[Editorial Review of Workers' Daily]

Original title: the significance of solving the problem of identifying occupational heatstroke injuries

Guo Zhengang, commentator of Workers Daily - China Industrial Network

The handling procedures and results of this case provide useful enlightenment for workers, occupational disease identification institutions, labor capacity appraisal institutions and judicial institutions in the identification of occupational heatstroke injuries and safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of workers.

A new breakthrough has been made in the determination of occupational heatstroke injuries - According to the report of the Workers' Daily on April 18, the Sichuan Higher People's Court recently held a court session to hear an administrative confirmation case on the determination of occupational heatstroke injuries. In the case, a construction worker fainted due to sudden fever and radiation sickness while working and died several days later. His family members have not been identified as work-related injuries in the past 6 years. With the efforts of all parties, the administrative disputes in the case have been substantially resolved. This case is also the first judicial case in Sichuan Province that identified "occupational heatstroke" (heat stroke) as work-related injury.

The identification of occupational heatstroke is an old problem. Some workers suffering from occupational heatstroke cannot obtain the identification of occupational injury through the identification procedure of occupational injury, and their legitimate rights and interests are damaged. The relevant provisions of the regulations on industrial injury insurance have also become "sleep clauses". Some workers have embarked on a long road to safeguard their rights, and there have been constant calls from all walks of life to "activate" the identification procedure for occupational heatstroke injuries, so as not to make workers hurt and sad. The handling procedures and results of this case have certain enlightenment significance for solving the difficulty in identifying occupational heatstroke injuries.

Occupational heatstroke, also known as heat stroke, is one of the occupational diseases caused by physical factors in the classification catalogue of occupational diseases. Different from the occupational diseases caused by dust and chemical poisoning, occupational heatstroke has always been difficult to identify work-related injuries, enjoy treatment, and handle procedures. For example, heatstroke in occupational diseases is often another complication caused by heatstroke. In general, there will be no extreme injuries such as death. In case of extreme circumstances such as death, there will often be problems such as being unable to be identified as work-related injury or not being identified as work-related injury due to the employer's unwillingness to provide the working conditions of workers at the time of illness or the workers' inability to provide occupational disease diagnosis, Therefore, few sick workers can successfully pass the identification of work-related injuries and enjoy occupational disease treatment.

It is difficult to identify occupational heatstroke injuries and activate the "sleep clause" in the industrial injury insurance regulations. All parties have been exploring hard. The handling procedures and results of this case provide useful enlightenment for workers, occupational disease identification institutions, labor capacity appraisal institutions and judicial institutions in the identification of occupational heatstroke injuries and safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of workers.

The case provides useful guidance for the protection of the rights of relevant workers. In view of the problem that workers are often unable to provide relevant materials or the materials are incomplete in the determination of occupational heatstroke injuries, this case reminds workers and their families that after working in a working environment that may lead to heatstroke or suffering from occupational heatstroke, they must retain the materials of work conditions, require medical institutions to issue a diagnosis certificate with clear causes, and apply for occupational disease diagnosis in a timely manner, These are the prerequisites for obtaining the identification of work-related injuries.

The case provided valuable guidance for the identification institution of occupational heatstroke injuries. In view of the fact that the identification of occupational heatstroke injuries is "too harsh", this case reminds the identification organization of occupational heatstroke injuries to make full use of big data to collect relevant materials, and to cooperate with the labor supervision organization to urge employers to provide necessary materials to reduce the burden of workers; The case also reminds the occupational disease identification agency to summarize and optimize the occupational heat stroke identification procedure, and conduct occupational disease identification in accordance with the principle of "facts over procedures", rather than mechanically using "regulations" as an excuse and "necessary procedures" as a condition, so as to effectively reduce the difficulty of workers' rights protection.

This case also provides the judicial authorities with new ideas for substantive resolution of disputes. In view of the fact that more and more cases of work-related injury determination have been pushed to the judicial process, this case reminds the judicial organ that when hearing the determination of occupational heatstroke injury, it should focus on inferring and reasonably distinguishing the causal relationship between the cause of labor and the result of injury, and strengthen substantive resolution of disputes through mediation and other methods, Prompting relevant departments to optimize the identification procedure of occupational heatstroke injuries through judicial proposals and other means. At the same time, the case also reminds the procuratorial organ that it should urge relevant institutions to optimize working procedures through legal supervision, actively participate in resolving disputes, and attach importance to the substantive resolution of problems.

This case also provides a new reference sample for improving relevant legislation. The disputes arising from the determination of occupational heatstroke injuries are largely related to the unclear relevant regulations and operating procedures. In recent years, the administrative litigation cases related to the determination of work-related injuries have been on the rise. Through hearing relevant cases, experience has been accumulated in the process of substantive resolution of disputes, which can provide practical support for improving relevant legislation.

"One case is better than a dozen documents". In recent years, with the frequent occurrence of extreme high temperature weather, the number of occupational heatstroke patients has increased year by year, among which manual workers working in the open air are the high risk group. It is urgent and necessary to provide workers with a safe working environment and better safeguard their legitimate rights and interests. It is expected that the relevant departments will learn from the essence of the case, take substantive dispute resolution as the purpose, and explore new ideas and new ways to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of workers and promote the harmonious and healthy development of society.