WAYS TO IMPROVE LABOR PROTECTION FOR TRANSPORT AND LOGISTICS WORKERS

Аннотация

The transport and logistics sector plays a crucial role in the functioning of the EU economy, yet vehicle operation and driving jobs are associated with significant risks. This essay examines the current state of labor protection for transport and logistics workers, with a particular focus on road transport and logistics in the EU. It highlights the importance of improving labor protection in this sector and explores necessary measures for improvement. The purpose of the work is to study the labor protection of transport workers and provide suggestions for improvement. Specific objectives include characterizing transport and logistics workers, analyzing road transport work and its impact on health, studying current labor protection measures, and proposing improvements. The relevance of the topic is driven by increasing freight volumes, a workforce shortage in transport and logistics, and health issues among drivers. It is crucial to improve working conditions to attract and retain a skilled workforce in this sector. Additionally, the ongoing Green Deal transformation in the EU road transport sector necessitates improved safety and workplace adaptation for new technologies. Methods used in the research include literature review, analysis of scientific articles and reports, and EU and national legislation studies. The key findings indicate that current labor protection measures in road transport are insufficient, particularly regarding safety and health. Recommendations for improvement include prioritizing and adequately resourcing safety and health improvements, adjusting the monitoring system for transport services to ensure compliance, implementing stricter rules for the operation and equipment of vehicles, and establishing a working group to develop guidance for adjusting work organization when introducing new technologies. These findings are significant for policy-makers, transport and logistics companies, educational institutions, and workers. Keywords. Labor protection, transport, logistics, safety measures, health hazards, workload, job security, working environment, labor law, hiring practices, safety training, protective gear, safety awareness. https://scientific-jl.com/new 22 88 99 Volume–78_Issue-1_June-2025 JOURNAL OF NEW CENTURY INNOVATIONS Introduction. Labor protection refers to a set of safety guarantees provided by law to an individual while he or she is engaged in labor activities[1,2]. The guarantees usually include proper training for each employee, safe working conditions, supply of necessary means for protection against accidents, insurance against health deterioration and compensation for any wage losses or damages occurred during accidents, and protection against arbitrary labor contracts termination caused by health deterioration due to work accidents [3,4]. Transport and Logistics Industries in the US directly employ approximately six million workers or, over 4 percent of the entire labor force. Of these, three million work in trucking, two million in transit and passenger transport, and one million in warehousing. Nationally, twelve percent of all workplace fatalities occur in transport and logistics, mostly in trucking and warehousing. These industries include a wide range of occupations and types of employment, which can be classified as “conducting,” “transit,” “transshipment” and “warehousing” activities [5]. The conduct of transport, logistics, and forwarding activities is outside the multimodal transport chain. Thus, the employment of labor protection, transport and logistics undertakings is regulated and guarantees protection for workers in these industries; nevertheless, transport and logistics workers involve a number of challenges. In many transport and logistics industries, labor safety and health protection measures are insufficient, ineffective or absent. Despite the growing need for transport and logistics services faced by enormous challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, wars, and trade barriers exacerbated by climatic changes, extreme weather conditions, and energy transformation, public policies and transport and logistics undertakings do not ensure effective labor protection measures. Usually, a review of relevant laws within one continent is sufficient to demonstrate the need for improvement of labor protection. However, transport and logistics industries transcend state boundaries of different continents in international trade, which sets the need for examination of laws from different continents, underpinned by the very nature of transport and logistics. Therefore, the laws regulating labor protection, focusing on the EU, North America, and Asia (China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan), are reviewed first. Second, the examination of efforts to protect the labor of transport and logistics workers focuses on those industries globally, ensuring the basis for starting a discussion of current frameworks. Typically, a discussion is presented on the need for improvemen