ILO Convention C161 & Recommendation R171 - Occupational Health Services

The ILO Occupational Health Services Convention No.161 defines occupational health services as services entrusted with essentially preventive functions and responsible for advising the employers, the workers and their representatives in the undertaking on the requirements for establishing and maintaining a safe and healthy work environment that will facilitate optimal physical and mental health in relation to work and the adaptation of work to the capabilities of workers in the light of their state of physical and mental health.

The Occupational Health Services Recommendation 1985 (R171) supplements C161 and provides more detailed guidance on how to comply with the policies of C161.

The Occupational Health Services Convention C161 and Recommendation R171 following principles:

• Risk assessment of health hazards

• Surveillance: working environment, practices and workers’ health

• Advice on occupational health

• Vocational rehabilitation

• Information and training

• First aid and emergency treatment

SURVEILLANCE OF THE WORKING ENVIRONMENT
The surveillance of the working environment should include-
(a) identification and evaluation of the environmental factors which may affect the workers’ health;
(b) assessment of conditions of occupational hygiene and factors in the organisation of work which may give rise to risks for the health of workers;
(c)  assessment of collective and personal protective equipment;
(d) assessment where appropriate of exposure of workers to hazardous agents by valid and generally accepted monitoring methods;
(e)  assessment of control systems designed to eliminate or reduce exposure.
SURVEILLANCE OF THE WORKER'S HEALTH
(1) Surveillance of the workers’ health should include, in the cases and under the conditions specified by the competent authority, all assessments necessary to protect the health of the workers, which may include-
(a) health assessment of workers before their assignment to specific tasks which may involve a danger to their health or that of others;
(b) health assessment at periodic intervals during employment which involves exposure to a particular hazard to health;
(c) health assessment on resumption of work after a prolonged absence for health reasons for the purpose of determining its possible occupational causes, of recommending appropriate action to protect the workers and of determining the worker’s suitability for the job and needs for reassignment and rehabilitation;
(d) health assessment on and after the termination of assignments involving hazards which might cause or contribute to future health impairment.
(2) Provisions should be adopted to protect the privacy of the workers and to ensure that health surveillance is not used for discriminatory purposes or in any other manner prejudicial to their interests.
Occupational health services should record data on workers’ health in personal confidential health files. These files should also contain information on jobs held by the workers, on exposure to occupational hazards involved in their work, and on the results of any assessments of workers’ exposure to these hazards.

INFORMATION, EDUCATION, TRAINING, ADVICE
Occupational health services should participate in designing and implementing programmes of information, education and training on health and hygiene in relation to work for the personnel of the undertaking.

FIRST AID, TREATMENT AND HEALTH PROGRAMMES
Taking into account national law and practice, occupational health services in undertakings should provide first-aid and emergency treatment in cases of accident or illness of workers at the workplace and should collaborate in the organisation of first-aid.

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