World Day for Safety and Health at Work (28th April 2021)

World Day for Safety and Health at Work

The International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) World Day for Safety and Health at Work began in 2003 to ‘stress the prevention of accidents and diseases at work, capitalizing on its traditional tripartism (employer’s organization, trade unions, and the government of a country).

The World Day for safety and health at work is an awareness-raising campaign intended to focus international attention on the magnitude of the problem (occupational accidents and diseases) and how promoting and creating a safe and healthy culture can reduce the number of work-related deaths and injuries.

This year’s theme ‘Anticipate, prepare and respond to crises – invest now in resilient occupational safety and health systems,’ is aimed at focusing on strategies to strengthen national occupational safety and health (OSH) systems to build resilience, face crises now, and in the future, drawing on lessons learned and experiences from the world of work.

The Ghana Institute of Safety and Environment Professionals (GhiSEP) will mark the event on 25th April 2021 instead of the ILO official date of April 28th, 2021. This is to allow as many GhiSEP members and the public to join our zoom meeting. The key takeaways from the event will be:

·     Understanding and Identification of business risks

·     Do crises appear suddenly?

·     What are the building blocks of a resilient mindset?

·     Can organizations routinely practice anticipation, prevention, and resilience in their operations and management systems?

GhiSEP acknowledges that it will take more than a dedicated day to create awareness on such a critical issue. It sees the event as an opportunity to appeal to the Ghanaian Government to pass the long-awaited Occupational Safety and Health Bill that has been before Parliament for several years.

The Bill is not a silver bullet to the workplace safety challenges Ghanaian employees face. To feel its effect, the Government will need to ratify a suite of other ILO Conventions that will support industries, employers, employees, and other stakeholders in the management of workplace safety. 

Workplace hazard prevention and management is a shared responsibility and should be treated as such.