World Day for Safety and Health at Work - April 28, 2022 | Лепельский райисполком

Each year, the International Labour Organization selects a central theme to draw the attention of governments, employers, and the public to an unresolved issue in the field of occupational safety and health. The theme for World Day for Safety and Health at Work in 2022 is "Building a positive safety and health culture together."

A positive safety and health culture in the workplace means that the management and employees of enterprises value a safe and healthy working environment and strive to ensure it through a system of established rights, responsibilities, and duties, where the principles of prevention are given the highest priority. An essential condition for this is open exchange of information and dialogue based on trust and mutual respect.

During the pandemic, safety and health issues escalated significantly. The COVID-19 pandemic has once again shown that a robust occupational safety and health system, with the active participation of all stakeholders, plays a crucial role in maintaining normal working conditions and ensuring the safety and health of workers at all stages – from the development and revision of occupational safety and health policies and regulatory frameworks to their practical implementation in the workplace.

Effective social dialogue makes a decisive contribution to strengthening the responsibility and commitment of parties in addressing occupational safety issues and is of great importance for fostering a positive safety and health culture.

Today, the issue of occupational safety and health culture is being raised and addressed with increasing vigour, becoming one of the most important elements of enterprise management alongside purely production tasks.

An occupational safety and health culture cannot be created overnight; it requires the use of all available means of awareness-raising, prevention, understanding of hazards and risks, and methods for their prevention or mitigation. A production culture must be introduced like a new technology in industrial life. However, the results will not be long in coming.

For the widespread implementation of a positive safety and health culture as an element

enterprise management requires, within the framework of a joint dialogue with employers:

- to ensure strict compliance with the requirements of the current regulatory framework;

- to actively participate in the development and implementation of effective preventive and protective measures;

- to seek an increase in capital investments aimed at improving working conditions, reconstruction and modernization of production, acquisition of necessary certified equipment for work and personal protective equipment;

- to take an active part in personnel training, including on-the-job training;

- to insist on involving all participants in the labor process – from top management to workers, in the creation of safe workplaces;

- to demand the restoration and development of the system of providing medical care in the workplace.

The implementation of these measures by organizations will be another step towards forming a positive occupational safety culture and increasing its safety.

The World Day for Safety and Health at Work in 2022 is dedicated to strategies for forming a positive occupational safety culture through the support and promotion of the "Vision Zero" concept.

"Vision Zero" is a new approach to organizing prevention, combining three areas – safety, occupational hygiene, and worker well-being at all levels of production.

Based on the foregoing, we recommend that all organizations located in the Lepel district hold events dedicated to the World Day for Safety and Health at Work – April 28.

Forms of conducting the Occupational Safety and Health Day in your organization:

– measures to improve occupational safety and health management systems and assess production risks;

- revision of occupational safety and health instructions;

– inspection of structural divisions (departments, sections, etc.) to verify the actual state of working conditions and occupational safety and health, with the compilation of an act;

- issuance of a final document (order, directive) based on the results of the inspection of structural divisions, indicating measures to eliminate identified shortcomings and their funding source;

- conducting lectures, seminars, preventive discussions with employees on issues of electrical safety, first aid to victims at work, etc.;

– holding various events on production culture, review competitions for the best organization of occupational safety and health in structural divisions;

– implementation of positive experience in creating healthy and safe working conditions at each workplace;

– holding meetings of the work collective (structural unit) to discuss issues concerning the state of working conditions and labour protection, the fulfilment of the collective agreement provisions, and employees’ compliance with the requirements of laws and regulations on labour protection, among others;

– setting up "Labour Protection" stands (corners);

– conducting surveys among employees on labour protection issues: "question and answer", "trust box";

– producing wall newspapers and promotional materials on labour protection issues;

– carrying out charitable events, for example: providing personal financial support or specific assistance to former employees who were made redundant due to injury; to current employees in need;

We propose to summarise the results of the World Day for Safety and Health at Work during a meeting of the organisation's labour protection commission, with the drawing up of minutes and the identification of the best structural units, managers, and employees in the field of labour protection.

We recommend that the results of the World Day for Safety and Health at Work be communicated to all employees of your organisation.

We hope that the events held will contribute to the prevention of accidents and reduce the likelihood of occupational diseases.