ABSTRACT

The opening address by Guy Ryder, the Director General of ILO, to the XX World Congress on Safety and Health at Work 2014 in Frankfurt, was reported by the ILO in the following:

‘Ebola and the tragedies it is causing are in the daily headlines – which is right. But work-related deaths are not. So, the task ahead is to establish a permanent culture of consciousness. ‘The challenge we face is a daunting one. Work claims more victims around the globe than does war. The figures cited by the ILO are staggering. Every minute, five people die worldwide as a result of a work accident or an occupational disease: that’s more than 2.3 million employees per year. In addition, some 313 million people have a (non-fatal) accident at work every year. Around 160 million workers suffer from an occupational disease. But these figures are only the tip of the iceberg,’ says Guy Ryder. As reliable data on occupational health and safety are still unavailable, the ILO believes that the unofficial number of dead, injured and ill workers is much higher. In addition to all of the personal suffering involved, this situation also has quite an impact on the global economy: the ILO estimates that about 4% of the global gross domestic product – that is, around US$ 2.8 trillion – is lost due to work accidents and occupational diseases. ‘So much suffering, such high costs, and yet, in these days of trade liberalization, globalization and economic crises, OSH is still regarded in many countries as a luxury, which arbitrarily falls victim to budget cuts,’ says the Director-General of the ILO. This is despite the fact that, particularly during an economic recovery, labour protection could bring significant added value and sustainable development to the business world. Ryder therefore calls on political decision-makers to demonstrate even greater commitment to building national and international occupational safety and health programmes. There are however some encouraging signs. At the G20 Leaders Summit held in St. Petersburg in 2013, the leaders decided to initiate a ‘Task Force on Employment’ with the ILO in order to achieve greater safety at work within the countries of the G20. Moreover, the ILO itself has also set itself the

This chapter aims to introduce the reader to the ILO Conventions on Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) and indicate how they have set out to influence national legal frameworks. It will show how, increasingly, the national legal frameworks are being moulded to the ILO vision and the chapter has a summary, as at October 2014, of the main general OSH laws in over 20 countries across the world, taken from all continents.