Chapter 4 Managing workers’ conditions

The Seoul Declaration of 2008 recognises that occupational health and safety is a common responsibility taken on by all societal players rather than solely the responsibility of government, employers and occupational health and safety institutions. With the aim of moving away from reactive accident prevention activities towards a positive culture of enhancing the well-being and welfare of workers the signatories committed the participating bodies to enhancing worker safety on the international level.

At national and local levels there are many examples of good practice adopted by tripartite government, employer and employee groups that provide models for the continual improvement of welfare and health: the BuildHealth and BuildSafe initiatives in Northern Ireland established minimum standards of safety and health conditions on site for companies tendering for government contracts; the various skills programmes establish minimum levels of occupational health and safety competences for all who enter or work on sites, and in support of this, statutory regulations direct Clients to design, build, maintain and eventually demolish structures in a manner that is non-injurious to workers, users and public alike.