C155 - Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 1981 (No. 155)
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 an international Convention,
adopts this twenty-second day of June of the year one thousand nine hundred and eighty-one the following Convention, which may be cited as the Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 1981:
PART I. SCOPE AND DEFINITIONS
Article 1
For the
purpose of this Convention--
§ (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.
PART II. PRINCIPLES OF NATIONAL
POLICY
The policy
referred to in Article 4 of this Convention shall take account of the following
main spheres of action in so far as they affect occupational safety and health
and the working environment:
§ (a) design,
testing, choice, substitution, installation, arrangement, use and maintenance
of the material elements of work (workplaces, working environment, tools,
machinery and equipment, chemical, physical and biological substances and
agents, work processes);
§ (b)
relationships between the material elements of work and the persons who carry
out or supervise the work, and adaptation of machinery, equipment, working
time, organisation of work and work processes to the physical and mental
capacities of the workers;
§ (c) training,
including necessary further training, qualifications and motivations of persons
involved, in one capacity or another, in the achievement of adequate levels of
safety and health;
§ (d)
communication and co-operation at the levels of the working group and the
undertaking and at all other appropriate levels up to and including the
national level;
§ (e) the
protection of workers and their representatives from disciplinary measures as a
result of actions properly taken by them in conformity with the policy referred
to in Article 4 of this Convention.
The
formulation of the policy referred to in Article 4 of this Convention shall
indicate the respective functions and responsibilities in respect of
occupational safety and health and the working environment of public
authorities, employers, workers and others, taking account both of the
complementary character of such responsibilities and of national conditions and
practice.
The situation
regarding occupational safety and health and the working environment shall be
reviewed at appropriate intervals, either over-all or in respect of particular
areas, with a view to identifying major problems, evolving effective methods
for dealing with them and priorities of action, and evaluating results.
PART III. ACTION AT THE
NATIONAL LEVEL
Each Member
shall, by laws or regulations or any other method consistent with national
conditions and practice and in consultation with the representative
organisations of employers and workers concerned, take such steps as may be
necessary to give effect to Article 4 of this Convention.
Measures shall
be taken to provide guidance to employers and workers so as to help them to
comply with legal obligations.
To give effect
to the policy referred to in Article 4 of this Convention, the competent
authority or authorities shall ensure that the following functions are
progressively carried out:
§ (a) the
determination, where the nature and degree of hazards so require, of conditions
governing the design, construction and layout of undertakings, the commencement
of their operations, major alterations affecting them and changes in their
purposes, the safety of technical equipment used at work, as well as the
application of procedures defined by the competent authorities;
§ (b) the
determination of work processes and of substances and agents the exposure to
which is to be prohibited, limited or made subject to authorisation or control
by the competent authority or authorities; health hazards due to the simultaneous
exposure to several substances or agents shall be taken into consideration;
§ (c) the
establishment and application of procedures for the notification of
occupational accidents and diseases, by employers and, when appropriate,
insurance institutions and others directly concerned, and the production of
annual statistics on occupational accidents and diseases;
§ (d) the
holding of inquiries, where cases of occupational accidents, occupational
diseases or any other injuries to health which arise in the course of or in
connection with work appear to reflect situations which are serious;
§ (e) the
publication, annually, of information on measures taken in pursuance of the
policy referred to in Article 4 of this Convention and on occupational
accidents, occupational diseases and other injuries to health which arise in
the course of or in connection with work;
§ (f) the
introduction or extension of systems, taking into account national conditions
and possibilities, to examine chemical, physical and biological agents in
respect of the risk to the health of workers.
Measures shall
be taken, in accordance with national law and practice, with a view to ensuring
that those who design, manufacture, import, provide or transfer machinery,
equipment or substances for occupational use--
§ (a) satisfy
themselves that, so far as is reasonably practicable, the machinery, equipment
or substance does not entail dangers for the safety and health of those using
it correctly;
§ (b) make
available information concerning the correct installation and use of machinery
and equipment and the correct use of substances, and information on hazards of
machinery and equipment and dangerous properties of chemical substances and
physical and biological agents or products, as well as instructions on how
known hazards are to be avoided;
§ (c) undertake
studies and research or otherwise keep abreast of the scientific and technical
knowledge necessary to comply with subparagraphs (a) and (b) of this Article.
A worker who
has removed himself from a work situation which he has reasonable justification
to believe presents an imminent and serious danger to his life or health shall
be protected from undue consequences in accordance with national conditions and
practice.
Measures shall
be taken with a view to promoting in a manner appropriate to national
conditions and practice, the inclusion of questions of occupational safety and
health and the working environment at all levels of education and training,
including higher technical, medical and professional education, in a manner
meeting the training needs of all workers.
PART IV. ACTION AT THE LEVEL OF
THE UNDERTAKING
Whenever two
or more undertakings engage in activities simultaneously at one workplace, they
shall collaborate in applying the requirements of this Convention.
Employers
shall be required to provide, where necessary, for measures to deal with
emergencies and accidents, including adequate first-aid arrangements.
There shall be
arrangements at the level of the undertaking under which--
§ (a) workers,
in the course of performing their work, co-operate in the fulfilment by their
employer of the obligations placed upon him;
§ (b)
representatives of workers in the undertaking co-operate with the employer in
the field of occupational safety and health;
§ (c)
representatives of workers in an undertaking are given adequate information on
measures taken by the employer to secure occupational safety and health and may
consult their representative organisations about such information provided they
do not disclose commercial secrets;
§ (d) workers
and their representatives in the undertaking are given appropriate training in
occupational safety and health;
§ (e) workers or
their representatives and, as the case may be, their representative
organisations in an undertaking, in accordance with national law and practice,
are enabled to enquire into, and are consulted by the employer on, all aspects
of occupational safety and health associated with their work; for this purpose
technical advisers may, by mutual agreement, be brought in from outside the
undertaking;
§ (f) a worker
reports forthwith to his immediate supervisor any situation which he has reasonable
justification to believe presents an imminent and serious danger to his life or
health; until the employer has taken remedial action, if necessary, the
employer cannot require workers to return to a work situation where there is
continuing imminent and serious danger to life or health.
Co-operation
between management and workers and/or their representatives within the
undertaking shall be an essential element of organisational and other measures
taken in pursuance of Articles 16 to 19 of this Convention.
Occupational
safety and health measures shall not involve any expenditure for the workers.
PART V. FINAL PROVISIONS
This
Convention does not revise any international labour Conventions or
Recommendations.
The formal
ratifications of this Convention shall be communicated to the Director-General
of the International Labour Office for registration.
The
Director-General of the International Labour Office shall communicate to the
Secretary-General of the United Nations for registration in accordance with
Article 102 of the Charter of the United Nations full particulars of all
ratifications and acts of denunciation registered by him in accordance with the
provisions of the preceding Articles.
At such times
as it may consider necessary the Governing Body of the International Labour
Office shall present to the General Conference a report on the working of this
Convention and shall examine the desirability of placing on the agenda of the
Conference the question of its revision in whole or in part.
§ (a) the
ratification by a Member of the new revising Convention shall ipso jure involve
the immediate denunciation of this Convention, notwithstanding the provisions
of Article 25 above, if and when the new revising Convention shall have come
into force;
§ (b) as from
the date when the new revising Convention comes into force this Convention
shall cease to be open to ratification by the Members.
The English
and French versions of the text of this Convention are equally authoritative.
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