Explainer / World Day for Safety and Health at Work

The International Labour Organization (ILO) observes World Day for Safety and Health at Work on April 28 in order to stress the prevention of accidents and diseases at work, capitalizing on the ILO’s traditional strengths of tripartism and social dialogue.

Since emerging as a global crisis in early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has had profound impacts everywhere. The pandemic has touched nearly every aspect of the world of work, from the risk of transmission of the virus in workplaces, to occupational safety and health (OSH) risks that have emerged as a result of measures to mitigate the spread of the virus.

Shifts to new forms of working arrangements, such as the widespread reliance on teleworking, have, for example, presented many opportunities for workers but also posed potential OSH risks, including psychosocial risks and violence in particular.

The World Day for Safety and Health at Work 2021 focuses on leveraging the elements of an OSH system as set out in the Promotional Framework for Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 2006.

The ILO aims to raise awareness and stimulate dialogue on the importance of creating and investing in resilient OSH systems, drawing on both regional and country examples in mitigating and preventing the Spread of COVID-19 at the workplace.

Prevention of occupational accidents and diseases

• The annual World Day for Safety and Health at Work promotes the prevention of occupational accidents and diseases globally. 

• It is an awareness-raising campaign intended to focus international attention on the magnitude of the problem and on how promoting and creating a safety and health culture can help reduce the number of work-related deaths and injuries.

• The governments are responsible for providing the infrastructure — laws and services — necessary to ensure that workers remain employable and that enterprises flourish.

• This includes the development of a national policy and programme and a system of inspection to enforce compliance with occupational safety and health legislation and policy. 

• Employers are responsible for ensuring that the working environment is safe and healthy. 

• Workers are also responsible to work safely and to protect themselves and not to endanger others, to know their rights and to participate in the implementation of preventive measures.

• April 28 is also the International Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured Workers organised worldwide by the trade union movement since 1996.

Emerging risks at work

New and emerging occupational risks may be caused by technical innovation or by social or organisational change, such as:

• New technologies and production processes.

• New working conditions with higher workloads.

• Work intensification from downsizing.

• Poor conditions associated with migration for work.

• Jobs in the informal economy.

• Emerging forms of employment. For example, self-employment, outsourcing, temporary contracts.

They may be more widely recognised through better scientific understanding, like  the effects of ergonomic risks on musculoskeletal disorders.

They may be influenced by changes in perceptions about the importance of certain risk factors. For example, the effects of psychosocial factors on work-related stress.

OSH Code in India

• The Parliament passed the Occupational Safety, Health (OSH) and Working Conditions Code, 2020 in September 2020.

It subsumes 13 labour Acts:

• The Factories Act, 1948

• The Plantations Labour Act, 1951

• The Mines Act, 1952

• The Working Journalists and other Newspaper Employees (Conditions of Service) and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1955

• The Working Journalists (Fixation of Rates of Wages) Act, 1958

• The Motor Transport Workers Act, 1961

• The Beedi and Cigar Workers (Conditions of Employment) Act, 1966

• The Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970

• The Sales Promotion Employees (Conditions of Service) Act, 1976

• The Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979

• The Cine-Workers and Cinema Theatre Workers (Regulation of Employment) Act, 1981

• The Dock Workers (Safety, Health and Welfare) Act, 1986

• The Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996.

Highlights of the Code:

• The code enhances the ambit of provisions of safety, health, welfare and working conditions from major sectors to all establishments having 10 or more employees.

• Employer to provide free of cost annual health checks-up for employees above prescribed age for prescribed tests and for prescribed establishments. Coverage of employees above a certain age for health check-up would promote inclusion.

• Legal right for getting an appointment letter. The provision will result in formalisation of employment and prevent exploitation of the worker.

• One registration for establishments having 10 or more employees as against separate registrations under six labour Acts.

• Cine workers have been designated as Audio Visual Worker, so that more and more workers get covered under the OSH code. Earlier, this security was being given to artists working in films only. The definition of working journalists include digital and electronic media journalists.

• Multiple committees under five labour Acts have been merged into one National Occupational Safety and Health Advisory Board. 

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