Introduction
Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) is an essential, multidisciplinary field that ensures work takes place in a safe and healthy environment. This article aims to provide an overview of the core principles that underpin OSH, touching on topics like medicine, ergonomics, physics, chemistry, technology, economics, and law.
Core Occupational Safety and Health Principles
- Workers’ rights: Workers have rights that must be protected, such as working in a safe and healthy environment, having working conditions that promote well-being and human dignity, and the opportunity for personal achievement and self-fulfillment.
- OSH policies: Policies must be established and implemented at both the national and enterprise levels, effectively communicated to all parties involved.
- National system for OSH: A comprehensive national system must be created, maintained, and reviewed periodically to support a preventive safety and health culture.
- National OSH programs: These programs must be formulated, implemented, monitored, evaluated, and reviewed regularly.
- Consultation with social partners and stakeholders: Employers and workers must be consulted during the formulation, implementation, and review of policies, systems, and programs.
- Prevention and protection: OSH programs and policies must focus on prevention and protection, designing workplaces to be safe and healthy.
- Continuous improvement: OSH policies must be regularly updated to adapt to social, technical, and scientific progress.
- Information dissemination: Collecting and sharing accurate information on hazards and hazardous materials is vital for developing and implementing effective programs and policies.
- Health promotion: Enhancing workers’ physical, mental, and social well-being is a central element of occupational health practice.
- Occupational health services: These services should be established and accessible to all workers, aiming to protect and promote workers’ health and improve working conditions.
- Compensation, rehabilitation, and curative services: These services must be available to workers who suffer occupational injuries, accidents, and work-related diseases.
- Education and training: Workers and employers must be informed about the importance of establishing safe working procedures and how to do so.
- Responsibilities and duties: Workers, employers, and competent authorities have specific responsibilities, duties, and obligations to ensure the protection of occupational safety and health.
- Enforcement: A system of inspection must be in place to secure compliance with OSH measures and other labor legislation.
These principles are not exhaustive, and more specialized areas have their corresponding principles. Ethical considerations, such as individuals’ rights to privacy, must also be taken into account when devising policies.
Rights and Duties
Workers, employers, and governments have complementary responsibilities in promoting occupational safety and health.
Workers’ Rights
Decent work implies safe work, and the protection of life and health at work is a fundamental right. Workers must take care of their safety and the safety of others. They have the right to adequate knowledge and the ability to stop work in case of imminent danger. Workers must be properly informed of hazards and adequately trained to carry out tasks safely.
Employers’ Responsibilities
Employers are responsible for ensuring a safe and healthy working environment. This includes preventing occupational risks, providing training, and instigating programs on hazard prevention and control. Employers must also make arrangements for compensation, rehabilitation, and return to work for those affected by work-related injuries and diseases.
Governments’ Duties
Governments hold a vital role in establishing and maintaining occupational safety and health policies. They must ensure that these policies are reflected in legislation and enforced accordingly. However, it is essential to recognize that legislation cannot cover all workplace risks. Therefore, it is often beneficial to address occupational safety and health concerns through collective agreements negotiated between employers and workers.
The involvement of employers and workers in creating these policies, whether in the form of laws, regulations, codes, or collective agreements, significantly increases the likelihood of support and implementation. By working together, the social partners can develop policies tailored to their specific needs and challenges.
The competent authority should issue and periodically review regulations or codes of practice. It is crucial to instigate research to identify hazards and develop solutions to overcome them. Providing information and advice to employers and workers, and taking specific measures to prevent catastrophes in high-risk situations, are essential responsibilities of the competent authority.
In addition, the occupational safety and health policy should include provisions for establishing, operating, and progressively expanding occupational health services. The competent authority should supervise and advise on the implementation of a workers’ health surveillance system, linking it with programs aimed at preventing accidents and diseases and promoting workers’ health at the enterprise and national levels. The data collected through surveillance will reveal the effectiveness of occupational safety and health standards, pinpointing areas where additional safeguards are necessary.
Conclusion
In the field of occupational safety and health (OSH), several key principles ensure that work occurs in a safe and healthy environment. These principles include recognizing workers’ rights, establishing and implementing OSH policies at national and enterprise levels, creating national systems and programs, consulting social partners and stakeholders, focusing on prevention and protection, continuously improving OSH, promoting health, providing occupational health services, offering compensation and rehabilitation, and emphasizing the importance of education and training. Workers, employers, and governments all have responsibilities to establish safe working conditions, with governments formulating policies, employers ensuring safe work environments, and workers following established safety procedures. Overall, the goal is to maintain and promote workers’ health, improve working conditions, and develop a preventive safety and health culture in the workplace.
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