The conference held by the International Labour Organization jointly with the Executive Committee of the CIS member-states was attended by delegates from Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Among the participants were representatives of state labour executive bodies, trade unions, employers' organizations, as well as occupational safety and health institutions and organizations.

The participants of the conference believe it is vital to promote efficient OSH management systems in the CIS member-states to create safe working conditions which play an important social and economic role, as well as influence the countries' development.

When discussing the OSH management in the CIS member-states, the participants pointed out a number of problems to be tackled which hamper using optimal approaches to settling a whole range of OSH issues.

A systematic approach to OSH management and creation of safe working conditions at enterprises, in institutions and organizations is not always the case at a national level. Very often there is no comprehensive approach to settling legal, organizational and technical issues in this area.

The existing regulatory and legal framework, as well as law-enforcement practice are not always in line with modern requirements and international standards.

State agencies responsible for supervision and control over working conditions at economic agents lack enough resources to do their job in full.

Organization-level mechanisms of social partnership are not always effectively put into practice.

Employees' and employers' level of OSH culture and legal literacy is not high enough.

The reasons mentioned above lead to a higher number of occupational injuries, major losses of working hours, lower amount and quality of products, thus impeding the countries' social and economic development.

Many sectors of economy are still guided by outdated regulations hampering the production development and jeopardizing employees' lives and health. In this context, documents on OSH management systems drafted by the ILO, as well as any experience in their practical use are extremely important today.

Following the conference the participants resolved to:

1. Emphasize the need to develop a national-level systematic approach to settling OSH management issues;
2. Emphasize the need to enhance the role and importance of the state labour inspection in terms of OSH supervision and control;
3. Boost putting the ILO's OSH management experience into practice;
4. Make social dialog on OSH more efficient;
5. Recommend that a new GOST 12.0.230-2007 be implemented in the CIS member-states with involvement of ILO constituents;
6. Continue drafting a package of measures to implement the new GOST 12.0.230-2007;
7. Request the Executive Committee of the CIS member-states to distribute the conference documents among the CIS countries' governments.

The participants of the conference express their sincere gratitude to the ILO Subregional Office in Moscow and the Executive Committee of the CIS member-states for perfect organization of this high-level methodological conference.