Sustainable development goal nine

The role of OSH professionals is to ensure the use of safe equipment and safe behaviour, and to oversee safe systems of work. But how do we define safety?

It will be different in a shop and in a nuclear power station, and different in a transport yard and a laboratory. The answer can be found by identifying what people are doing, and how they might be exposed to harm; in other words, by conducting a risk assessment and then managing the risks. Regardless of the variation in what safe looks like, the process of managing the risks facing workers is a key contributor to sustainable work.

Effective risk management contributes to the delivery of the following SDG targets:

• 3d strengthen the capacity of all countries, in particular developing countries, for early warning, risk reduction and management of national and global health risks
• 6.3 improve water quality by reducing pollution, eliminating dumping and minimizing release of hazardous chemicals and materials
• 9.2 promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization
• 9.4 upgrade infrastructure and retrofit industries to make them sustainable, with increased resource-use efficiency and greater adoption of clean and environmentally sound technologies and industrial processes
• 11.5 significantly reduce the number of deaths and the number of people affected and substantially decrease the direct economic losses
• 12.4 achieve the environmentally sound management of chemicals…and significantly reduce their release to air, water and soil to minimise their adverse impacts on human health
• 16.3 promote the rule of law at the national and international levels and ensure equal access to justice for all
  The practice of risk management is built upon principles of anticipation, prevention, and improvement. While the immediate objective of occupational safety and health risk management is primarily to prevent injury and ill health among workers, the broader OSH benefit is the ongoing protection of communities and the environment.

As the world of work and business changes, new risks to workers will also emerge. Tackling these emergent risks with adaptable risk management will help build resilient, sustainable businesses.

The importance of risk management as part of good occupational safety and health provision is recognised by its inclusion in IOSH’s competency framework.

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Vulnerable workers are those who are at a higher risk of sustaining an injury, illness, or fatality at work due to certain circumstances or conditions.

The definition also includes workers who are at risk of having their workplace rights denied, or who lack the ability to secure them. Vulnerable workers can include workers with disabilities, young people, pregnant workers and new mothers migrant workers, older workers, gig workers and others in the informal economy.

OSH law requires employers to manage the risks to vulnerable workers, and other regulations, such as equality laws, mandate making sure they have the same access to work and protections as other workers.

Given the inequities that exist in the world of work, inclusive approaches to protecting all workers can play a prominent role in delivering one of the SDGs of ensuring decent work for workers globally.

The management of vulnerable workers contributes to the delivery of the following SDG targets:

• 1.3 implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all
• 8.5 full and productive employment and decent work for all women and men, including for young people and persons with disabilities
• 8.7 eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery, human trafficking and…child labour
• 8.8 protect labour rights and promote safe and secure working environments for all workers, including migrant workers, in particular women migrants, and those in precarious employment
• 9.2 promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization
• 9.4 upgrade infrastructure and retrofit industries to make them sustainable, with increased resource-use efficiency and greater adoption of clean and environmentally sound technologies and industrial processes.

Proactive and comprehensive OSH management practices should help to identify the specific vulnerabilities of workers, be they based on factors such as gender, physical (dis)ability, ethnicity, and so on. In response, the steps taken to protect and promote the safety and health of those workers should account for their unique needs.

And given that a safe and health working environment is enshrined as a fundamental principle and right at work, it is incumbent upon businesses to ensure that the most vulnerable workers involved in their activities are suitably cared for. This responsibility will increasingly extend to workers engaged via supply chain arrangements.

The importance of supporting vulnerable workers as part of good occupational safety and health provision is recognised by its inclusion in IOSH’s competency framework.

Ethical business practices are adopted by organisations to uphold moral values and to meet the expectations of customers, workers, suppliers, investors and society in general.

Ethical values include fairness, honesty, integrity, responsibility, transparency, and accountability.

The management of the occupational safety, health, and wellbeing of workers is a fundamental part of ethical business practice, not least because it fulfils the duty to treat workers fairly and protect them. The International Labour Organization’s 2022 resolution to include ‘a safe and healthy working environment’ as a fundamental principle and right at work reinforces the ethical importance of OSH by moving worker protection from the labour rights to the human rights arena.

Ethical business practices contribute to the delivery of the following SDG targets:

• 8.5 full and productive employment and decent work for all women and men, including for young people and persons with disabilities
• 8.7 eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery, human trafficking and child labour
• 8.8 protect labour rights and promote safe and secure working environments for all workers, including migrant workers, in particular women migrants, and those in precarious employment
• 9.2 promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization
• 9.4 upgrade infrastructure and retrofit industries to make them sustainable, with increased resource-use efficiency and greater adoption of clean and environmentally sound technologies and industrial processes.

OSH as a principle, a practice, and a profession has ethical foundations in the sense that the ultimate aim of protecting all workers is supportive of a universal social good. Not only is OSH ethical by premise, but its very processes – identifying risks to workers, including workers in changes that may affect their safety and health, acting in good faith to learn from safety and health incidents – are also driven by ethical values such as equality, fairness, and integrity.

The importance of ethical business practices as part of good occupational safety and health provision is recognised by its inclusion in IOSH’s competency framework.