UN World Day for Health & Safety - 28th April 2021

One of the reasons the UN “celebrates” a particular day is to draw attention to its key work and causes, which for health and safety matters it does through its agency, the International Labour Organisation (ILO). The ILO as a body was purposely designed and structured to give an equal say to workers, employers and to governments.

The 2021 World Day for Safety and Heath at Work is to be focused on those elements set out in the ILO Promotional Framework No.187 which seeks to strengthen and support national OHS systems. 52 countries have signed up to the Framework, including the UK.

Discussions on the day will include how OHS systems can be created and provide resilience in times of crisis such as the COVID pandemics, looking at country-based case studies, data and working arrangements and consideration of the emerging psychosocial risks.

As H&S professionals, employers and as employees the emphasis on building resilience into national OHS systems is to be welcomed in supporting the UK’s national resilience and its ability to respond to emerging crises through workable frameworks and by valuable shared learning at international level. It will also be interesting to learn how the UK responds and how this might affect our own OHS management systems and resilience.