positions in the production process. Production and business activities and behaviors must live up to the requirements specified in the relevant laws and regulations concerning work safety as well as in the safe work technical norms, so as to be regulated and standardized. 12. Enhancing technical training on work safety. We should do a good job in this regard by integrating training resources, perfecting training networks, increasing our training efforts and improving the training quality. Production and business organizations shall conduct necessary work safety training for all their workers; the leading persons-in-charge, the relevant operating and managing personnel, and the personnel engaged in important types of job shall, in accordance with the relevant laws and regulations, receive standard work safety training, go through qualification tests and perform their jobs with qualification certificates. The system for the examination, appointment and appraisal of certified safety engineers will be improved. 13. Establishing a system of drawing safety expenses. In order to guarantee necessary investment in work safety and form a long-term mechanism for work safety investment, a system of drawing safety expenses by production enterprises engaged in high-risk industries should be established by steps, after the conditions are ripe and by referring to the experience of coal mining in drawing safety expenses. Standards of such drawing should be determined separately on the basis of the characteristics of different regions and industries. Safety expenses will be drawn by enterprises on their own, deposited under special accounts and used exclusively for work safety purposes. 14. Raising the standard of economic compensation by production and business organizations in case of casualty accidents under law. Production and business organizations shall earnestly implement the system of work injury insurance, have their workers insured against work-related injuries and pay insurance premiums therefor on a timely basis. Meanwhile, production and business organizations shall pay compensation to workers victimized during work accidents or to their relatives, in accordance with the relevant laws and regulations such as the Work Safety Law. We should further raise the standard of casualty compensation by enterprises involved in work accidents, and take it as a stimulus to establish a mechanism under which the persons-in-charge of enterprises will voluntarily guarantee safety-related investment and do their uttermost to reduce accidents. IV. IMPROVING THE SYSTEM AND ENHANCING WORK SAFETY SUPERVISION AND ADMINISTRATION 15. Improving the build-up of departments and law enforcement personnel for work safety supervision and administration at all local levels. The local people's governments at the county level or above shall establish and perfect work safety supervisory and administrative departments, recruit necessary personnel, enhance the building of supervisory and administrative forces, upgrade the authoritativeness of work safety supervision and administration, and effectively perform their functions in this regard. We should improve the system of work safety inspections over coal mines and further strengthen the build-up of coal mine safety inspection teams as well as their work on law-enforcing inspections. 16. Establishing a quota system for work safety control. The state will formulate a long and mid-term development planning for national work safety, clarify the annual quotas for work safety control, establish a national quota control system and systems by the province (autonomous region, municipality directly under the Central Government), and exercise quantitative control over and appraisal of work safety conditions. From the year 2004, the state will distribute annual work safety quotas under various items to the people's government of each province (autonomous region, municipality directly under the Central Government) and conduct follow-up inspections, supervision and appraisals thereof. For information concerning the fulfilling of quotas for work safety control by various provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government), the department in charge of work safety supervision and administration under the state will make quarterly disclosure through means including press conferences, government announcements and bulletins. 17. Establishing an administrative licensing system for work safety. We should list work safety into the range of items subject to administrative licensing by the state and take it as an important part of the administrative licensing system for all industries, in a way to prevent at roots enterprises that fail to satisfy work safety conditions from entering the market. Those who want to operate enterprises shall satisfy the work safety conditions specified in laws, apply to the government departments concerned for work safety licenses in accordance with the law, and conduct no production or operation until such licenses are obtained. The safety facilities of the newly built or rebuilt or expanded projects of the production and business organizations shall be designed, built and put into production and use all at the same time with the principal part of the projects; for construction projects that fail to go through the examination thereabout, the departments concerned will set aside the administrative licensing procedures, and the enterprises may not start production or operation. 18. Establishing a deposit system against work safety risks of enterprises. In order to burden production and business organizations with heavier responsibilities for work safety, various localities may, based on the practical situation, collect a certain amount of deposit against work safety risks from enterprises engaged in mining, road traffic and transportation, construction, and the production or operation of dangerous chemicals, fireworks and crackers, etc. In case any accident occurs during the production or operation period of an enterprise, its deposit will be transferred to the use of emergency rescue, accident relief and follow-up disposal. The specific measures thereabout will be worked out by the department of work safety supervision and administration under the state in conjunction with the Ministry of Finance. 19. Strengthening administrative law enforcement in work safety supervision, administration and inspections. The departments of work safety supervision and administration and inspection at all levels shall foster stronger awareness of law enforcement and enforce laws in a strict, impartial and civilized manner. The said departments shall, in accordance with the law, exercise supervision of and inspections over work safety conditions of production and operation organizations, guide and urge such organizations to establish and improve a responsibility system for work safety, and see to it that all precautionary measures are implemented. The said departments shall organize and conduct safety evaluation of enterprises and apply classified guidance and focused supervision and administration. For enterprises that pay little or no attention to work safety as well as the persons-in-charge or owners thereof, the said departments shall strengthen their law enforcement and sharpen the economic punishment in accordance with the law. The said departments shall conduct earnest investigations into all types of accidents and uphold the principle of "Four No Passes", namely, no pass without the finding of the cause(s) of an accident, no pass without sanctions against the responsible person(s), no pass without the implementation of the rectifying measures, and no pass without a lesson learnt by the persons concerned. Not only shall the direct responsible person(s) be prosecuted for liabilities, but also the person(s)-in-charge be prosecuted for leadership responsibilities. 20. Enhancing work safety supervision and administration of small enterprises. Small enterprises are a vulnerable link in work safety management; therefore, all localities should pay sufficient attention to their work safety and enhance supervision and administration in an effective manner. We should, starting from areas such as organizational leadership, work mechanism and safety investment, gradually come up with a set of effective supervisory and administrative methods. By integrating supervision and administration into services, we should provide small enterprises with services in areas such as safety technology, human resources and policy consultancy, enhance inspections and guidance and urge and help them to do well in work safety. We should find solutions to work safety investment by small coal mining enterprises, and exercise stringent supervision over the drawing of safety expenses by township and individual coal mines in accordance with the relevant provisions. V. STRENGTHENING THE LEADERSHIP AND MAKING CONCERTED EFFORTS TO ENHANCE WORK SAFETY 21. Earnestly implementing the work safety responsibility system for leadership at all levels. The people's governments at all local levels should establish and improve the work safety responsibility system for leading officials, take work safety as an important element for appraising cadres' political achievements, and implement the said system level by level. Extra attention should be paid to the implementation of the work safety responsibility system for leading officials at the county and township levels. Trainings should focus on conveying safety knowledge to local leading officials and on law enforcement skills to personnel of work safety supervision and administration. The state will organize trainings for leading officials of the governments at municipal (prefectural) and county (city) levels who are in charge of work safety. All provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government) should conduct training on law enforcement skills for persons-in-charge of work safety supervisory and administrative departments under the governments at county level or above, by stages and in batches. We should conduct serious investigation into liabilities for accidents, and strictly prosecute the leaders of local governments or enterprises who have committed negligence or dereliction of duty or bear leadership responsibility for accidents, in accordance with the relevant laws and regulations. Corruption and forces of evil in the field of work safety shall be subject to harsh crackdown. 22. Creating a situation in which the whole society works together to improve work safety. The people's governments at all local levels should hold routine meetings on work safety at least once per quarter to analyze, plan, supervise and inspect the local work safety situation, and to support and assist work safety supervisory and administrative departments in solving difficulties and problems cropping up during their law enforcement. The work safety committees at all levels and the offices thereof should bring into full play their role of overall coordination. Departments in charge of overall work safety supervision and administration as well as other departments that bear responsibilities for work safety supervision and administration should, under the unified leadership of the governments and in accordance with the relevant laws and regulations, do their respective work and co-operate to effectively perform functions of work safety supervision and administration. Trade unions and Youth Leagues at all levels should make good use of their respective advantages and conduct work safety-related activities among the general public to improve work safety. The role of intermediary institutions and social groups such as various types of associations, societies and centers should be brought into full play in building the supporting work safety systems including those of information, laws, technological equipment, communication and education, training, and emergency rescue. We should strengthen the social supervision, supervision by the general public and supervision by news media, enrich the contents in activities such as the national "Work Safety Month" and "Work Safety Tour for Well Over Three Thousand Miles", and do our best to create a work safety situation featuring the "unified leadership of the government, statutory supervision and administration by departments, full responsibilities of enterprises, participation and supervision by the general public, and broad support from all walks of life". 23. Doing well in communication and education and the guidance over public opinions. We should incorporate work safety communication and education into the overall planning of the publicity work, uphold the correct orientation of public opinions, disseminate the guidelines and policies of the Party and the state, the laws and regulations as well as the major actions on enhancing work safety, and publicize the advanced models and experience in work safety. Typical cases of serious negligence of work safety that results in the occurrence of serious or extremely serious accidents shall be exposed to the public. Courses on safety knowledge should be set up in institutions of higher learning, senior secondary technical schools, and middle and primary schools so as to upgrade the youths' capability of disaster recognition and prevention in areas such as road traffic, fire prevention and urban gases. We should, through broad and in-depth communication and education, keep on increasing the general public's awareness of self-protection in accordance with the law. All localities, all departments and all organizations must enhance survey and research, pay adequate attention to new situations cropping up during our work safety efforts, study new issues, propel innovations in work safety theories, supervisory and administrative system and mechanism, supervisory and administrative models and methods, safety science and technology, safety culture, and other areas, keep increasing the pertinence and effectiveness of work safety enhancement, do our best to bring about a new work safety situation in China, thus creating a safe and stable environment for improving the socialist market economy and realizing the great goal of building a well-off society in an all-round way as put forward by the Party's 16th National Congress. |
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