Legislation in occupational health

In the video you saw the main office of OSHA, Occupational Safety and Health Authority in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The personnel here work to improve the workplaces in Tanzania. As the former Director of OSHA said, OSHA is responsible for checking that companies adhere to the Working Environment Act, by doing workplace inspections and evaluating situations. In addition, OSHA gives advices to companies on how the different workplace risk factors can be reduced. This work is carried out both at the individual workplaces they visit, but also through seminars to groups who are taught about work and health. Not all units working with labour inspections do both these tasks, but it might be a good solution in developing countries where there are relatively few with the needed competence.

Legislation

Most countries have a specific law, A Working Environment Act, to ensure that a working environment does not harm the employees. The Working Environment Act itself and its interpretation can vary in different countries. The Norwegian Working Environment Act, for instance, formulates its function like this:

_{“The purpose of the Act is:
a) to secure a working environment that provides a basis for a healthy and meaningful working situation, that affords full safety from harmful physical and mental influences and that has a standard of welfare at all times consistent with the level of technological and social development of society,
b) to ensure sound conditions of employment and equality of treatment at work,
c) to facilitate adaptations of the individual employee’s working situation in relation to his or her capabilities and circumstances of life,
d) to provide a basis whereby the employer and the employees of undertakings may themselves safeguard and develop their working environment in cooperation with the employers’ and employees’ organisations and with the requisite guidance and supervision of the public authorities,
e) to foster inclusive working conditions.”}

This formulation can be quite different in another country. Some countries may also have specific regulations related to certain types of work, such as mining or manufacturing industry; others have not. It is, however, very important to know about the regulations and guidelines when you work with occupational health. It carries more weight when you tell an employer that “this does not adhere to the existing law”, than to just say that in your opinion the workplace should improve. It is important to understand that these laws are designed to protect workers and should be used accordingly.

There are also major differences between countries in how the adherence to the law is controlled. Many countries have some kind of labour inspection office that performs this task, like OSHA which was described earlier in this session. However, the labour inspection can, in reality; have few resources in some developing countries. This is unfortunate for the workers. It is very important to have a functioning labour inspection authority. Without inspections, it can be difficult to improve standards regarding work and health. Also, we see very different approaches in the different labour inspectorates. Some countries are strict and give hard penalties to companies that do not adhere to the laws, others do not. It is difficult to say how this should be performed to achieve the best results, but it is important that there will be some kind of consequence if the situation at the workplace is not optimal.

ILO Guidelines and standards

The ILO 2001 Guidelines on occupational safety and health management systems (ILO-OSH 2001) has become a widely used model for developing national standards in this area. The ILO, with its tripartite structure and its standard-setting role, is the most appropriate body to develop international safety guidelines.

The ILO has adopted more than 40 standards specifically dealing with occupational safety and health, as well as over 40 Codes of Practice. Nearly half of the ILO instruments deal directly or indirectly with occupational safety and health issues. Read more about these here.

The countries around the world have very different legislation, but the International Labour Organisation is working to promote rights at work, encourage decent employment opportunities, enhance social protection and strengthen the dialogue on work-related issues. You may find information about different national legislation on their webpages.

See also The ILO NORMLEX Information System on International Labour Standards ILO standards