ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is considering ratifying two occupational safety and hea­­­lth conventions of Inter­national Labour Organi­sa­tion (ILO) as part of its obligations to meet international standards.

A senior official of the Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development told a national tripartite workshop on occupational safety and health that safe and healthy working conditions were fundamental to decent work and thus creating safe, healthy and productive working en­­vironments were an increasingly important agenda for the socio-economic development in Pakistan.

The workshop particularly discussed the ILO Fun­damental Conventions on Occupational Safety and Health Convention No 155 and the Promotional Fra­me­work for Occupational Safe­­ty and Health Conven­tion No 187.

Representatives of the federal government, workers and employers’ organisations reviewed provincial and national policies on Occupational Safety and Health and discussed the ILO conventions at a national tripartite workshop on Occupational Safety and Health held in Islamabad last week.

Head of Rural Develop­m­ent and Economic Coopera­tion of the European Union Delegation in Pakistan Dr Stephen Langrell said on the occasion that the Inter­national Labour and Envir­onmental Standards Appli­cation in Pakistan’s SMEs aimed to strengthen, implement and enforce existing and new legislation to promote respect for, and compliance with international labour and environmental standards in Pakistan.

As such, its activities play an important role in helping support Pakistan in its compliance with such standards conditional for preferential EU market access under the GSP-Plus scheme, of which the OSH is one, he said.

The International Labour Standards on safe and healthy working environment, Conventions No 155 on Occupational Safety and Health and No 187 on Promotional Framework for Occupational Safety and Health Convention, were added to the ILO’s Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work at the 110th International Labour Conference this year.

Convention No 155 provides for the adoption of a coherent national occupational safety and health policy, as well as action to be taken by governments and within enterprises to promote occupational safety and health to improve working conditions.

Convention No 187 is aimed at establishing and implementing coherent national policies on occupational safety and health through dialogue between government, workers’ and employers’ organisations and to promote a national preventive safety and health culture.

Published in Dawn, September 27th, 2022