Conference: “Act together to build a positive safety and health culture”

Dear Minister Milatovic, dear representatives of tripartite structure, your Excellencies, my fellow colleagues and friends of the United Nations,

Let me start by warmly welcoming you all and also thanking the Government and our sister agency ILO for jointly spotlighting this very important observance – International Day for Safety and Health at Work.

As we are jointly hoping that the pandemic is reaching to its end, I believe we all agree that COVID 19 has been unprecedent challenge for the entire labour market and for our shared Sustainable Development Goal nr. 8 – Decent work and economic growth.

Throughout the pandemic, we have seen how important role the Occupational Safety and Health system plays in protecting working environments and safeguarding the workers. But we also saw that the Occupational Safety and Health system can be strong enough to fit the purpose only if it is inclusive and founded in constructive participation of all parties – governments, employers, workers, public health actors and other relevant parties at the national and enterprise level.

In order to have such system in function, it is critical to make it participatory and the most effective way to ensure active participation of all in decision-making processes around the Occupational Safety and Health is through effective social dialogue between governments and social partners.

This is particularly important for the development and revision of policies and regulatory frameworks to address persistent and new challenges in this area, including actual application of policies at the workplace level. The social dialogue not only contributes to improving policies and strategies in regard to Occupational Safety and Health, but it is also essential in building ownership and commitment, paving the way for their rapid and more effective implementation.

Enhancing this kind of culture at the workplace level makes the workers’ right to safe and healthy working environment being valued and promoted by both management and workers. In a workplace with a strong culture of seeking improvement of safety and health at work, workers feel comfortable when raising concerns about possible risks or hazards in the workplace, while the management is proactive in collaborating with workers to find appropriate, effective and sustainable solutions. This, above all, requires open communication and dialogue built on trust and mutual respect.

Special action needs to be paid when providing decent jobs for youth. For jobs to be decent, the first requirement for them is to be safe. This is especially important for youth entering the Labour Market for the first time. New entrants often lack sufficient training on work-related risks. Action is needed to better protect youth by more effectively integrating training on occupational safety and health in all programmes, through revision of training standards, course content and materials; enhancing competencies and skills of trainers in Occupational Safety and Health, including at the workplace; building institutional capacity for knowledge and information management and strengthening the role of employers’ and workers’ organizations in designing, implementing and monitoring these measures.

As we continue to navigate through a global health crisis which turned the world of work upside down and brought new Occupational Safety and Health risks, we all must work harder to move towards building a strong safety and health culture at all levels. Only when Occupational Safety and Health is fully applied at the working place, can we speak about reaching targets from the SDG 8 – Decent work and economic growth.

Thank you.