Occupational Safety and Health as Fundamental Right at Work: The Facts, The Challenges

Special Article: Preventive Healthcare

J Community Med Health Care. 2024; 9(1): 1068.

Occupational Safety and Health as Fundamental Right at Work: The Facts, The Challenges

Halim Hamzaoui*

International Labour Organization (ILO), Geneve 22, Switzerland

*Corresponding author: Halim Hamzaoui International Labour Organisation (ILO), 4 Route des Morillons, CH-1211 Genève 22, Switzerland. Tel: (+41) 767 31 2700 Email: [email protected]

Received: January 10, 2024 Accepted: February 12, 2024 Published: February 19, 2024

Abstract

The International Labour Organization (ILO) has defined Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) as a comprehensive field dedicated to the well-being of workers in all industries, encompassing the implementation of policies, procedures, and practices designed to protect employees from workplace hazards, injuries, and diseases. The aim of OSH is to create work environments that prioritize the health and safety of individuals, acknowledging the fundamental right of every worker to a secure and healthy working environment. In 2019, it was estimated that 2.9 million deaths were attributed to work, with 2.58 million deaths due to work-related diseases and 0.32 million related to occupational injuries. The ILO’s framework of fundamental principles and rights at work was amended in 2022 to include “a safe and healthy working environment” as a fundamental principle. OSH challenges continue to be a big challenge to policymakers, employers, and workers despite huge efforts in prevention. The ILO aims to reconcile the desire to stimulate national efforts to ensure that social progress goes hand in hand with economic progress. The ILO has established a social minimum at the global level to respond to the realities of globalization. The ILO declaration on fundamental principles and rights at work defines 5 fundamental principles and rights at work and 10 ILO conventions as fundamental conventions. The ILO OSH strategy aims to respond to current and future challenges and proposes an integrated and holistic framework to manage occupational risks and reduce as low as possible work-related injuries and diseases.

Keywords: Occupational Safety and Health; Occupational risks; Occupational Safety and Health Strategy; Fundamental rights at work; Work-related injuries and diseases

Introduction

International Labour Organization (ILO) defines the term “health in relation to work” as not merely the absence of disease or infirmity but this includes the physical and mental elements affecting health which are directly related to safety and hygiene at work [1]. Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) is a comprehensive field dedicated to the well-being of workers in all industries, encompassing the implementation of policies, procedures, and practices designed to protect employees from workplace hazards, injuries, and diseases. At its core, OSH aims to create work environments that prioritize the health and safety of individuals, acknowledging the fundamental right of every worker to a secure and healthy workplace.

Work-related injuries and diseases continue to be a big challenge to policymakers, employers, and workers despite the huge efforts in term of prevention. Takala and al [2] estimates that, in 2019, globally, 2.9 million deaths were attributed to work, with 2.58 million deaths due to work-related diseases and 0.32 million related to occupational injuries. Globally, work-related diseases with a long latency period are increasing, while the number of occupational injuries has decreased. Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALY) attributable to work were estimated to be 180 million in 2019. economic loss of 5.8% of global GDP. Beyond the human burden, work-related injuries and diseases continue to have a heavy impact on the global economy. According to the same estimates, their cost constitutes a loss of 5.8% of the global GDP.

At its 110th Session in June 2022, the International Labour Conference decided to include “a safe and healthy working environment” in the ILO's framework of fundamental principles and rights at work [3] and to designate the Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 1981 (No. 155) [1] and the Promotional Framework for Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 2006 (No. 187) [4] as fundamental Conventions. This article aims to analyse the impacts of this ILO constituents’ resolution and its impact on the world of work and facing the current and future OSH challenges.

ILO declaration on fundamental principles and rights at work, 1998

The challenges of globalization have been the focus of considerable debate within the ILO since 1994. Although globalization is a factor of economic growth, and economic growth is a prerequisite for social progress, the fact remains that it is not in itself enough to guarantee that progress. It must be accompanied by a certain number of social ground rules founded on common values to enable all those involved to claim their fair share of the wealth they have helped to generate.

A first step in this direction was made in Copenhagen in 1995, when the Heads of State and Government attending the World Summit for Social Development adopted specific commitments and a Programme of Action [5] relating to “basic workers’ rights”. In chapter 54 (b) of the final declaration heads of State and Government agree on “safeguarding and promoting respect for basic workers’ rights, including the prohibition of forced labour and child labour, freedom of association and the right to organize and bargain collectively, equal remuneration for men and women for work of equal value, and non-discrimination in employment”. This promotion will be based on fully implementation of ILO conventions of to thus achieve truly sustained economic growth and sustainable development; The States renewed their commitment to observe internationally recognized core labour standards during the World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference held in Singapore in 1996, recalled that the ILO was the competent body to set and deal with these standards and reaffirmed their support for its work in promoting them.

On 18 June 1998 the International Labour Organization adopted the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work and its Follow-up [6]. The declaration adopted on 1998 defines 4 Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work (FPRW) and 8 ILO conventions as fundamental conventions (Table 1). The aim of the Declaration is to reconcile the desire to stimulate national efforts to ensure that social progress goes hand in hand with economic progress. The existing supervisory machinery already provides the means of assuring the application of Conventions in the States that have ratified them. For those that have not, the Declaration makes an important new contribution. Firstly, it recognizes that the Members of the ILO, even if they have not ratified the Conventions in question, have an obligation to respect “in good faith and in accordance with the Constitution, the principles concerning the fundamental rights which are the subject of those Conventions”. Next, and this is the first aspect of the follow-up provided in the annex to the Declaration, it seeks to achieve this aim by implementing the ILO’s unique Constitutional procedure in accordance with which each year States that have not ratified the core Conventions will be asked to submit reports on progress made in implementing the principles enshrined in them.