The ILO celebrates the World Day for Safety and Health at Work on 28 April to promote the prevention of occupational accidents and diseases globally. It is an awareness-raising campaign intended to focus international attention on emerging trends in the field of occupational safety and health and on the magnitude of work-related injuries, disease and fatalities worldwide.

In 2003, ILO and UN began to observe World Day in order to stress the prevention of accidents and disease at work, capitalizing on the ILO’s traditional strengths of tripartism and social dialogue. The celebration of the World Day for Safety and Health of the ILO and promotes the creation of a global preventative safety and health culture involving all stakeholders.

Importance of Health and Safety Laws

Occupational Safety and Health is a set of laws that have been made to protect the health and the safety of people while they are working.  Health and Safety rules will vary a lot from one country to another. Since 1950, when the International Labour Organization (ILO) and World Health Organization (WHO) agreed about standards of health in the workplace.

Health and Safety laws will deal with such things as: the temperature in the workplace, things on the floor that people could fall over, or things that could catch on their clothing and cause an accident, smoking in the workplace and other things that might cause pollution or which might be fire hazards, how many toilets per person there should be, whether they need safety equipment (e.g. hard hats in case anything falls on their heads), whether it is safe for a person to be left alone in the workplace, the rights of disabled people, how many hours in the day people can work for etc.

The World Day for Safety and Health at Work 2021 focuses on leveraging the elements of an OSH system as set out in the Promotional Framework for Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 2006. The World day report examines how the current crisis demonstrate the importance of strengthening these OSH systems, including occupational health services, at both the national and undertaking level.

The ILO will take this opportunity to raise awareness and awareness and stimulates dialogue on the importance of creating and investing in resilient OSH system, drawing on both regional and country examples in mitigating and preventing the Spreads of COVID-19 at the workplace. Safety and health at work is central to the COVID-19 pandemic responses, not only to protect lives but also to ensure business continuity.

Emerging Risks at Work-

New and emerging occupational risks may be caused by technical innovation or by social or organizational change, viz. New technologies and production processes, e.g. nanotechnology, biotechnology, emerging forms of employment, outsourcing, temporary contracts, etc.