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Dr. Yuriy Sorokin

Dr. Yuriy Sorokin has been president of the Association of Designers, Producers and Suppliers of Personal Protective Equipment (ASIZ) since 2004, and has made the association stronger and relevant in the global scenario. Under his leadership and guidance, a number of Russian safety norms have been taken for revision and updated. Dr. Sorokin is also vice president of the European Safety Federation, member of the Board of Russian Chamber of Industry and Trade, the Russian Tripartite Commission, and honorable professor of several universities and academy institutions.

Achievements in his illustrious career include:

• Creation and management at the national level of the Labor Protection System
• Elaboration of the main national labor protection laws
• Participation in several International Labor Conferences in Geneva for the discussion and approval of International Conventions
• Recommendations and management of editing of the Russian version of the ILO Encyclopedias on Occupational Safety and Health

Before taking on his current assignment, Dr. Sorokin spent many years in the industry and government departments as:

• Central Committee of the Trade Union of workers - oil and chemical industry
• Chief inspector of the industry
• Director of labor protection department – Technical inspector of labor
• Director of the labor protection ministerial service - Ministry of the oil-processing and the oil-chemical industries of the USSR
• Deputy, director of the Labor Protection Department, chief labor inspector of the USSR; All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions
• Director, labor protection and environment department - General Confederation of Trade Unions of Russia
• Director, Labor Conditions and Labor Protection Department, Ministry of Labor

Dr. Sorokin has received several national orders, honorary diplomas and industrial societies' decorations.

Frost & Sullivan: What role does ASIZ play in the PPE industry in Russia?

Dr. Yuriy Sorokin: Our association plays a key role in the development of the PPE industry in Russian Federation. We have existed for more than 10 years, and during that time were able to revive the industry after the collapse of the Soviet Union. To date, this role has been recognized not only by a wide range of consumers and control authorities, but also by the state and regional authorities. From this point of view, the industry feels quite secure.

F&S: What is the role of the president of ASIZ?

YS: The main objective of the president creates the organization's ideology. Certainly there are many additional factors, such as coordination of all activities, strategy and tactics. The president is also involved in solving tactical, daily issues that appeared among members of our organization. A list of these issues includes the industry harmonization with the various levels of authorities.

F&S: What was the impact of the recent slowdown on the PPE industry in Russia?

YS: Certainly, the industry's development of PPE depends on the country's economy as a whole. The crisis of 2009 and subsequent recession have pushed end users to use their industry stocks, as well as to purchases of cheaper and less-effective variants of personal protection. As a result, the revenue of the industry declined by 20-25 percent at the end of 2009, with drop in the first quarter by almost 70 percent. During this period, we did a great job by convincing the owners of manufacturing and government by pointing out that such savings could lead to greater costs in the future. I would like to note that the activity and a recovery in the economy led to the fact that in 2010, the industry sales had almost reached the prerecession level.

F&S: Does ASIZ act as a catalyst for growth of the PPE industry in Russia? How?

YS:

Our organization is the only one who promotes the interests of the industry. Unlike counterparts in other countries, including the U.S., where the recommendations are made as industry-wide, we prescribe the PPE requirements for each profession. These rules specify what, when and in what quantity an employee of each profession should have. We initiate the development of new models that meet new market requirements. We also conduct annual international exhibition in Moscow every December, which involved up to 25,000 industry experts from all sectors. The main task here is to create connection links between PPE end users and manufactures.

F&S: What major challenges do you see in the coming year for PPE industry in Russia? What should be the industry's strategy to address these challenges?

YS:

I would like to note that the problems facing the industry are not limited to one year. Most of these problems are passing from year to year, and we are working with them on a permanent basis.

The first, and probably the most important, problem is to approach employers to provide employees with PPE. I would like to note that the compliance factor is approximately 70 percent across the industry. Here we see significant potential for growth. The problem is that it is difficult to reach all PPE manufacturers and especially small businesses. The second problem is the increase of imports from Asia. Rather, the problem is not the import, but quality control of the import. The third problem is the availability of counterfeit products. Despite the fact that the problem is internal, we are also paying close attention to it. The presence of high-quality products of foreign companies in the country is forcing manufacturers to improve the product quality. Also, we have to keep in mind that the Russian PPE market is represented by more than 2,500 manufacturers, while only 80 are members of our organization.

F&S: Is ASIZ involved in the revision of the standards and regulations in Russia?

YS:

For sure; we do not stay away from addressing these issues and it is in our interests. We are deeply involved in this process through the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, as well as a trilateral group (government, trade unions and employers). In this group, I am the chairman in health and safety working group. So here we have a direct opportunity to influence the adoption of certain laws across industry participants. With regard to standards, it is our experts and specialists from the member organizations who are involved in development. But the situation is changing, as it is planned that the standards will be of a recommendatory nature. I would like to emphasize that we were deeply involved and continue to work on the development of the Technical Regulations.

F&S: What is the current status of GOST (national quality standard) norms? Can you please highlight work done for updating the norms in the last three to four years?

YS:

At the moment, the status of state standards changes. Now they are still binding. They were developed in the 70s, and I was directly involved in their development. But as soon as the Technical Regulations come up, GOST system will be advisory in nature.

F&S: What was the impact of these updates on the PPE industry? Did the market grow as a result of updating these norms?

YS:

While it is too early to talk about the impact, because regulations have not yet passed, I would like to point out that the regulations will allow us to improve product quality and eliminate unscrupulous manufacturers from the production chain. In the course of these changes, the cost of PPE products for end users grows. Those changes led to increased average PPE expenses per worker. The cost increased by 80 percent over the past five years. In this case, the revision of the rules drives the industry. Historically, changes in industry regulation lead to 100 percent sales growth rate. In the past five years, but 2009, the average annual industry growth was about 10-15 percent, while the growth rate in costs per employee was 27 percent in 2010.

F&S: Which norms are being updated now? What is the timeline for this?

YS:

We just finished a huge project associated with the chemical industry. In September, the document was registered at the Ministry of Justice. We estimate that sales growth for this sector will grow up four times as a consequence of the adoption of these standards. This year, standards in engineering, metro, electricity, and a number of other industries were approved.

F&S: Do you think that the Russian PPE norms are in line with European PPE standards or ANSI standards?

YS:

The production of our manufacturers is mostly oriented on the European standards. At the moment, there are more than 180 standards out of 250 garmonized with the European ones. I believe it will take two or three more years to garmonize them completely. I am confident as soon as the technical reglament is accepted, the garmozination process will be accelerated.

F&S: PPE industry, like most industries, has a large percentage of its products made in Asia and other regions. The biggest challenge is to ensure that the outsourced products meet the quality expectations set by the standards bodies and the end users. How does the Russian PPE industry ensure this so that the end users get the quality they pay for? What are the recent efforts to ensure that only quality PPE products get to the consumers?

YS:

I would like to emphasize we do not represent all companies that produce PPE in the Russian Federation. We accept only those companies that satisfied our rules and internal regulations. The quality of their products is the key factor to be accepted.

That is why the companies that work with our Asian partners are exclusively responsible for the product quality. This is achieved by independent control bodies. Our association has only accreditation, and no more, in such bodies.

F&S: How effective is enforcement of PPE legislations in Russia? What more can be done to ensure better adoption of safety standards?

YS:

Despite the fact that controlling authorities have a lot of additional functions, I have to accept that they are doing the job effectively. I have to emphasize it is hard to complete the job by having only the authorities. We also have to proactively work with employers and employees. In accordance with Russian Federation legislation, employers must take care of employees' PPE unless the employee has a right to get rid of the assigned job by having the same salary during the time of PPE absence.

F&S: Which organizations play a critical role in furthering the cause of the PPE industry? Ministry of Labor? Insurance companies? Unions? Any other organizations?

YS:

We do not have Ministry of Labor. Instead we have Ministry of Health and Social Development that have the same scope of work and level of responsibility. They also maintain standards of free issue of PPE to employees. The Fund of Social Development, that has financial resources to buy PPE, also participates in the work. They help our members in getting the payments and selling PPE products to end users. The Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia represented a member of the board of the association. The Labor Inspection department also collaborates with us. We also have contacts with the State Duma, Rospotrebnadzor and other public authorities, including regional.

F&S: Which industry segments are critical for growth of PPE in Russia? Can you rank these segments by importance for the PPE industry?

YS:

There are 68 industries covered by our association. We are trying to work with everybody, including medicine, agricultural and others. In terms of volume, I would rank the industries based on the PPE spending per employee. In the first place, we have oil and gas industry that have about 15 percent. The average PPE spending per capita here is more than four times higher than average in Russian Federation. Then we have metallurgy and industries with high active negative factors, such as chemistry and energy. I also would like to mention construction sector and railroad industry, where spendings are also very high.

F&S: You have been leading ASIZ for many years, helping the PPE industry grow. What is unique about your leadership style that helps you in this effort? What skills do you believe are important to being successful in this position? What role do you play in coordinating efforts of different agencies?

YS:

I've been working in the industry for many years. For the last 45 years, I've been working with different PPE applications, especially in work safety. I have broad working experience on different positions and extensively participate in regulations and standards development. I believe that the main element of any top manager's success is the industry knowledge and ability of self learning and development. Hearing and respecting partners and subordinates is also very important. The top manger has to be responsible for his words. I also would like to mention that our organization was created internally. I was invited to work in the association as a president.

F&S: What is the largest Mega Trend for the PPE industry, say by 2020? How will the industry benefit from this?

YS:

We continue to work to standards of free PPE issues. I am positive that it will expand the market in the future. The industry development is the key driver of PPE in the Russian Federation as well as development of our association.

F&S: What do you see as the future of ASIZ? What do you want to accomplish in the next five years at ASIZ?

YS:

We became self-regulated last year. It led to better discipline and internal control across our organization. We are planning to control the quality of PPE products in the future. The main goal here is to guarantee the quality of products among the members of our organization. We wish to have all producers satisfied with the requirements in the next five years.

F&S: How do you want to be remembered as the president of ASIZ? What long-term impact do you expect to have on ASIZ?

YS:

I am going to be a president of ASIZ till 2014. Although we are pretty young, with 10 years of experience, we are constantly evolving. There are two main goals for our association. The first goal is to guarantee the PPE safety of employees in Russian Federation. Our second goal is to develop the financial strength of members of our association. Regarding myself, I would like to be remembered as an individual who brings significant efforts to solve the problems.

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