2009: Health and life at work: A basic human right
World Day for Safety and Health at Work is an international campaign to promote safe, healthy, and decent work. This year, as in previous years, tripartite events will be taking place world wide, and a number of products are available from this Web page to support those efforts. You are invited to join us in promoting this important day.
Celebration at the ILO Headquarters
To commemorate the World Day for Safety and Health at Work, the International Labour Office and the International Social Security Association warmly invite you to a panel discussion on the theme of this year's celebration: "Health and life at work: A basic human right", and a projection of the winning films of the Safety and Health at Work International Film and Multimedia Festival 2008 (organized in the framework of the XVIII World Congress on Occupational Safety and Health). The meeting will be held on 28
International Labour Office Office of the Director-General STATEMENTS 2009
Message by Juan Somavia Director-General of the International Labour Office
on the occasion of World Day for Safety and Health at Work 28 April 2009
This year we celebrate the 90th anniversary of the International Labour Organization. It is fitting to recall our founding mission as we observe this World Day for Safety and Health at Work.
Ninety years ago, on 28 April 1919, the Versailles Peace Conference finalized the Constitution of the ILO. This tripartite Organization comprising representatives of governments, employers and workers, was founded on the presumption that “universal and lasting peace can be established only if it is based upon social justice.” In a world where conditions of labour involved “injustice, hardship and privation” that could produce “unrest so great that the peace and harmony of the world are imperilled” the ILO was charged with the mission of promoting social justice in and through the world of work.
Then, as today, the call to protect workers against sickness, disease and injury arising out of employment has been at the heart of the ILO’s agenda, a major focus of standard-setting and other means of action.
Occupational safety and health is a human right and an integral part of a people-centred agenda for development.
Unsafe work is a human tragedy – a daily anxiety; deepening poverty if ill health or injury reduces or takes away the capacity to work and mechanisms for support are absent; lives cut short. Much of this tragedy involving millions of workers each year plays out unseen and unheard, never making the headlines. Yet so much can be prevented.
All stand to gain from safe and healthy workplaces. Workers and their families, governments, enterprises, societies and economies have a stake in reducing work-related accidents, injury and illness.
Safe work underpins sustainable enterprises which benefit from improved productivity, quality and workforce motivation. And a healthy workforce and safe and productive enterprises are part of successful and sustainable development strategies.
The ILO is observing its 90th anniversary and this World Day at a time of global crisis – a financial crisis, an economic crisis and a jobs crisis. We must be particularly vigilant to ensure that strategies for adjustment and economic recovery do not follow a low road which devalues human life and safety in the workplace. The words of our Constitution, also written at a time of turmoil resonate today – “Labour is not a commodity.” This is why the ILO insists on the goal of decent work covering work itself, social protection including occupational safety and health, rights at work and social dialogue.
With this in mind, let us all assume our responsibilities – governments, employers, workers and their organizations, community-based organizations and local authorities, the multilateral system, and funding agencies, among others – and do our part to make occupational safety and health a global message and a global commitment backed by national action.
From a starting point of respect for the dignity of human life at work, we can bring together normative instruments, tools, knowledge and experience to promote a culture of prevention. We must go beyond workplaces to create increased awareness of occupational safety and health as an economic and social issue and to secure a broad-based mobilization around the goal of safe work. And we cannot forget that the health and safety of workers in the informal economy – who form the majority of workers in many countries – also matters. It is also our responsibility to find effective ways of helping them to work in safety.
On this World Day we can make a common stand for the dignity of human life at work. Work must be life giving, not life taking. Decent work is also safe work.
World Day for Safety and Health at Work: 28 April 2009
The International Commission on Occupational Health (ICOH) calls for actions for maintaining and developing occupational health and safety programmes and for competence development of workers also during the times of economic crisis
The globalizing world economy sets continuously new challenges to health and safety at work. The current global financial crisis and recession are having a further impact on health and safety of workers worldwide. The crisis means harder work for everyone to sustain families, communities and national economies, and there is a risk that less priority and resources will be allocated for health, environment and social protection. It is important to emphasize concerted health and safety risk management at the workplace and improve access to occupational health and safety services.
Consequently the need for occupational health will grow as times get harder. The evidence obtained from the previous recessions shows that efficient social protection programmes and services, including occupational health and safety and improvement of work environments and working methods, provide effective buffers against the most negative impacts of the economic crisis. It would also accelerate quick recovery after the crisis through enabling effective mobilization of competent, healthy and motivated workforce. ICOH calls for all decision-makers to continuously improve the basic safety and health structures of the work environment and promote workers' health in order to alleviate the heavy burdens - health, social and economic - that all workers always are forced to face in economic crises.
ICOH joins with all the partners in commemorating the workers who have lost their lives from occupational accidents and diseases in the past. As occupational safety and health is needed today more than ever, we want to encourage decision-makers to strengthen research and service programmes on occupational health as well as other social and educational programmes and infrastructures as their need does not decrease but grows in the times of recession.
ICOH warmly congratulates the ILO on its 90th Anniversary and its enormous and unique impact on improvement of conditions of work and social justice througho ut the world. We extend our sincere gratitude for excellent collaboration during 90 years and call upon further collaboration with every partner to counteract the negative health and safety impacts of recession of today and to enhance our abilities to recover as soon as possible.
ICOH is willing to offer our scientific efforts and expertise to support all our Allies and the ILO in particular for making health and life at work a basic right for each and every working individual in the world.
Dr. Kazutaka Kogi
President of the International Commission on Occupational Health (ICOH)
International Organisation of Employers
Since its creation in 1920 the International Organisation of Employers (IOE) has been recognised as the only organisation at the international level that represents the interests of business in the labour and social policy fields. Today, it consists of 148 national employer organisations from 141 countries from all over the world (June 2009).
The mission of the IOE is to promote and defend the interests of employers in international fora, particularly in the International Labour Organization (ILO), and to this end works to ensure that international labour and social policy promotes the viability of enterprises and creates an environment favourable to enterprise development and job creation. At the same time it acts as the Secretariat to the Employers' Group at the ILO International Labour Conference, the ILO Governing Body and all other ILO-related meetings.
In order to ensure that the voice of business is heard at the international and national level, the IOE is actively engaged in the creation and capacity building of representative organisations of employers, particularly in both the developing world and those countries in transition to the market economy.
The IOE is the permanent liaison body for the exchange of information, views and experience among employers throughout the world. It acts as the recognised channel for the communication and promotion of the employer point of view to all United Nations agencies and other international organisations.
Sources:
http://www.ilo.org/public/english/protection/safework/worldday/index.htm
http://www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/dgo/speeches/somavia/2009/osh.pdf
http://www.ilo.org/public/english/protection/safework/worldday/download/icoh_decl_09-en.pdf
http://www.ioe-emp.org/