Do you know that every day around 7000 People lose their lives due to occupational accidents? If you calculate, it’s around 2.5 million deaths annually. Every year, millions of deaths occur in workplaces. As a consequence, people refrain from coming to the office and prefer working from home. People who are working as front desk officers might not realize the adversity and magnitude that human costs may lead to. However, if you consider it from an economic point of view, if the occupational safety and health practices are below standard, it may significantly affect the world’s GDP. According to some statistics, around 4% of the global GDP is affected if occupational accidents are not properly dealt with.

Background

Hence, we saw that back in 2003, the International Labor Organization started to recognize a separate day for safety and health at work. This day aimed to prevent any sort of tragedy, accident, or disease that might occur at a workplace. April 28th was the date when the Safety and Health day was decided to be celebrated. This initiative is a part of the social responsibility programs that the UNO has adopted.

ILO’s Initiative

The ILO takes the initiative to raise awareness about the hazards and accidents that might take place at a workplace. These accidents are not restricted to just one particular region. Rather, it is an international concern. And needs global awareness.

Creating Awareness

Every campaign that is conducted aims at creating an environment where workers are aware of the potential risks of their relative jobs. Once that awareness is periodically discussed among the workers, it creates a culture where safety is promulgated. And every worker becomes a part of the machinery that ensures that accidents or diseases do not take place.

Moral Responsibility

Every person working at a workplace has the moral responsibility to prevent any sort of injury or death that might take place. Governments are not only concerned about creating robust infrastructures for their institutions, but ensure that there are adequate laws and regulations available that do not compromise the safety of the workers.

Sustaining Employability Rate

Moreover, it is part of the employability factor that safety and health procedures are also given consideration. Hence, safety at the workplace is imperative to sustain a high employability rate. And this is only done when there is a national policy in place.

A designed safety program is required that has a system in place. This system will ensure compliance with all the necessary occupational health policies is done.

Employee Responsibility

It is not only the responsibility of the institutions and companies to enforce these safety regulations. Rather, the employees have to play an important role in this factor as well. They have to be aware of the system in place. And maintain a check and balance. It’s not only about protecting yourself from potential harm. But ensuring that your fellow employees are also never endangered.

This is the goal every worker should strive for. Hence, knowing the Safety procedures state is the first thing that needs to be done. Moreover, if any of your colleagues are unaware of the procedure, it is the responsibility of others to guide them.

Some Emerging Risks At Workplaces

With the advent of technology, we are seeing that new occupational risks are on the rise. Every technical marvel that human civilization has been able to achieve has had a significant impact on the organizational structure.

Use of Advanced Technology Demands New Safety Protocols

These may include, for instance, the utility of biotechnology in the field of medicine and healthcare. This has ameliorated the production processes of the organization. Secondly, we are also seeing the use of nanotechnology.

Nanotechnology has enabled an efficient and effective methodology for conducting technical operations that were considered very difficult a couple of decades ago. And the advancement of this technology also demands care and safety precautions as well.

The more delicate technology is, the more difficult it is to operate it carefully and efficiently. If it is not done properly, it may lead to adverse consequences.

Hence, for every technology that is incorporated into the work operations, an organization demands new working conditions and safety precautions.

Employee Training

If a person is working in a company, and nanotechnologies Incorporated, it will lead to a greater workload plus the intensification of work operations will also increase. A lot of people might lose their jobs due to the combination of technology.

Hence, it is the responsibility of the government institutions to ensure that incorporated technology does not decrease the employability sector. Hence, employees are trained to use the technology, rather than being replaced by them.

Ergonomics And Musculoskeletal Disorders

Moreover, scientific innovation has been able to understand that new adoption of technology leads to ergonomic risks or musculoskeletal disorders. Now, this is an adverse impact that might lead to severe consequences.

Thereby, it is the responsibility of the organizations to ensure that the employees are aware of the aftermath of using the technology. Hence, precautions are taken beforehand, so that risk factors could be limited.

The Importance of Safety And Health Post COVID Crisis

On the 28th of April 2022, we will see the International Labor Organization will celebrate safety and health day at work.

Experience And Recovery

This year the importance is greater, concerning the fact that the world was able to experience and then recover from a COVID pandemic. Hence, the topic of participation and social dialogue will be prominent this year.

Robust System

Nonetheless, the world was able to prepare itself for another COVID pandemic, by ensuring that proper safety and health mechanisms are implemented in every workplace. The reason that it was able to happen was that a robust system prevailed. And we saw that the participation of the governments was at the highest level. Every employee was able to implement the rules and regulations and SOPs that were given by the institutions.

Compliance of SOPs

All the public health actors were on their toes and ensured that all of the SOPs are complied with. And none of the people were able to disobey the rules and regulations.

Moreover, at a national level, we saw that various enterprises were able to protect their working environments. This was able to happen because adequate safeguarding measures were implemented at various health care centers and workplaces.

Social Dialogue

Moreover, the post-COVID crisis has taught us that without an effective social dialogue, people will never be able to ensure and implement proper safety protocols. Hence, the active participation of every institution is imperative for a successful change to occur.

Revision of OSH Policies

Whenever the OSH policies are revised, the previous results and impact of the policies implemented are very important. The review that will take place will tell the institutions what needs to be changed and what needs to be improved upon.

In every workplace, if each culture is not strong, it will never leave a healthy working environment. Every worker as well as the management has the responsibility to ensure that the mechanism and system given to us by the ILO are implemented.

Conclusion

International organizations endeavored to ensure that workers at different workplaces must be kept safe from any possible injury or disease that might arise within their workplace.

Hence, we saw that ILO Constitution specified certain precautions and protocols that were to be implemented by every workplace. And they named it Safety and Health Protocol. Moreover, on 28th April, the Safety and Health at Work Day was to be celebrated around the world.

In this article, we discussed the significance of the World Health and Safety Day at work, and the lesson it teaches us in the post-Covid climate.