R164 - Occupational Safety and Health Recommendation, 1981 (No. 164)

• Subject Matter: Seguridad y salud en el trabajo,Occupational safety and health,Sécurité et santé au travail
• Court: International Labour Organization

Preamble

The General Conference of the International Labour Organisation,

Having been convened at Geneva by the Governing Body of the International Labour Office, and having met in its Sixty-seventh Session on 3 June 1981, and

Having decided upon the adoption of certain proposals with regard to safety and health and the working environment, which is the sixth item on the agenda of the session, and

Having determined that these proposals shall take the form of a Recommendation supplementing the Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 1981,

adopts this twenty-second day of June of the year one thousand nine hundred and eighty-one, the following Recommendation, which may be cited as the Occupational Safety and Health Recommendation, 1981:

I. Scope and Definitions

1. 1
   • (1) To the greatest extent possible, the provisions of the Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 1981, hereinafter referred to as the Convention, and of this Recommendation should be applied to all branches of economic activity and to all categories of workers.
   • (2) Provision should be made for such measures as may be necessary and practicable to give self-employed persons protection analogous to that provided for in the Convention and in this Recommendation.

1. 2. For the purpose of this Recommendation -
   • (a) the term branches of economic activity covers all branches in which workers are employed, including the public service;
   • (b) the term workers covers all employed persons, including public employees;
   • (c) the term workplace covers all places where workers need to be or to go by reason of their work and which are under the direct or indirect control of the employer;
   • (d) the term regulations covers all provisions given force of law by the competent authority or authorities;
   • (e) the term health , in relation to work, indicates not merely the absence of disease or infirmity; it also includes the physical and mental elements affecting health which are directly related to safety and hygiene at work.

II. Technical Fields of Action

1. 3. As appropriate for different branches of economic activity and different types of work and taking into account the principle of giving priority to eliminating hazards at their source, measures should be taken in pursuance of the policy referred to in Article 4 of the Convention, in particular in the following fields
   • (a) design, siting, structural features, installation, maintenance, repair and alteration of workplaces and means of access thereto and egress therefrom;
   • (b) lighting, ventilation, order and cleanliness of workplaces;
   • (c) temperature, humidity and movement of air in the workplace;
   • (d) design, construction, use, maintenance, testing and inspection of machinery and equipment liable to present hazards and, as appropriate, their approval and transfer;
   • (e) prevention of harmful physical or mental stress due to conditions of work;
   • (f) handling, stacking and storage of loads and materials, manually or mechanically;
   • (g) use of electricity;
   • (h) manufacture, packing, labelling, transport, storage and use of dangerous substances and agents, disposal of their wastes and residues, and, as appropriate, their replacement by other substances or agents which are not dangerous or which are less dangerous;
   • (i) radiation protection;
   • (j) prevention and control of, and protection against, occupational hazards due to noise and vibration;
   • (k) control of the atmosphere and other ambient factors of workplaces;
   • (l) prevention and control of hazards due to high and low barometric pressures;
   • (m) prevention of fires and explosions and measures to be taken in case of fire or explosion;
   • (n) design, manufacture, supply, use, maintenance and testing of personal protective equipment and protective clothing;
   • (o) sanitary installations, washing facilities, facilities for changing and storing clothes, supply of drinking water, and any other welfare facilities connected with occupational safety and health;
   • (p) first-aid treatment;
   • (q) establishment of emergency plans;
   • (r) supervision of the health of workers.

III. Action at the National Level

1. 4. With a view to giving effect to the policy referred to in Article 4 of the Convention, and taking account of the technical fields of action listed in Paragraph 3 of this Recommendation, the competent authority or authorities in each...