Presentation for

China Migrant Labour Occupational Health and

Safety Project – June 2009

Knowledge – a Prerequisite to Strengthening Labour

Inspection

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Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety

Changing World of Work

We are seeing drastic changes in organizations and how they do business. Dramatic changes taking place in:

• Workplace structure and job content

• Work methods, processes, equipment and technologies

• Workplace environment,

are having a profound impact on the work of health and safety inspectorates throughout the world.

The speed of these changes is increasing and the scope and the extent of the changes are expanding.

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Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety

Advancing Knowledge

Advancing knowledge on a whole range of emerging complex concerns such as:

• nanotechnology,

• pandemics,

• mental health,

• violence in the workplace,

as well as new findings on well known problems

are constantly expanding the occupational health and safety landscape.

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Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety

New and Emerging Risks

Introduction of:

• new technologies,

• new working methods, and

• physical, chemical, biological agents

contribute to emerging risks affecting the health and safety of present and future generations.

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Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety

Pattern of Injuries and Illnesses

Along with these changes:

• the pattern of work-related injuries and illnesses,

• their causal factors, as well as,

• effective ways of dealing with them

are also changing.

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Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety

Occupational Health Concerns

With advancing knowledge of the effects of work on the health and safety of people, occupational health concerns have been receiving prominent attention.

For example, •toxic substances and the exponential increase of their prevalence in the workplace represent a growing concern, and

•stress and musculoskeletal disorders continue to make the biggest contributions to work-related ill health.

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Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety

Holistic & Integrated Approach

The growing importance of corporate social responsibility, health promotion and new strategies for occupational health and safety are taking a holistic and integrated approach that is associated with not only chemical, biological, physical and psychosocial concerns, but also with:

• Organizational culture

• Job design

• Human interactions, and

• Life-style considerations

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Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety

Involvement of Everyone

There is an increasing emphasis on the active involvement of everyone concerned, including workers, supervisors, managers, practitioners, employers and enforcement authorities.

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Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety

Keeping Abreast

Confronted with this rapidly changing world of work, the regulatory process of every country is faced with the daunting challenge of keeping abreast to ensure that:

• in the contemporary changing work relationships responsibilities continue to rest on those with real control and influence on health and safety.

• all relevant risks continue to be given due attention

• the diversity of organizations – large, medium, small, micro and sole operator – are recognized, and

• structural changes such as re-structuring, downsizing, privatization, outsourcing, etc. are taken into consideration.

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Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety

Health and Safety Inspectorates Handicapped

At a time when enforcement agencies are called upon to widen their operational activities far beyond traditional safety centered practices to incorporate wider health concerns through a comprehensive approach and fulfill expanding expectations of the public, health and safety inspectorates in most countries are severely handicapped by the need to spread the limited resources available to them even thinner.

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Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety

Toward Increasing Impact

Many inspectorates are increasingly resorting to activities such as

•awareness raising, •information and advice, •education and training, etc. in an effort to increase the impact of the limited number of available inspectors on greater numbers of enterprises beyond that possible with inspections and investigations.

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Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety

Management Systems Approach

There is an increasing interest in an evolving prevention policy using a management systems approach to:

•Improve health and safety performance across the organization

•Take account of on going change•Building occupational health and safety as a primary organizational objective

•Plan and act on all potential sources of harm•Follow Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle – continuous improvement

•Build the necessary knowledge and capacity

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Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety

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Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety

Management Systems Based Prevention Strategy

Use of a prevention strategy based on management systems is able to provide occupational health inspectors with optimum capabilities to influence organizational behaviour and improve occupational health and safety outcomes proactively in a comprehensive manner by combining enforcement functions with awareness raising knowledge transfer, education, advice and information services.

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Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety

Knowledge is Critical

Critical to the success of this strategy is the ability of the inspector to build the crucial knowledge and understanding on the wide range of issues and concerns they face on a daily basis and to keep abreast of the ongoing developments with respect to that knowledge.

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Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety

Innovative Tools

Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety, based on its decades of experience in knowledge transfer in the field of occupational health and safety, has developed information technology based tools for use by enterprises as well as by health and safety inspectors to implement a prevention strategy based on management systems, building the necessary know-how to suit specific circumstances.

These tools provide instant access to the information, knowledge, advice and instructions needed with respect to the needs of specific sectors and occupations.

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Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety

Tools for Implementing a Management System

 •Comprehensive integrated approach•Senior management commitment and leadership•A comprehensive approach to risk management concerning all potential sources of harm

•Compliance with legal and other requirements•Active involvement of all parties concerned•Development of occupational health and safety knowledge and competencies

•Monitoring and continuous improvement

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Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety

Knowledge Base

The essential knowledge base is built as profiles of topics of importance linked to the sources of required knowledge within the structure of a comprehensive management system called OSH Works delivered to end-users on the world-wide-web.

A description and demonstration is available from CCOHS’ website at:

http://www.ccohs.ca/products/oshworks

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Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety

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Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety

Instant Access to Knowledge

Using these tools, occupational health and safety inspectors will have instant access to the knowledge they need to address issues concerning different industries, operations and occupations as and when needed during the course of their daily work.

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Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety

CCOHS Website

http://www.ccohs.ca

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Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety

Thank You

For further information contact

Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety

Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Web Site: www.ccohs.ca