XV WORLD CONGRESS ON OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH

12-16 APRIL 1999, SAO PAULO, BRAZIL

Globalization challenges us

1. Major problems of occupational health and safety, accidents at work, occupational diseases, poisonings, cancers, allergies, strain injuries and psychological stress and psychosocial problems are still highly prevalent in the global work life and call for the prevention of 250 million accidents, with 335,000 fatalities, and 160 million occupational diseases with one million fatalities which take place annually. Prevention of occupational accidents, occupational diseases and overload at work is still a global priority of occupational health and safety.

   250 million child workers many of whom work and live under any reasonable minimum standard, female workers and aging people with physical and mental overload also need urgent improvement in their conditions of work and living. Much effort is still needed to prevent and control such adverse conditions which may even worsen if expanding global competition is not associated with social justice and equally applied minimum standards of health and safety at work.

2. Globalization is proceeding fast according to the rules of macroeconomics. Numerous positive effects have been seen and still can be expected among others in the form of increasing world trade and of growing interaction between countries, which can be expected to promote peaceful relationships between the nations.

   There are, however, clear needs to ensure the consideration of the social dimension in the globalization process. This is the responsibility of:

   • international organizations, such as ILO, WHO, ISSA, etc.
   • social partners
   • national governments

   who all get their legitimacy by promoting collaboration and balancing different interests in the international and national communities and by seeking social justice and human rights for the common good.

3. More than half of the workers in the industrialized countries and evidently an increasing number of workers in developing countries, suffer from psychological stress, time pressures and adverse psychological conditions of work. According to recent research, stress is associated with psychosomatic and somatic diseases, sickness absenteeism, low productivity and low quality of work. In extreme cases long-term stress leads to psychological burnout with total loss of working capacity. Stress prevention in the work life will be one of the major challenges of occupational health and safety in the 21st century and should be given due attention in the development of working conditions and work organizations, including managerial cultures.

Need to review the world´s social situation

4. There is an urgent need to review the state of social dimension in the world and to evaluate the globalization process against the objectives set out in the:

   • ILO international instruments
   • Copenhagen Social Summit
   • ISSA Constitution and
   • WHO Global Strategy on Occupational Health for All

   On the basis of such a review, a new Global Agenda for the Social Dimension at Work may be needed.

Services and Coverage for All

5. The implementation of any global, national or local strategy for occupational health and safety requires well-working infrastructures for the implementation. Such occupational health and safety infrastructures should be comprehensive, integrated, and include multidisciplinary support service for enterprises, managers and workers. The staffing of such infrastructures with sufficient competent and multidisciplinary expert resources is necessary.

Enormous training needs

6. There is a global and universal need to train more experts in occupational health and safety as well as to provide minimum training for employers and workers on occupational health and safety. International organizations, professional bodies, regional organizations and national governments and the social partners should collaborate for making such training programmes a reality. Special efforts should be put forward to train the self-employed in occupational health and safety. Raising awareness among political and economic decision-makers and the general public should support such training programmes.

Utilization of Information and Communication Technology, ICT

7. The wide and rapid implementation of information and communication technologies is associated with and accelerates the globalization process. It is vital that these new technologies benefit occupational health and safety and each worker in the world. Similarly, there is a need to prevent the potential adverse effects of such new technologies, such as ergonomic problems, information overload and stress caused by the lack of training in the use of the ICTs.

   The availability of low-cost solutions of ICT and user-friendly softwares should be ensured for everyone interested. Training in the use of ICTs should be adapted to ensure the abilities of the users to correctly and safely utilize the new technologies. In Sweden and in Finland, for example, the trade unions have instituted extensive programmes for their membership to purchase ICT equipment for a reasonable price and for acquiring appropriate training.

Need for recording and notification of injuries, statistics and surveys

8. The rapid change of the work life calls for new efforts in monitoring the working conditions, health and safety at work more tightly than before. This requires the development of recording and notification, statistics and other information systems to cover better the real events and trends in the work life.

   New monitoring strategies are needed which give more rapid responses than official statistics and registration. There is a need for national and international surveys on occupational health and safety covering both the conditions of work, workplace exposures and the health and safety outcomes, and indicating the safety and health needs of enterprises and workers. A number of countries have established such systems, for example, the Dutch VISA surveys in construction industries, the Finnish TOTEM surveys and the European Agency´s ongoing surveys, plus the European survey of working conditions by the European Foundation for Living and Working Conditions. The ILO plans to launch a key statistical programme including household and labour force surveys on occupational safety and health.

Information services with the help of ICT

9. The new ICT systems should also be used for strengthening of both the collection and distribution of information on occupational health and safety to all users in the world. It is an important task of the International Organizations, member States and the professional communities including research institutions to ensure the systematic collection, analysis of content and provision of information services for ensuring up-to-date and reliable information on occupational health and safety for all users in need. One new such service launched during the Congress is the integrated Web service of the new ILO Encyclopaedia of Occupational Health and Safety and the CISDOC database of the International Occupational Safety and Health Information Centre, CIS (http://www.ilocis.org).

Development of Occupational Health and Safety in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises and for the self-employed

10. SMEs constitute a major source of employment for about one billion workers and another billion self-employed. The conditions of work have developed positively in the past 10 years but simultaneously the gaps between the safest and unsafe industries and inequities between their workers have widened.

    New innovative, development-oriented and comprehensive strategies for improving conditions of work for SMEs and the self-employed have been developed and methods for their implementation are available. International data bank on such methods should be organized and made available for SMEs and for the services in support of SMEs.

New structures for collaboration

11. The availability of ICTs and dismantling of international barriers permit us to strengthen our collaboration in occupational safety and health at all levels of operation. These opportunities should be fully utilized for the benefit of occupational safety and health. To stimulate and organize the development of active collaborative networks, international organizations and professional bodies should make efforts to ensure a systematic basis and productive and reliable forms of work for such new collaboration.

Equity

12. There is evidence on growing inequity between the North and South as a consequence of globalization (UNDP). Equity has been given a high priority in several international agendas. It is important to note that the conditions of work and the realization of workers' basic rights in their everyday life are key and concrete issues in the life of people. Thus, efforts for better health and safety at work are simultaneously extremely important for equity of both men and women in the global work life.

Need for the implementation of universal minimum standard

13. In the course of globalization pressures for deregulation of the basic standards for occupational health and safety may increase. The WTO has discussed the conditioning of world trade with minimum conditions of the basic human rights and labour standards. There is a need to take a universal action under the leadership of ILO, WHO, and other UN bodies and the ISSA for the implementation of minimum universal standards of health, safety and other conditions of work as stipulated by the basic instruments of the UN for human rights and the ILO Conventions on Occupational Safety and Health.

From theory and discussions to practical actions

14. A high amount of occupational health and safety research is conducted and a high number of conferences and meetings are organized at both international and national levels but still not enough progress is seen in practice. This imbalance should be corrected, the sooner the better.

    It is the number one challenge of the next decade for all of us to transfer what we know on safety, health and working conditions to practical actions in the everyday environments and workplaces of people. The ILO and other international organizations call on us all to respond to that great challenge. Indicator systems for monitoring and follow-up of concrete changes at the workplaces should be developed and countries should be called upon to report on their development in occupational health and safety. Voluntary evaluations and audits should be offered by the International organizations to the member States.