SPL05 IMPACT OF INTERNATIONAL REGULATORY STANDARDS IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF PUBLIC OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH
Authors: Admi Salima 
Published: July 2024

The International Labour Organization (ILO) defines decent work as the opportunity to carry out productive and adequately remunerated work in conditions of dignity, equality and safety in the workplace, and the right to decent work is recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

To boost global efforts to ensure decent work with a safe and healthy working environment, the ILO has established a system of International Labor Standards (ILS) designed to strengthen opportunities for women and men to obtain decent and productive work, in conditions of equity, security and dignity.

Indeed, ILS are either conventions (or protocols), which are binding international treaties, open to ratification by Member States, or recommendations, which are non-binding guidelines. Among the international conventions, ten have been designated as fundamental for human rights, namely the conventions relating to freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining, the elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory labor, effective abolition of child labor and elimination of discrimination in employment and occupation, as well as OSH (right to a safe and healthy working environment recognized as one of the fundamental principles and rights at work at the 110th session of the International Labor Conference).

The ILO has adopted several conventions and recommendations on OSH which can be classified into three categories: conventions which address the fundamental principles of health and safety at work, conventions which deal with health and safety at work in certain branches of activity and conventions on certain specific risks.

Implementing the provisions of these standards at the national level requires a commitment from the government to integrate them into national legislative and regulatory texts; and this in accordance with the directives of the ILO constitution, in particular article 19. In the same sense, the government also undertakes to present to the International Labor Office an annual report on the conventions ratified in accordance with the directives of the ILO constitution, in particular article 22.

Furthermore, the said standards constitute a suitable reference framework to support nations in developing and improving their national OSH legislation and policies by providing guidance on the systemic approach to OSH management at all levels, from guidelines for the progressive establishment of a preventive culture based on a continuous provision of information, training and education in matters of OHS and by establishing directives and provisions in matters of OHS to be respected by the administration, employers and workers.

Thus, the relevant ILO conventions on OSH, notably the Convention (No. 187) on the promotional framework for safety and health at work, and the Convention (No. 155) on OSH, defined national policies and specified their objectives, stakeholders as well as the tools for their implementation such as the national system and the national OSH program.

In conclusion, OSH-ILS provide guidelines and guidance to governments for the development and implementation of public OSH policies, but also constitute a binding framework that can stimulate efforts at the national level and encourage constituents to have public OHS policies.