Occupational health
Only 5% to 10% of workers in developing countries and 20% to 50% of those in industrialized countries have access to adequate occupational health services. The promotion of workers’ health and safety at the workplace is also inadequate. To encourage countries to support the protection and promotion of workers’ health, particularly where occupational health services do not reach, WHO has recently introduced the healthy workplaces approach. Healthy workplaces not only reinforce occupational health and safety standards, but also provide physical, organizational (e.g. workload, management style, communication) and community environments that protect and promote health and safety of the workers.
The collaborative work for integrating health protection and promotion at workplaces started in 1997, and healthy workplaces were then piloted in Shanghai, China. In response to a recommendation of the regional workshop on health-promoting workplaces held in China in December 1997, WHO produced the regional guidelines for the development of healthy workplaces in November 1999. While the regional guidelines were developed, the Philippines and Singapore initiated award programmes to encourage the management of organizations to protect and promote health of their workers. WHO also supported Viet Nam to initiate a workplace health promotion project in 1999, engaging small-scale industries in Haiphong and Hue, as part of the Healthy Cities projects in these cities.
Fact sheets
News and press releases
No news/press releases available at this time.
Relevant publications and documents
Regional Framework for Action for Occupational Health, 2006-2010
WHO/ILO Meeting on Strengthening Occupational Health and Safety, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 23 to 25 November 2005
The WHO/ILO Meeting on Strengthening Occupational Health and Safety was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from 23 to 25 November 2005. The objectives of the meeting were: 1) to review the state of development and implementation of: a) the national programmes/action plans/profiles on occupational health and safety of participating countries, and identify areas that require strengthening; b) the concept and approach of basic occupational health services and other similar initiatives to improve the provision of occupational health; c) the areas of action identified at the WHO/ILO meeting on strengthening occupational health in Asia and the Pacific in 2003; 2) to review the ILO 2003 Global Strategy and the process and interim outcomes of the development of a WHO Global Plan of Action for 2007-2015, and discuss their relevance to the Region; and 3) to recommend the future course of action for ILO and WHO collaboration with Asian countries to strengthen their occupational health programmes. The meeting was attended by 26 participants from 12 countries: Australia, Brunei Darussalam, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, the Philippines, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam. They are technical government officials from health and labour agencies and staff of relevant institutions involved in occupational health and safety. Four observers from India, Malaysia, the Republic of Korea, and three temporary advisers also attended the meeting. In addition, three WHO staff from the Regional Offices for South-East Asia and the Western Pacific as well as Headquarters, and one staff member from the International Labour Organization served as the meeting Secretariat.
[more publications and documents]
Upcoming meetings and events
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