World Day for Safety and Health at Work

  Promoting compliance, including through targeted support and awareness-raising, alongside effective enforcement by regulators, is essential to ensure that legal provisions on psychosocial risks translate into safer and healthier working environments . This is typically pursued through a balanced regulatory mix in which enforcement is combined with education, guidance and capacity building. Such approaches reflect contemporary regulatory theory, including responsive regulation and strategic enforcement, which emphasise combining deterrence with support for compliance rather than relying on sanctions alone.  Labour inspectorates play a central role in this framework. Across jurisdictions, inspection systems typically combine proactive prevention activities – such as targeted campaigns, preventive visits, sectoral programmes and thematic inspections – with reactive enforcement functions, including responses to complaints, incident notifications and reported harms. This dual ro...

On the event to mark the  World Day for Safety and Health at Work 2025  will bring together ILO constituents and international experts to explore how AI and digitalization are reshaping OSH systems across sectors and countries. Opening remarks Joaquim Pintado Nunes; Branch Chief, Occupational Safety and Health and Working Environment Branch (OSHE), International Labour Organization (ILO) Panelists Manal Azzi; Team Lead, Occupational Safety and Health and Working Environment Branch (OSHE) International Labour Organization (ILO) William Cockburn; Executive Director, European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) Rory O’Neill, Health and safety adviser, Global Unions International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) Leonardo L. Pucheta; Assistant Manager of Technological Innovation Applied to Prevention, Superintendency of Labour Risks, Argentina Kris de Meester; Senior Advisor; Federation of Enterprises in Belgium Maurizio Curtarelli; Expert, European Agency for Safet...

Artificial Intelligence and digital tools are revolutionizing occupational safety and health . Today, robots are operating in hazardous environments, doing the heavy lifting, managing toxic materials and working in extreme temperatures. They take on repetitive and monotonous tasks, while digital devices and sensors can detect hazards early on . At the same time, in the absence of adequate OSH measures, digital technologies can lead to accidents, ergonomic risks, work intensification, reduced job control and blurred boundaries. The campaign will shed light on how new technologies are transforming OSH , including through the automation of tasks, use of smart OSH tools and monitoring systems, extended reality and virtual reality and algorithmic management of work. The digital transformation of work has led to evolving work arrangements, such as telework and digital labour platforms, which will be further examined. The ILO will release a new report and promotional materials analyzing th...

  New and emerging occupational risks may be caused by technical innovation or by social or organizational change, such as: New technologies and production processes , e.g. nanotechnology, biotechnology New working conditions , e.g. higher workloads, work intensification from downsizing, poor conditions associated with migration for work, jobs in the informal economy Emerging forms of employment , e.g. self-employment, outsourcing, temporary contracts They may be more widely recognized through better scientific understanding, e.g. the effects of ergonomic risks on musculoskeletal disorders . They may be influenced by changes in perceptions about the importance of certain risk factors, e.g. the effects of psychosocial factors on work-related stress.

The annual Observance of the  World Day for Safety and Health at Work on April 28th promotes the prevention of occupational accidents and diseases globally. It is an awareness-raising campaign intended to focus international attention on the magnitude of the problem and on how promoting and creating a safety and health culture can help reduce the number of work-related deaths and injuries . Each of us is responsible for stopping deaths and injuries on the job . As governments we are responsible for providing the infrastructure — laws and services — necessary to ensure that workers remain employable and that enterprises flourish; this includes the development of a national policy and programme and a system of inspection to enforce compliance with occupational safety and health legislation and policy. As employers we are responsible for ensuring that the working environment is safe and healthy . As workers we are responsible to work safely and to protect ourselves and not to end...