Decision on the second item on the agenda: The Standards Initiative: Report of the third meeting of the Standards Review Mechanism Tripartite Working Group

The Governing Body took note of the report of the Officers of the Standards Review Mechanism Tripartite Working Group (SRM TWG) contained in document GB.331/LILS/2 and, in approving its recommendations:

(a) welcomed the steps taken by the SRM TWG to ensure the sustainability of its process, in the context of its impact on the broader institutional arrangements in the Organization, and would look forward to receiving recommendations from the SRM TWG at its next meeting on Office proposals on how to ensure follow-up to the SRM TWG was implemented as a matter of institutional priority, and how to ensure coherence and consistency in the standards policy framework in relation to OSH instruments;

(b) noted the work undertaken by the Office in follow-up to the recommendations of the SRM TWG at its second meeting in October 2016 and requested the Office to continue this follow-up as planned;

(c) noted that the SRM TWG had decided to adopt a three-classification system in relation to its work reviewing the standards and requested the Office to take the necessary follow-up in that regard, in particular as concerns the NORMLEX database;

(d) decided that the 19 instruments concerning OSH (general provisions and specific risks) reviewed by the SRM TWG should be considered to have the classifications it had recommended, and requested the Office to take the necessary follow-up action in that regard and in accordance with the time-bound elements of the recommendations;

(e) noted the SRM TWG’s recommendation concerning the withdrawal of Recommendation No. 31, in relation to which it would consider placing an item on the agenda of the International Labour Conference at the earliest date possible (see GB.331/INS/2(Add.));

(f) requested the Office to prepare, for consideration for inclusion at the earliest dates possible in future agendas of the International Labour Conference, proposals for possible standard-setting items:

(i) on biological hazards and ergonomics, recognizing the regulatory gaps identified in that regard;

(ii) on the consolidation of the instruments concerning chemical hazards;

(iii) on the revision of the instruments concerning guarding of machinery;

and requested to be kept up to date in that regard.

(g) requested the Office to commence work on technical guidelines on biological hazards and chemical hazards, and to consider the regular review of the 2011 code of practice on safety and health in the use of machinery at a later date;

(h) decided that the SRM TWG would examine the 11 instruments concerning OSH (specific branches of activity), labour inspection and labour administration, within sets of instruments 6, 11, 12 and 13 of the revised initial programme of work, in its fourth meeting;

(i) convened the fourth meeting of the SRM TWG from 17 to 21 September 2018.

(Document GB.331/LILS/2, paragraph 5.)

Financial arrangements for two meetings of the Standards Review Mechanism Tripartite Working Group (2018–19)

The Governing Body decided that the cost of the two meetings of the SRM TWG to be held during the biennium 2018–19, estimated at US$795,200, should be financed in the first instance from savings in Part I of the budget for 2018–19 or, failing that, through Part II, on the understanding that should that subsequently prove impossible, the Director-General would propose alternative methods of financing.

(Document GB.331/LILS/2(Add.), paragraph 7.)