28 April - World Day for Safety and Health at work

The ILO celebrates the World Day for Safety and Health at Work on the 28 April to promote the prevention of occupational accidents and diseases globally. It is an awareness-raising campaign intended to focus international attention on emerging trends in the field of occupational safety and health and on the magnitude of work-related injuries, diseases and fatalities worldwide.

With the celebration of the World Day for Safety and Health at Work, the ILO promotes the creation of a global preventative safety and health culture involving ILO constituents and all key stakeholders in this field. In many parts of the world, national authorities, trade unions, employers' organizations and safety and health practitioners organize activities to celebrate this date. We invite you to join us in celebrating this significant day and share with us the activities you organize.

The 28 April is also the International Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured Workers organized worldwide by the trade union movement since 1996. Its purpose is to honour the memory of victims of occupational accidents and diseases by organizing worldwide mobilizations and awareness campaigns on this date.

In 2003, the ILO became involved in the April 28 campaign upon request from the trade union movement. While we honour injured and fallen workers, we appreciate and celebrate that these injuries and fatalities can be prevented and reduced, recognizing it as both a day for commemoration and celebration. Since 2003, the ILO observes the World Day on Safety and Health at Work on April 28 capitalizing on its traditional strengths of tripartism and social dialogue.

28 April is seen as a day to raise international awareness on occupational safety and health among trade unions, employers’ organizations and government representatives alike. The ILO acknowledges the shared responsibility of key stakeholders and encourages them to promote a preventive safety and health culture to fulfill their obligations and responsibilities for preventing deaths, injuries and diseases in the workplace, allowing workers to return safely to their homes at the end of the working day.

Year 2021

Since emerging as a global crisis in early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has had profound impacts everywhere. The pandemic has touched nearly every aspect of the world of work, from the risk of transmission of the virus in workplaces, to occupational safety and health (OSH) risks that have emerged as a result of measures to mitigate the spread of the virus. Shifts to new forms of working arrangements, such as the widespread reliance on teleworking, have, for example, presented many opportunities for workers but also posed potential OSH risks, including psychosocial risks and violence in particular.

The World Day for Safety and Health at Work 2021 focuses on leveraging the elements of an OSH system as set out in the Promotional Framework for Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 2006 (No. 187). The world day report examines how the current crisis demonstrates the importance of strengthening these OSH systems, including occupational health services, at both the national and undertaking level.

The ILO will take this opportunity to raise awareness and stimulate dialogue on the importance of creating and investing in resilient OSH systems, drawing on both regional and country examples in mitigating and preventing the Spread of COVID-19 at the workplace.

Source: ILO