Foreword

PagesV-V
Foreword
The protection of workers against work-related sickness, disease and injury forms
part of the historical mandate of the ILO. Disease and injury do not go with the job nor
can poverty justify disregard for workers' safety and health. The ILO's primary goal is
to promote opportunities for women and men to obtain decent and productive work in
conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity. We have summarized this
as "decent work". Decent work is safe work. And safe work is also a positive factor for
productivity and economic growth.
Today, technological progress and intense competitive pressures bring rapid
change in working conditions, work processes and organization. Legislation is
essential but insufficient on its own to address these changes or to keep pace with new
hazards and risks. Organizations must also be able to tackle occupational safety and
health challenges continuously and to build effective responses into dynamic
management strategies. These Guidelines on occupational safety and health
management systems will support this effort.
The Guidelines were prepared on the basis of a broad-based approach involving
the ILO and its tripartite constituents and other stakeholders. They have also been
shaped by internationally agreed occupational safety and health principles as defined
in relevant international labour standards. Consequently, they provide a unique and
powerful instrument for the development of a sustainable safety culture within
enterprises and beyond. Workers, organizations, safety and health systems and the
environment all stand to benefit.
The ILO is pleased to have led the exercise of drawing up these Guidelines. I am
confident that they will become an invaluable tool for employers and workers and their
organizations, national institutions and all those who have a role in ensuring that
workplaces are also safe and healthy places.
Juan Somavia
Director-General

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