World Day for Safety and Health at Work

Raising awareness about health in the workplace can reduce work-related epidemics and effectively promote healthy work culture. The main motto of the world day for safety and health is to promote the prevention of occupational accidents and diseases globally. Striving to create better work and conditions, must be the primary guideline to be followed because everyone deserves to be safe and every life is precious.

Immediate Need for Global Awareness for Occupational Health and Safety

Every year, there are millions of work-related injuries, diseases, and losses reported globally. Many of the occupational accidents that occur on the job annually lead to extended absences of the sufferers from work. However, International Labour Organisation 2003 recognized the need of promoting safety, health, and decency at work worldwide on April 28 and came up with an internal campaign, which was celebrated as World Day for Safety and Health at Work.

This day is marked in the UN event calendar as an initiative by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to bring into the spotlight the prevention of diseases and accidents in the workplace and raise global awareness for occupational health and safety. It is promoted each year by various media through various news articles and broadcast programs. Furthermore, the day is remembered as the International Day for Dead and Injured Workers and is organized worldwide since 1996 by the trade union movement. However, it is not considered a public holiday rather it is regarded as an observance.

The day emphasizes the need of ensuring better office infrastructure, making laws and services to enforce abidance, focussing on the effects of psychological factors on work-related stress, and note emerging occupational risks so that the workplace is safer for all workers. The emerging risks at work can be caused by technological innovations (like nanotechnology and biotechnology), new working conditions (such as works intensification from downsizing, jobs in the informal economy, higher workloads, and poor conditions due to migration for work), emerging forms of employment (e.g. temporary contractual jobs, self-employment, and outsourcing).

Every year different themes are chosen by the International Labour Organisation to draw the attention of the public toward the safety and health of the workers. Since the COVID-19 pandemic has hit the human race across the globe, World Day for Safety and Health at Work has also taken certain measures to save many lives by setting the theme of the day related to it. For instance, in 2020 the theme focused on addressing the outbreak of infectious diseases like the COVID-19 pandemic at work. From the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the workers and employees’ representatives from several countries have acted together to develop workplace policies and strategies to protect people from Coronavirus and other related health risks. In 2021, the day aimed at making strategies for strengthening national occupational safety and health (OSH) systems to build an effective, resilient, and adaptable Work Health and Safety framework for facing the crisis in the present and the future.

Promoting Positive Safety and Health Culture at Work

This year the theme of the annual World Day for Safety and Health at work stresses building a social dialogue which is important for promoting positive safety and health culture at work. A social dialogue indicates all kinds of consultations, negotiations, and information exchanges between representatives of government bodies, employers, workers, or any other actors on common concerns. This is the best effective way to reconcile competing interests and implement OSH policies. It has been reported that knowledge gathered from all worker organizations, governments, and employers can help develop and implement laws, interventions, and policies to safeguard the workers throughout the crisis. Positive safety and health culture in the workplace is built on dialogue and open communication between the employers and workers. The workers must be comfortable in talking about their issues and possible risks and hazards faced by them at their job and the management must actively address those problems. When workers are more engaged in encouraging safety and health at their workplaces, the chances of accidents become low. Hence, building a prevention culture in the workplace would result in healthier workforces, productive enterprises, and sustainable economies. ??

On this day, let us also pledge to take the best preventive measures and steps to ensure proper workplace safety with regular updates on technology.