World Day for Safety and Health at Work is commemorated every April 28th to promote a safe and healthy global working environment as a fundamental human right and principle.
In June 2022, the International Labour Organization (ILO) Conference decided to include "a safe and healthy working environment" within the framework of fundamental principles and rights at work in all countries, and workers' safety and health were declared fundamental conventions.
As a result of this decision, all member states, even those that have not ratified the conventions in question, are obligated by virtue of their membership in the Organization to respect, promote, and realize, in good faith and in accordance with the ILO Constitution, the principles relating to fundamental rights that are the subject of these conventions.
The Declaration includes for member states the obligation to respect freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining; the elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory labor; the effective abolition of child labor; and the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation. and the creation of a safe and healthy work environment.
World Day for Safety and Health at Work was established as an annual international awareness campaign to promote safe, healthy, and decent work, emphasizing the prevention of workplace accidents and illnesses and leveraging its traditional strengths of social dialogue.
The main objective of this campaign is to focus international attention on the magnitude of the problem and how to create and promote a culture of safety and health that can help reduce the number of work-related deaths and injuries. April 28 is also the International Day of Remembrance for Workers Killed and Injured, organized worldwide by the trade union movement since 1996.
On this day, current global challenges and the evolving context of occupational safety and health practices are discussed. It highlights technological advancements, emerging workplace risks, and changes in employment patterns and workforce composition, along with the need for new preventive approaches to address these new challenges.
“Each of us is responsible for stopping work-related deaths and injuries. Governments are responsible for providing the necessary infrastructure—laws and services—to ensure that workers remain employable and businesses thrive,” states the UN.
This includes developing a national policy, a national program, and an inspection system to enforce the law. Employers are responsible for ensuring a safe and healthy work environment. Workers are responsible for working safely, protecting themselves, not endangering others, and taking appropriate preventive measures.
To implement this policy, Convention No. 155 was signed internationally, establishing “the obligation for all member countries to consult with the most representative organizations of employers and workers concerned to ensure the application of laws and regulations relating to safety, health, and the work environment by an appropriate and sufficient inspection system and providing for adequate penalties in the event of violations of the laws or regulations in this regard.”
It also establishes guidelines for employers and workers to help them comply with their legal obligations, ensuring that those who design, manufacture, import, supply or use any machinery, equipment or substances professionally provide information on correct use and ensure, to the extent that it is reasonable and practicable, that the machinery, equipment or substances in question do not pose any danger to the safety and health of the people who make correct use of them.
To this end, their resolutions specify that any worker who deems it necessary to interrupt a work situation because they believe, for reasonable reasons, that it entails an imminent and serious danger to their life or health, with unjustified consequences, in accordance with national practice and conditions, must be assisted, and that the inclusion of occupational safety, health, and environmental measures at all levels of education and training, including higher technical, medical, and vocational education, must be promoted.
It is also necessary to guarantee in all countries the existence and use of the technical safety equipment used at work, and the application of the procedures defined by the competent authorities.
The expression “national safety and health prevention culture” refers to a culture in which the right to a safe and healthy working environment is respected at all levels, in which the government, employers, and workers actively participate in initiatives aimed at ensuring a safe and healthy working environment through a system of well-defined rights, responsibilities, and duties, and in which the highest priority is given to the principle of prevention.