Psychosocial risk management at mining and metallurgical enterprises

The article contains the results of a study of psychosocial risks typical for enterprises of the mining and metallurgical industry. Researchers from different countries are involved in the assessment of psychosocial risks. Most often, the risk assessment is based on the results of a survey, clinical, epidemiological and other studies. It is noted that for employees of mining and metallurgical enterprises, clinical and epidemiological methods are difficult to implement due to the specifics of the industry, in addition, they are costly and require the involvement of medical specialists. The article examines the research and presents the most characteristic psychosocial factors for workers in the coal and gas industries, such studies could not be found for employees of mining and metallurgical enterprises. In the course of the study, the authors identified aspects in the context of psychosocial factors that cause fatigue, stress and anxiety among workers of the mining and metallurgical complex. The most characteristic psychosocial factors for metallurgical and mining enterprises are formulated and their division into groups “labor context” and “labor content” is carried out. To quantify the identified psychosocial factors, a survey of employees of mining and metallurgical enterprises was conducted. The survey results showed that employees consider quarrels and conflicts, as well as lack of career prospects, to be the most significant psychosocial factors. The study shows that it is possible to effectively manage the mental health of employees by directly influencing employees and the environment in which production activities are carried out, examples of such preventive and corrective measures are given. An important and, at the same time, difficult task for mining and metallurgical enterprises is to integrate the assessment of psychosocial factors into the existing risk assessment at work. This will undoubtedly lead to a complication of both the risk assessment procedure itself and the risk management procedure, but at the same time it will contribute to improving the effectiveness of professional risk management through more accurate identification and analysis of psychosocial factors, which will allow the development and implementation of measures to reduce the impact of the human factor, and, ultimately, will reduce the level of injuries at enterprises of the mining and metallurgical complex.