What lies beyond the digital “Obriy”?

Dear Readers,

Digitalization is opening up new opportunities for occupational safety and health. Electronic documents, interconnected registers, and user-friendly digital services can eliminate the need for repetitive data entry, streamline access to services, and free up valuable time for managing workplace risks.

For employers, these tools can provide a clearer picture of safety performance across their organizations. For employees, they can make it easier to exercise and protect their rights. For the State Labour Service, they can facilitate faster information processing, more effective regulatory oversight, and greater transparency by reducing the influence of subjective factors. These are the improvements the OSH professional community has long been expecting.

One of the key instruments intended to support this transformation is the ‘Obriy’ - Unified Information and Analytical System. The proposed digitalization of occupational safety and health services envisages transferring several processes to the system, including safety training and knowledge assessments, workplace assessments, occupational medical examinations, expert evaluations, and technical inspections. The concept of consolidating information and enabling electronic data exchange is certainly promising. However, its success will ultimately depend on the clarity of the regulatory framework and how effectively the system supports users in their day-to-day work.

In this issue, our experts highlight the risk of transferring long-standing regulatory inconsistencies into a new digital environment. Unless procedures, requirements, and responsibilities are properly aligned, the electronic platform may simply reproduce the confusion and inefficiencies of existing paper-based processes. Moreover, the obligation to upload and continuously update large volumes of information could create additional administrative burdens for the very professionals the reform is intended to support. Information already held by public authorities should be exchanged through integrated systems rather than repeatedly requested from businesses.

Equally important is ensuring that the ` Obriy` system simplifies access to services while preserving the freedom to choose service providers and legally permitted forms of contractual arrangements. Clear rules must be established in advance regarding responsibility for data accuracy, procedures for correcting errors, and mechanisms for appealing automated decisions. Particular attention must be paid to employees' medical data. Only information that is strictly necessary for clearly defined purposes should be processed, with appropriate safeguards and secure access controls in place.

At the same time, an electronic training record does not, in itself, demonstrate that an employee has genuinely understood and can apply safety requirements. Nor does uploading an inspection report resolve equipment defects. Every digital record must reflect meaningful action: effective training, reliable assessments of working conditions, and thorough inspections of equipment and technical systems. Otherwise, attention may shift away from identifying and controlling hazards towards completing digital forms, allowing apparently successful reporting to conceal unresolved safety issues.

The ongoing war presents additional challenges. Russian attacks continue to damage telecommunications infrastructure, internet networks, and mobile communication facilities. Digital procedures must therefore be supported by backup power supplies, reliable data storage and recovery arrangements, and clear contingency procedures for communication outages. A technical failure should neither prevent an enterprise from continuing its operations nor undermine employees' ability to exercise and protect their rights.

Digitalization should be developed and implemented with the active involvement of safety professionals, particularly during the design, piloting, and testing stages. Its effectiveness should be measured not merely by the number of processes moved online, but by its tangible contribution to preventing occupational injuries and protecting workers' health.

We therefore invite everyone to join the discussion on how digital tools can become genuinely practical, accessible, and effective for those responsible for ensuring safe and healthy working conditions.

Dmytro Matviychuk Editor-in-Chief