Themes

International Labour Standards

The ILO develops international labour standards, including standards in the field of occupational safety and health, to help protect you at work. These standards exist to guide governments in setting national laws and regulations and enforcing their application at the workplace. If a country ratifies an ILO Convention, it has to incorporate its provisions into national law and practice. This means that employers and workers and their organizations also have the framework to improve working conditions and occupational safety and health. This is why ILO standards are promoted worldwide to ensure safe and healthy working environments.
How can we sit back when every 15 seconds a worker dies from a work-related accident or disease and every 15 seconds, 160 workers have a work-related accident. By the end of one day of our conference 1 million workers will suffer a workplace accident. Around 5,500 workers will die due to an accident or disease from their work! When cutting costs, why does safety and health have to go first? Only a safe and healthy workforce can be more productive. Health and safety at work today is a basic human right more than ever.

http://www.ilo.org/global/What_we_do/InternationalLabourStandards/lang--en/index.htm

Opening Session:
The Economic Crisis and Safety and Health at Work

As safety and health at work is an essential part of labour relations, it is affected by the same forces of change that prevail in the national and global socioeconomic context. All the trends in a changing world and workforce are expected to continue and be aggravated by the crisis. The potential impact leads to negative working conditions, poor safety and health and an increase in accidents, diseases and fatalities for millions of women and men and the most vulnerable groups like migrants and informal workers. Especially in times of crises it is necessary to strike out a new path: to develop OSH as a core element of sustainable corporate action and a new quality of work.

Session 1:
Health and Life at Work: A Basic Human Right

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “everyone has the right to life, to work…and to just and favourable conditions of work…” This is something that cannot be compromised, especially during a time of crisis. It is important that action is taken to protect OSH now, before the effects of the crisis are felt to their fullest extent. The session will focus on developing strategies for the promotion of safety, health and life at work.

Session 2:
European Forum on the Seoul Declaration on Safety and Health at Work

The Seoul Declaration on Safety and Health at Work dictates that promoting OSH is the responsibility of society as a whole. The Declaration stresses that OSH requires the development of a safety culture in order to be truly effective and that OSH policies must be developed in alignment with this philosophy. This session will focus on forming partnerships and working together in order to develop and promote national prevention strategies and cultures.

Session 3:
Good Practices on OSH Management

Managing in the field of safety and health at work can be as complicated or as simple as you make it. At the national and the enterprise level many actors are involved. Experiences at the national and enterprise level will demonstrate the benefits of an OSH management system across geographical areas and regions. Key steps towards a powerful and successful implementation and a paradigm change to a new enterprise OSH culture and sustainability will be pointed out. National and enterprise level cases will provide information about a coherent and effective national system for safety and health management.

Session 4:
Good Practices on Prevention

Prevention is crucial in ensuring decent work for workers everywhere. Without creating a preventive OSH culture there can be little link between OSH legislation and guidelines and actual workplaces. These approaches must be present at national, enterprise, social partner, branch and inspection levels. This session will share good practices from around the globe to demonstrate prevention implementation at all levels so as to provide a comprehensive strategy for creating safer and healthier workplaces.

Session 5:
Labour Inspection in the Path of Change

The global economic crisis has changed the character and needs of workplaces
around the world. Thus, labour inspection itself must adjust to respond to these changes. In a time of crisis the role of labour inspection must now focus on fostering social peace and creating the greatest chances for economic development. The state of the art of labour inspection around the world and IALI‘s new Code of Integrity will be presented. This session will focus on the new role of labour inspection, past national and international experiences and how inspection can best fulfil its mandate during the crisis.

Round table discussion:
Threat or Opportunity for OSH in Time of Crisis
(Round table discussion)

How can the ILO and its partners help to claim the right to a safe and healthy workplace even in times of global financial crisis? How can we prevent even one workplace accident from taking place every day, or avoid one death at the workplace? The round table discussion will raise this question for each one of us who is responsible for every worker’s life: As employers and managers, it is our fundamental duty to provide a safe and healthy workplace. As workers, it is our fundamental right to work under safe and healthy conditions, to participate in implementing preventive measures and to know our rights. As governments, we are responsible for providing the infrastructure – the laws and services, the development of a national policy and program and an effective labour inspection system to enforce compliance with occupational safety and health legislation and policy. As academics, we are responsible for getting the awareness message across. We will discuss with high level representatives the solutions for a safe and healthy workplace, a new OSH culture and OSH strategies, and an effective and efficient labour inspection system.