Seoul Declaration on Safety and Health at Work

Last updated

On June 29, 2008, the XVIII World Congress on Safety and Health at Work signed the Seoul Declaration on Safety and Health at Work. The declaration included statements concerning national governments' responsibility for perpetuating a "national preventive safety and health culture", for improving their national safe-workplace performance systematically, and for providing a health standard with appropriate enforcement to protect workers. [1] The declaration also listed responsibilities of employers, stated the rights of workers, and emphasized the importance of promoting a culture of safety.

Contents

The XVIII World Congress on Safety and Health at Work

Every three years, the International Labour Organization (ILO) and International Social Security Association (ISSA) organize a World Congress on Safety and Health at Work, [2] bringing together government ministers, corporate leaders, health experts, and employer and worker representatives. [3] The XVIII World Congress was sponsored by the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency (KOSHA) and convened from June 29, 2008 through July 2, 2008, in Seoul, South Korea. The Congress drew over 4,000 participants from 100 countries [2] and resulted in the signing of the Seoul Declaration on Safety and Health at Work. [4]

Groundwork for the Seoul Declaration

The genesis of the Seoul Declaration came with the first Safety and Health Summit. The approximately 50 representatives at the Summit signed a Declaration of Safety and Health at Work. [3] This document outlined standards through which workers, employers, and governments could collaborate to reduce workplace accidents and disease. The work was subsequently expanded upon, resulting ultimately in the Seoul Declaration later that year. [2]

Provisions of the Seoul Declaration

The Seoul Declaration recognizes worker safety as a basic human right and emphasizes workplace safety's positive impact on working conditions, productivity, and economic and social development. [3] The declaration addresses government, employer, and worker responsibilities, and describes the commitment made by the document's signatories.

Government

The declaration urges governments to implement effective labor inspection systems that focus on improving national performance systematically. [4] It encourages governments to ratify of the ILO Promotional Framework for Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 2006 (No. 187). [1] [3]

Employers

The declaration pronounces the relationship between high safety and health standards at work and good business performance. Employers are encouraged to implement management systems to improve workplace safety and health and to guarantee that workers are consulted, trained, informed and involved in the process. [1] [4]

Worker responsibilities

The declaration calls upon workers to follow safety and health instructions and procedures, to properly use personal protective equipment, to participate in safety and health training, and to cooperate with their employer in adhering to measures related to their safety and health at work. [1] [3]

Signatories

In accepting the Seoul Declaration, signatories committed to promote a preventive safety and health culture and push workplace safety in their various national agendas. Additional they agreed to revisit the declaration and review its progress at the next meeting of the Congress. [3] [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Labour Organization</span> Specialized agency of the United Nations

The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations agency whose mandate is to advance social and economic justice by setting international labour standards. Founded in October 1919 under the League of Nations, it is one of the first and oldest specialised agencies of the UN. The ILO has 187 member states: 186 out of 193 UN member states plus the Cook Islands. It is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, with around 40 field offices around the world, and employs some 3,381 staff across 107 nations, of whom 1,698 work in technical cooperation programmes and projects.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is a regulatory agency of the United States Department of Labor that originally had federal visitorial powers to inspect and examine workplaces. The United States Congress established the agency under the Occupational Safety and Health Act, which President Richard M. Nixon signed into law on December 29, 1970. OSHA's mission is to "assure safe and healthy working conditions for working men and women by setting and enforcing standards and by providing training, outreach, education, and assistance." The agency is also charged with enforcing a variety of whistleblower statutes and regulations. OSHA's workplace safety inspections have been shown to reduce injury rates and injury costs without adverse effects on employment, sales, credit ratings, or firm survival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Work accident</span> Occurrence during work that leads to physical or mental harm

A work accident, workplace accident, occupational accident, or accident at work is a "discrete occurrence in the course of work" leading to physical or mental occupational injury. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), more than 337 million accidents happen on the job each year, resulting, together with occupational diseases, in more than 2.3 million deaths annually.

Labor rights or workers' rights are both legal rights and human rights relating to labor relations between workers and employers. These rights are codified in national and international labor and employment law. In general, these rights influence working conditions in the relations of employment. One of the most prominent is the right to freedom of association, otherwise known as the right to organize. Workers organized in trade unions exercise the right to collective bargaining to improve working conditions.

International Chemical Safety Cards (ICSC) are data sheets intended to provide essential safety and health information on chemicals in a clear and concise way. The primary aim of the Cards is to promote the safe use of chemicals in the workplace and the main target users are therefore workers and those responsible for occupational safety and health. The ICSC project is a joint venture between the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) with the cooperation of the European Commission (EC). This project began during the 1980s with the objective of developing a product to disseminate the appropriate hazard information on chemicals at the workplace in an understandable and precise way.

Occupational Health Services Convention, 1985 is an International Labour Organization Convention.

Chemicals Convention, 1990 is an International Labour Organization Convention.

Safety and Health in Mines Convention, 1995 is an International Labour Organization Convention. It was adopted at the 82nd International Labour Conference (ILC) of the International Labour Organization (ILO). The ILO is an agency under the United Nations that deals with international labor issues while promoting workers rights and opportunities. One of ILO's goals is to hold annual labor conventions to create legally binding contracts for participating nations to ratify. During the Safety and Health in Mines Convention (C176), it was recognized that there are inherent hazards in the mining workplace, and a need for a convention was mandatory.

Home Work Convention, created in 1996, is an International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention, which came into force in 2000. It offers protection to workers who are employed in their own homes.

Workers' Memorial Day, also known as International Workers' Memorial Day or International Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured, takes place annually around the world on April 28, an international day of remembrance and action for workers killed, disabled, injured, or made unwell by their work. In Canada, it is commemorated as the National Day of Mourning.

The International Commission on Occupational Health (ICOH) is an international non-governmental professional society, founded in Milan during the Expo 1906 as the Permanent Commission on Occupational Health.

Occupational medicine, previously called industrial medicine, is the branch of medicine concerned with the maintenance of health in the workplace, including prevention and treatment of diseases and injuries, with secondary objectives of maintaining and increasing productivity and social adjustment in the workplace.

Workplace health surveillance or occupational health surveillance (U.S.) is the ongoing systematic collection, analysis, and dissemination of exposure and health data on groups of workers. The Joint ILO/WHO Committee on Occupational Health at its 12th Session in 1995 defined an occupational health surveillance system as "a system which includes a functional capacity for data collection, analysis and dissemination linked to occupational health programmes".

A safety management system (SMS) is designed to manage safety risk in the workplace, occupational safety being defined as the reduction of risk to a level that is as low as is reasonably practicable (ALARP) to prevent people getting hurt.

The World Health Organization's global plan of action for workers' health delineates common principles by which workplaces should abide by, including the ability for workers to enjoy the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health and favorable working conditions, as well as the prioritization of the prevention of occupational health hazards. The plan was endorsed by the Sixtieth World Health Assembly on May 23, 2007 because of several concerns. First, workers represent a significant contribution to the world's economic and social development. Furthermore, an international disparity between countries of occupational hazard prevention and access to occupational health services was observed. As such, the plan is grounded on both humanitarian and economically practical grounds.

An occupational fatality is a death that occurs while a person is at work or performing work related tasks. Occupational fatalities are also commonly called "occupational deaths" or "work-related deaths/fatalities" and can occur in any industry or occupation.

Safe Work Australia is an Australian Government statutory agency established in 2009 under the Safe Work Australia Act 2008. Their primary responsibility is to improve work health and safety and workers’ compensation arrangements across Australia.

Workplace health promotion is the combined efforts of employers, employees, and society to improve the mental and physical health and well-being of people at work. The term workplace health promotion denotes a comprehensive analysis and design of human and organizational work levels with the strategic aim of developing and improving health resources in an enterprise. The World Health Organization has prioritized the workplace as a setting for health promotion because of the large potential audience and influence on all spheres of a person's life. The Luxembourg Declaration provides that health and well-being of employees at work can be achieved through a combination of:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Occupational safety and health</span> Field concerned with the safety, health and welfare of people at work

Occupational safety and health (OSH) or occupational health and safety (OHS), also known simply as occupational health or occupational safety, is a multidisciplinary field concerned with the safety, health, and welfare of people at work. These terms also refer to the goals of this field, so their use in the sense of this article was originally an abbreviation of occupational safety and health program/department etc. OSH is related to the fields of occupational medicine and occupational hygiene.

International labour law is the body of rules spanning public and private international law which concern the rights and duties of employees, employers, trade unions and governments in regulating Work and the workplace. The International Labour Organization and the World Trade Organization have been the main international bodies involved in reforming labour markets. The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have indirectly driven changes in labour policy by demanding structural adjustment conditions for receiving loans or grants. Issues regarding Conflict of laws arise, determined by national courts, when people work in more than one country, and supra-national bodies, particularly in the law of the European Union, have a growing body of rules regarding labour rights.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Seoul Declaration on Safety and Health at Work". International Labour Organization. Accessed October 31, 2008.
  2. 1 2 3 XVIII World Congress on Safety and Health at Work. International Social Security Association. Accessed October 31, 2008.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "World Summit on Safety and Health - ILO welcomes new Declaration on promotion of safer workplace Archived 2008-10-02 at the Wayback Machine ". International Labour Organization. ILO/08/33. Press release, June 29, 2008. Accessed on October 31, 2008.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Walter, Laura. "International Safety: New Declaration Promotes Safety and Health at Work". EHS Today. Accessed on October 31, 2008.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.