Guidelines on occupational safety and health management systems (ILO-OSH 2001)

Today, technological progress and intense competitive pressures bring rapid change in working conditions, work processes and organization. Legislation is essential but insufficient on its own to address these changes or to keep pace with new hazards and risks. Organizations must also be able to tackle occupational safety and health challenges continuously and to build effective responses into dynamic management strategies. These Guidelines on occupational safety and health management systems will support this effort. The Guidelines were prepared on the basis of a broad-based approach involving the ILO and its tripartite constituents and other stakeholders. They have also been shaped by internationally agreed occupational safety and health principles as defined in relevant international labour standards. Consequently, they provide a unique and powerful instrument for the development of a sustainable safety culture within enterprises and beyond. Workers, organizations, safety and health systems and the environment all stand to benefit.