Tens of thousands of workers and employers from Lima to London and Bangkok to Brazil will mark the World Day for Safety and Health at Work on 28 April, drawing attention to work-related accidents and illnesses that annually take some 2 million lives and cost the global economy an estimated US$1.25 thousand billion ($1.25 trillion), according to the International Labour Office (ILO).

Events planned for the day include a safety and health fair and symposia in Lima, Peru, activities by the Trade Union Council in the United Kingdom, a joint manifestation by the ILO and the Asian Workers Occupational Health, Safety and Environment Institute (OHSEI) in Bangkok, Thailand and an event aimed at stressing the value of prevention of workplace accidents and illness in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

At ILO offices in Geneva, top government, worker and employer representatives will participate in a round-table discussion on Creating and Promoting a Health and Safety Culture in a Globalized World on Monday 28 April.

The observance of World Day is intended to bring a tripartite focus to the annual Workers’ Memorial Day that has been organized by the worldwide trade union movement since 1996. The discussion at the ILO will focus on the challenges of reducing the toll of death, injury and sickness at the world’s workplaces, with special attention to prevention techniques that have proven themselves as effective in both avoiding occupational accidents and disease and in improving business performance.

Injury and disease are not all in a day’s work, says ILO Director-General Juan Somavia. Fatalities, accidents and illness at work can be prevented. We must promote a new safety culture in the workplace wherever work is done backed by appropriate national policies and programmes to make workplaces safer and healthier for us all.

Costs of workplace injury and illness

In a booklet issued for the world day entitled Safety in Numbers , the ILO reviews current knowledge about the toll of workplace illness, injury and death which it says costs some $1,250,000 million US dollars ($1.25 trillion) in annual losses in global gross domestic product (GDP). The ILO said its estimate was based on a calculation that accidents and work-related illnesses cost some 4 percent of annual GDP.

In addition, the report says that costs borne by society due in part to work-related accidents and diseases include early retirements caused by disability that on average shorten working life by about five years; absenteeism that varies from 2 to 10 percent depending on sector and type of work; unemployment that may stem from impairment of working capacity due to illness and affects an average of one third of all unemployed people; and poverty at home caused by the partial or full loss of income and is especially acute among women workers.

The report also cited ILO data showing that some 5,000 job-related deaths occur each day, or some 2 million each year. In addition, the report notes that workers suffer approximately 270 million occupational accidents - of which 355,000 are fatal - and 160 million occupational diseases each year, including some 12,000 child labourers who die from work-related causes.

The booklet also highlights the impact of poor health and safety on a company’s bottom line and provides information on how workers and employers can work hand-in-hand to create a safety culture to improve workplace occupational safety and health.

THE RATIFICATION OF THE CONVENTIONS OF THE INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANIZATION

In 2003 Ukraine ratified 47 Conventions of the International Labour Organization. 7 Conventions were devoted to the problem of the Ocupational Safety and Health:

The Convention № 16 on the obligatory medical registration of the children and teenagers, working on the ships' boards .

The Convention № 32 on the protection from the accidents of the occupied on the shop boarding (revised in 1932).

The Convention № 73 on the medical registration of the sailors.

The Convention № 77 on the medical registration of the children and teenagers to research their ability to work in the industrial sphere.

The Convention № 113 on the medical registration of the occupied in fishing.

The Convention № 119 on the supply of the machinery with the safety equipment.

The Convention № 120 on the occupational health in the sphere of trade and offices.

According to the General Agreement between the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Confederation of the Employers of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Trade Unions and the Professional Unions the ratification of the following Conventions is set forth in 2004:

1. The Convention of the International Labour Organization № 155 on the occupational industrial safety and health.
The ratification of the above-mentioned Convention is of a high importance for the Sate Committee on the Supervision of the Labour Safety as the basis in the sphere of the occupational safety.
In this regard the draft law on the safety of the industrial production where all the provisions of the Convetion are envisaged was forwarded to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.

2. The Convention of the International Labour Organization № 183 on the occupational safety and health in agriculture. The following draft law was forwarded to the National Council of the Social Partnership.
In accordance with the Priorities of the social policy of Ukraine in 2004 the ratification of the The Convention № 129 on the labour inspection in the agriculture is envisaged.

Currently the State Committee on the Supervision of the Labour Safety together with the Federation of the Employers of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Trade Unions and the Professional Unions is working at the ratification of the Convention № 174 on the prevention of the large scale industrial accidents, the provisions of which were included in the Ukrainian legislation – The Law of Ukraine "Of the high industrial risk' objects"
Inter alia, the State Committee on the Supervision of the Labour Safety of Ukraine worked out the draft bill on the safety work with the explosive substances.