SafeWork does first things first. It will focus on hazardous work and give primary attention to workers in especially hazardous occupations in sectors where the risks to life and safety are manifestly high, such as agriculture, mining and construction, workers in the informal sector, and those occupationally exposed to abuse and exploitation, such as women, children and migrants.
SafeWork adopts an integrated approach to workers' health and safety, incorporating health promotion at the workplace to deal with emerging issues such as: the prevention or drugs and alcohol abuse, work-related stress, violence and HIV-AIDS, as well as, the promotion of free tobacco workplaces and healthy lifestyles.
Specific strategies are elaborated below for each of the four goals, and include advocacy, building of the knowledge base, capacity building for constituents and support for direct action programmes.
Showing that protection pays. The prevention of accidents, improvement of working conditions and enforcement of standards are often seen as a cost to business. Little is known about the costs of not preventing accidents or poor working conditions, or of the benefits of improvements for productivity and competitiveness. Better information and analytical tools can help increase firms' and governments' willingness to invest in prevention. This strategy will have two main thrusts: extending the knowledge base through a major drive for comprehensive, reliable and sustainable data, and new research on the economics of labour protection. The programme will foster the development of a safety culture worldwide. It will thus demonstrate that prevention policies and programmes benefit all ILO constituents.
Protecting workers in hazardous conditions. Priority must be given to workers in the most hazardous occupations and sectors, such as mining, construction or agriculture, or where working relationships or conditions create particular risks, such as very long working hours, exposure to hazardous chemicals, work in isolation and work by migrants, etc. The ILO will make use of its extensive experience in the development of standards, codes of practice and technical guides in exploiting the world's information resources, and in developing means of practical action. Member States will be encouraged to set objectives and targets for the protection of workers in hazardous conditions. Particular attention will be given to strengthening the advisory and enforcement capacity of labour inspectorates.
Extending protection. The large majority of workers whose conditions are most in need of improvement are excluded from the scope of existing legislation and other protective measures. Existing policies and programmes need to be reviewed to extend their coverage. This will go hand in hand with action to strengthen labour inspectorates' capacity to develop broad prevention policies and programmes and to promote the protection of vulnerable workers, particularly women workers. Alliances and networks will be extended to include ministries of health, industry, local government, education, and social services, as well as local community groups. Emphasis will also be placed on achieving tangible results through practical action and exchanges of information on good practices.
Promoting workers' health and well-being. The strategy to promote workers' health and well-being involves the establishment of health promotion programmes and good enterprise-level practices as part of a safety and health promotion programme so as to improve constituents' capacity to identify workers' protection issues and to provide guidance on new approaches. Governments' capacity for prevention, protection, and advice on health promotion measures will be strengthened.
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