On Monday 11 July 2022, the ILO International Training Centre organises a webinar titled ‘A safe and healthy working environment is now a fundamental principle and right at work’. The presentation will be delivered via Zoom in English with simultaneous interpretation in French and Spanish and  is scheduled for 2:30pm – 4pm CET (timezone check).

You can register here until 7 July.

In June 2022, the 110th session of the International Labour Conference (ILC) of the International Labour Organization (ILO) adopted a resolution on the inclusion of a safe and healthy working environment in the ILO’s framework of fundamental principles and rights at work (FPRW). The resolution also declares that the Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 1981 (No. 155) and the Promotional Framework for Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 2006 (No. 187) shall be considered as fundamental Conventions. All Member States, even if they have not ratified these two conventions, have now an obligation to respect, to promote and to realise the principles included in these conventions. Governments, employers, workers, OSH experts and other stakeholders involved in decision making processes should be well informed of the implications of the inclusion of the right to a safe and healthy working environment as a fundamental principle and right at work while creating and implementing OSH policies and programmes.

Although this informative session is predominantly addressed for decisions makers from government institutions and social partners involved in the OSH governance at the national and international level, the event could also be of the interest to public officials of national administrations, private OSH practitioners, academics, trainers and others interested in OSH.

For additional detail on this game-changing ‘fundamental’ decision, see the related ILO and ITUC news releases. This article from ITUC, The Fifth Element, also gives some background on what was a major campaign success for trade unions, supported by labour and safety campaign organisations and occupational health and safety/occupational medicine professional bodies (notably IOSH, ICOH, SOM and Collegium Ramazzini), and outlining ITUC priorities moving forward.