R164 - Occupational
Safety and Health Recommendation, 1981 (No. 164)
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) 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.
§ (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
§ (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
§ (a) issue or
approve regulations, codes of practice or other suitable provisions on
occupational safety and health and the working environment, account being taken
of the links existing between safety and health, on the one hand, and hours of
work and rest breaks, on the other;
§ (b) from time
to time review legislative enactments concerning occupational safety and health
and the working environment, and provisions issued or approved in pursuance of
clause (a) of this Paragraph, in the light of experience and advances in
science and technology;
§ (c) undertake
or promote studies and research to identify hazards and find means of
overcoming them;
§ (d) provide
information and advice, in an appropriate manner, to employers and workers and
promote or facilitate co-operation between them and their organisations, with a
view to eliminating hazards or reducing them as far as practicable; where
appropriate, a special training programme for migrant workers in their mother
tongue should be provided;
§ (e) provide
specific measures to prevent catastrophes, and to co-ordinate and make coherent
the actions to be taken at different levels, particularly in industrial zones
where undertakings with high potential risks for workers and the surrounding
population are situated;
§ (f) secure
good liaison with the International Labour Occupational Safety and Health
Hazard Alert System set up within the framework of the International Labour
Organisation;
§ (g) provide
appropriate measures for handicapped workers.
§ (a) implement
the requirements of Articles 4 and 7 of the Convention;
§ (b)
co-ordinate the exercise of the functions assigned to the competent authority
or authorities in pursuance of Article 11 of the Convention and Paragraph 4 of
this Recommendation;
§ (c)
co-ordinate activities in the field of occupational safety and health and the
working environment which are exercised nationally, regionally or locally, by
public authorities, by employers and their organisations, by workers'
organisations and representatives, and by other persons or bodies concerned;
§ (d) promote
exchanges of views, information and experience at the national level, at the
level of an industry or that of a branch of economic activity.
IV. Action at the Level of the Undertaking
§ (a) to provide
and maintain workplaces, machinery and equipment, and use work methods, which
are as safe and without risk to health as is reasonably practicable;
§ (b) to give
necessary instructions and training, taking account of the functions and capacities
of different categories of workers;
§ (c) to provide
adequate supervision of work, of work practices and of application and use of
occupational safety and health measures;
§ (d) to
institute organisational arrangements regarding occupational safety and health
and the working environment adapted to the size of the undertaking and the
nature of its activities;
§ (e) to
provide, without any cost to the worker, adequate personal protective clothing
and equipment which are reasonably necessary when hazards cannot be otherwise
prevented or controlled;
§ (f) to ensure
that work organisation, particularly with respect to hours of work and rest
breaks, does not adversely affect occupational safety and health;
§ (g) to take
all reasonably practicable measures with a view to eliminating excessive
physical and mental fatigue;
§ (h) to
undertake studies and research or otherwise keep abreast of the scientific and
technical knowledge necessary to comply with the foregoing clauses.
§ (1) The
measures taken to facilitate the co-operation referred to in Article 20 of the
Convention should include, where appropriate and necessary, the appointment, in
accordance with national practice, of workers' safety delegates, of workers'
safety and health committees, and/or of joint safety and health committees; in
joint safety and health committees workers should have at least equal
representation with employers' representatives.
§ (2) Workers'
safety delegates, workers' safety and health committees, and joint safety and
health committees or, as appropriate, other workers' representatives should--
§ (a) be given
adequate information on safety and health matters, enabled to examine factors
affecting safety and health, and encouraged to propose measures on the subject;
§ (b) be
consulted when major new safety and health measures are envisaged and before
they are carried out, and seek to obtain the support of the workers for such
measures;
§ (c) be
consulted in planning alterations of work processes, work content or
organisation of work, which may have safety or health implications for the
workers;
§ (d) be given
protection from dismissal and other measures prejudicial to them while
exercising their functions in the field of occupational safety and health as
workers' representatives or as members of safety and health committees;
§ (e) be able to
contribute to the decision-making process at the level of the undertaking
regarding matters of safety and health;
§ (f) have
access to all parts of the workplace and be able to communicate with the
workers on safety and health matters during working hours at the workplace;
§ (g) be free to
contact labour inspectors;
§ (h) be able to
contribute to negotiations in the undertaking on occupational safety and health
matters;
§ (i) have
reasonable time during paid working hours to exercise their safety and health
functions and to receive training related to these functions;
§ (j) have
recourse to specialists to advise on particular safety and health problems.
§ (a) the
availability of an occupational health service and a safety service, within the
undertaking, jointly with other undertakings, or under arrangements with an
outside body;
§ (b) recourse
to specialists to advise on particular occupational safety or health problems
or supervise the application of measures to meet them.
§ (1) Employers
should be required to verify the implementation of applicable standards on
occupational safety and health regularly, for instance by environmental
monitoring, and to undertake systematic safety audits from time to time.
§ (2) Employers
should be required to keep such records relevant to occupational safety and
health and the working environment as are considered necessary by the competent
authority or authorities; these might include records of all notifiable
occupational accidents and injuries to health which arise in the course of or
in connection with work, records of authorisation and exemptions under laws or
regulations to supervision of the health of workers in the undertaking, and
data concerning exposure to specified substances and agents.
§ (a) take reasonable
care for their own safety and that of other persons who may be affected by
their acts or omissions at work;
§ (b) comply
with instructions given for their own safety and health and those of others and
with safety and health procedures;
§ (c) use safety
devices and protective equipment correctly and do not render them inoperative;
§ (d) report
forthwith to their immediate supervisor any situation which they have reason to
believe could present a hazard and which they cannot themselves correct;
§ (e) report any
accident or injury to health which arises in the course of or in connection
with work.
V. Relations to Existing International
Labour Conventions and Recommendations
§ (1) In the
development and application of the policy referred to in Article 4 of the
Convention and without prejudice to their obligations under Conventions they
have ratified, Members should refer to the international labour Conventions and
Recommendations listed in the Appendix.
§ (2) The
Appendix may be modified by the International Labour Conference, by a
two-thirds majority, in connection with the future adoption or revision of any
Convention or Recommendation in the field of safety and health and the working
environment.
|
Year |
Convention |
Recommendation |
|
1921 |
13. White Lead (Painting) |
|
|
1929 |
27. Marking of Weight
(Packages Transported by Vessels) |
|
|
1937 |
62. Safety Provisions
(Building) |
53. Safety Provisions
(Building) |
|
1946 |
· 73. Medical Examinations (Seafarers) · 77. Medical Examination Of Young Persons
(Industry) · 78. Medical Examination of Young Persons
(Non-industrial Occupations) |
79. Medical Examination of
Young Persons |
|
1947 |
81. Labour Inspection |
· 81. Labour Inspection · 82. Labour Inspection (Mining and
Transport) |
|
1949 |
92. Accommodation of Crews
(Revised) |
|
|
1953 |
97. Protection of Workers'
Health |
|
|
1958 |
· 105. Ships' Medicine Chests · 106. Medical Advice at Sea |
|
|
1959 |
113. Medical Examination
(Fishermen) |
112. Occupational Health
Services |
|
1960 |
115. Radiation Protection |
114. Radiation Protection |
|
1963 |
119. Guarding of Machinery |
118. Guarding of Machinery |
|
1964 |
· Hygiene (Commerce and Offices) · 121. Employment Injury Benefits |
· 120. Hygiene (Commerce and Offices) · 121. Employment Injury Benefits |
|
1965 |
124. Medical Examination of
Young Persons (Underground Work) |
|
|
1967 |
127. Maximum Weight |
128. Maximum Weight |
|
1969 |
129. Labour Inspection
(Agriculture) |
133. Labour Inspection
(Agriculture) |
|
1970 |
· 133. Accommmodation of Crews (Supplementary
Provisions) · ·
134. Prevention of Accidents (Seafarers) |
· 140. Crew Accommodation (Air Conditioning) · 141. Crew Accommodation (Noise Control) · 142. Prevention of Accidents (Seafarers) |
|
1971 |
136. Benzene |
144. Benzene |
|
1974 |
139. Occupational Cancer |
147. Occupational Cancer |
|
1977 |
148. Working Environment
(Air Pollution, Noise and Vibration) |
156. Working Environment
(Air Pollution, Noise and Vibration) |
|
1979 |
152. Occupational Safety and
Health (Dock Work) |
160. Occupational Safety and
Health (Dock Work) |