The ILO incorporates Safety and Health into the fundamental principles and rights at Work

The International Labor Organization held a meeting of its International Labor Conference (ILC) on June 10, in which a resolution was adopted to add the principle of a safe and healthy working environment to the ILO's Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.

Until now there were four categories of fundamental principles and rights at work:

• Freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining.
• The elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory labor.
• The effective abolition of child labor.
• The elimination of discrimination in employment and occupation.

The conference decision means that occupational safety and health will now become the fifth category.

The fundamental principles and rights at work were adopted in 1998 as part of an ILO declaration, by virtue of which member states, regardless of their level of economic development, undertake to respect and promote these principles and rights, whether or not they have ratified the corresponding conventions.

Each of the fundamental principles is associated with the most relevant ILO Conventions and the new fundamental conventions will be the Convention on safety and health of workers 1981 (no. 155) and the Convention on the promotional framework for the safety and health of workers workers 2006 (nº187) .