11th National Occupational Safety and Health Congress
October 8 – 10, 2008
Occupational Safety and Health Center

    “We intend to expand quality OSH services in our workplaces through training and information, education, research and technical services, and thru policies. These are ambitious goals but they are within reach. Workers, supervisors and managers will play key roles together with OSH experts. We can also count on the youth. Pilot safety and health education in schools and colleges has shown promising results.”

   Discussing OSH achievements and challenges, some 450 managers, OSH practitioners, workers and resource persons agreed that, with imagination and determination, major progress was possible towards the ambitious goals of accident free workplaces.

   Some 70 resource persons provided concrete examples where effective OSH management systems, and close labor-management cooperation in OSH Committees, had resulted in millions of accident-free work-days; the immense impact of sound OSH programs on individual workplaces was reflected in the prevention of countless grave accidents and illnesses; a rise in workplace productivity and the avoidance of substantial cost for treatment and rehabilitation.

   Numerous examples were given on how OSH programs could benefit both the workers of the establishment and the wider community: Progressive disaster preparedness programs that did not only cover the firm’s own workers, but also the members of the surrounding communities. Also, many companies, practicing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), were extending good OSH practices to the communities, for example by training small farmers and rural the communities in the correct use of fertilizers or in environment-friendly waste disposal.

   The participants noted, with great interest, public and private initiatives of extending OSH services to the informal sector. In the case of Mandaue City the municipal Tripartite Industrial Peace Council was integrating OSH into its social and economic development programs. The Occupational Safety and Health Center (OSHC) was promoting, with considerable success, good OSH practices in cooperation with LGUs, DAF, SSS, PhilHealth, as well as informal sector associations. Substantial improvements of OSH services in the informal sector were being achieved through low cost methods.

   The Congress agreed, that in response to emerging hazards, OSH initiatives had to be proactive, not reactive. In particular the Philippines must come to grips with the threat of toxic chemicals known as Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPS) and should actively join the Globally Harmonized System (GHS) of labeling chemicals. There should be a total ban on asbestos. The hazards in new and fast developing service industries needed attention, like contact centers and tourisms industry.

   As far as the future of OSH was concerned, the Congress endorsed DOLE’s flagship ZERO Accident program as the centerpiece for the National Medium Term OSH Plan and Program for 2008 to 2010. In their Congress Resolution the participants committed themselves to the following priorities:

   The participants recognized that the real and potential benefits of OSH cannot be achieved single-handedly, overnight. They are the result of persistent efforts by all stakeholders: by government, management, workers unions, family and the community.

   To meet the challenges of an increasingly complex world of work the OSH stakeholders could draw on the rich experience, available locally and internationally. Cooperation with the UN system and with ASEAN was mutually beneficial. The ratification, by the Philippines, of relevant ILO Conventions Numbers 155 and 187 on the promotion of OSH systems would give a great boost to spreading an OSH culture and mobilizing resources for the implementation of effective programs.