Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2009, published 99th ILC session (2010)

Labour Inspection Convention, 1947 (No. 81) - United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (Ratification: 1949)

The Committee notes with satisfaction that the Health and Safety Executive’s web site www.hse.gov.uk/index.htm publishes numerous documents and information on many topics, such as surveys on the occupational hazards, including psychological risks, to which men and women workers are
most frequently exposed in a number of industries, together with measures
to reduce or even eliminate them. It notes, for example, the web page www.hse.gov.uk/lead/index.htm, which focuses on lead exposure and the specific risks incurred by men, women and young people who work with lead, and provides useful guidance for identifying and eliminating such hazards. The Committee firmly hopes that the information provided will be put to good use throughout the United Kingdom, as a supplement to the obligations under the Convention, and that other countries will also take advantage of it, in the interest not only of protecting men and women workers, but also of improving the economic performance of enterprises. The Committee notes with interest in this connection the information sent by the Government showing, through a study of developments in work days lost due to various health disorders, the close link between protection and productivity, which was also noted by the Committee in its General Survey of 2006 on labour inspection (paragraph 374).

The Committee is raising other points in a request addressed directly to the Government.