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17 December, 2007
The above-mentioned title was one of the main mottos of the Workers Group, which was coordinated by the ICEM, at the recent Experts’ Meeting of the International Labour Office (ILO) on Hazardous Chemical Substances. This meeting took place from 10 to 13 December in Geneva.
The main purpose of the meeting was to discuss how ILO instruments, as well as other tools concerning occupational safety and health, and hazardous substances, could be best incorporated into a new policy framework and action plan.
The meeting examined the best practices and appropriate national legal frameworks to promote safe and healthy working environments. It also reviewed the roles of governments, and of employers’ and workers’ organisations, as well as ways of establishing tripartite consultation mechanisms on occupational safety and health, and of ensuring that workers and their organisations participate in the consultation mechanisms.
The meeting further considered the impact of new and ongoing initiatives related to hazardous substances, including the UN-wide Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) and the Globally Harmonized System of Chemical Classification and Labeling (GHS).
On the basis of the background paper prepared by the ILO (which can be found here) and the subsequent actions of the Office, the meeting adopted recommendations, including on the need to increase, speed up and integrate the processes for the assessment and management of existing and new hazardous substances in the development and marketing of chemicals. This needs to take into account the special requirements for the protection of all workers, in particular for precarious and vulnerable workers, as well as facilitate access to information on preventive and protective measures.
Other recommendations were on promoting the ratification and implementation of the up-to-date ILO’s general OSH (Occupational Health and Safety) and chemical safety instruments, including ILO Conventions 155, 170, 174 and 187, as a comprehensive and coherent basis for the sound management of chemicals and the establishment; and on the need to increase and strengthen the dialogue and joint actions of employers and workers throughout all levels, including at the global scale, on OSH and chemical safety issues.
“It is an obvious success to see the main parameters of the Action Plan adopted by the ICEM World Conference for the Chemical Industries, which took place in 2006 in Trinidad & Tobago, reflected in the final document of this ILO Meeting. ICEM and its affiliates should increase their efforts in protecting our members’ health and safety by using all the instruments at international level” said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda.