UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 11, 2019. OOO FORES’s Asbest branch keeps improving working conditions and working on a safer work environment, the company’s press service reports.

Starting December 1, many of the plant’s employees started getting two breathing masks per shift rather than just one.

’This is one of the measures taken to improve the employees’ working conditions following a special assessment of the said conditions. The company’s respective committee carried out the ad hoc assessment procedure for the charge makers at the plant’s Propping Agents Department and Dry Grinding Department,’ the press service says.

According to FORES representatives, every breathing mask is intended to be used until it’s no longer usable, just like earlier. This is the standard set by the manufacturer. There have been cases, however, when a mask could get soaked in sweat, so using it no longer felt comfortable. There has never been an official ban on leaving your workplace to go fetch a new one. However, it’s not always easily done when you are in the middle of some work process.

‘The results of the assessment procedure that took place in June through October confirmed that our workers do need to have an extra mask on hand. A state working condition assessment expert also recommended providing the employees with additional breathing masks. The new norm has now officially come into effect and it applies to crane operators at the Propping Agents Department as well,’ FORES’s press service says.

Now FORES also pays attention to employe feedback regarding special protective gear. This year, workers at the company’s Sukhoi Log branch had the opportunity of trying out the new sets of protective gear that got adjusted in accordance with their recommendations.