Social protection

Occupational safety and health remains one of the main challenges in the sector. In comparison to other manufacturing industries, risks of severe injuries are generally higher in basic metal production, due to the presence of molten metal, toxic chemicals and by-products. These dangers resulting from the nature of the industry are great and need to be adequately addressed, in order to ensure that workers are protected and production can be carried out safely.

For this reason, the ILO has paid particular attention to assisting all those involved in the industry to improve their safety and health records by developing codes of practice on safety and health for non-ferrous metals as well as iron and steel production.

Useful links/resources

• ILO Programme on Safety and Health at Work and the Environmet
• Safety and health - Codes of practice
• SECTOR Note: Brief on the ILO Code of Practice on Safety and health in the non-ferrous metals industries (pdf, 74k)
• SECTOR Note: Brief on the ILO Code of Practice on Safety and health in the iron and steel industry (pdf, 75k)