The evolution of criminal law protection of safe labor: prerequisites, stages of development, ways of improvement

Introduction: the article discusses the legislative and scientific aspects of the evolution of safe work and its criminal legal protection. The main stages of the development of ideas about safety at work, the prerequisites for recognizing the right to labor protection as constitutional, the history of the development of criminal law counteraction to violations of labor protection requirements are given. Materials and methods: the normative basis of the study is formed by the Constitution of the Russian Federation, criminal legislation. The methodological basis of the research was the general dialectical method of scientific cognition, which has a universal character, the historical method, as well as methods of logical deduction, induction, cognitive methods and techniques of observation, comparison, analysis, generalization and description. The results of the study: allowed us to determine the patterns of development of criminal law norms at specific stages, depending on the state of the country’s economy; political and social conditions in the state; forms of labor relations within enterprises, organizations. Findings and Conclusions: the analysis of the history of the development of norms on criminal liability for violation of labor protection requirements in the legislative acts of Russia has shown the conditionality of the desire of the legislator at different stages to adapt criminal legislation to the existing realities. At the same time, due to the transformation of the nature of work at the present time, the legislator faces the task of improving the criminal legislation on liability for violation of labor protection requirements.