- ILO 187
International Labour Organization Convention No. 187: Promotional Framework for Occupational Safety and Health Convention adopted at Geneva on 15 June 2006
3.1The major treaty action (Category 1) International Labour Organization Convention No. 187: Promotional Framework for Occupational Safety and Health Convention (Convention No. 187) was referred to the Committee on 15 May 2024.
3.2The Committee received two submissions and one response to Questions on Notice. The Committee held a public hearing in Canberra on 1 July 2024. A list of submissions can be found at Appendix A. The hearings and witnesses are listed at Appendix B. The transcript of evidence from the public hearing can be accessed through the Committee’s website.
Overview
3.3The proposed major treaty action (Category 1): International Labour Organization Convention No. 187: Promotional Framework for Occupational Safety and Health Convention (Convention No. 187).
3.4The purpose of Convention No. 187 is to prevent occupational injuries, diseases, and deaths by ensuring that International Labour Organization (ILO) Members ‘establish and implement national policies, systems and programmes, in consultation with workers’ and employers’ organisations, to promote a safe and healthy working environment and advance the right of workers to such an environment’.
3.5Convention No. 187 entered into force generally on 20 February 2009 and is binding on ILO Members that have registered their ratification with the International Labour Office.
Justifications
3.6Ratification of the treaty action by Australia would reflect the importance it places on workplace health and safety and ensure that Australian governments continue to promote a safe and healthy working environment and protect workers from occupational harm.
3.7Ratification is in line with international best practice and would demonstrate commitment to the implementation of key ILO standards, enhancing Australia’s standing in the international community. It would also support Australia’s role in providing leadership to promote international labour standards globally, including in the Asia-Pacific which has the highest mortality rate from work-related incidents (63per cent of the global total).
3.8Ratification of Convention No. 187 would mean that Australia has ratified all ten ‘fundamental Conventions’, after a 'safe and healthy work environment' (given effect by Convention No. 187 as well as the already ratified and in force Convention No. 155) was elevated to a fundamental right under the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work in 2022.
Obligations
3.9To achieve the objectives of Convention No. 187, Article 2 provides that Members must develop a national policy, national system and national programme on occupational safety and health (OSH) and take steps towards ‘achieving progressively a safe and healthy working environment.’
3.10Key requirements include:
- Article 3 requires a national policy to ‘promote basic OSH principles such as hazard or risk assessment, combatting risks and hazards at source, and developing a national preventative safety and health culture that includes information, consultation and training.’
- Article 4 requires a national system that includes ‘laws, regulations and other instruments on OSH; authorities responsible for OSH; compliance and inspection mechanisms; and arrangements to promote cooperation between management and workers and their representatives.’ The system must be established in consultation with organisations representing both employers and workers.
- Article 5 requires a national programme that: promotes the development of a national preventative safety and health culture; contributes to the protection of workers by eliminating or minimizing work-related hazards and risks to prevent injuries, diseases and deaths and promote safety and health in the workplace; is formulated and reviewed on the basis of analysis of the national situation; includes objectives, targets and indicators of progress; and is supported where possible by other complementary national programmes and plans.
- Each ILO Member must report on measures taken to give effect to the conventions to which it is a party. Members currently report on the implementation of each ratified ‘fundamental convention’ every three-years, meaning that the first report on Convention No. 187 would be due on 1 September in the year after it entered into force for Australia.
Entry into force and implementation
3.12Convention No. 187 would enter into force for Australia 12 months after the date on which ratification is registered.
3.13Australia has a well-developed national scheme for promoting and protecting OSH (also known as work health and safety (WHS)) that aims to prevent occupational injuries, diseases, and deaths, via its national policy, system and programme, as set out below.
3.14No changes to Commonwealth, State or Territory legislation are required for Australia to meet its obligations under Convention No. 187.
National policy
3.15Australia’s ‘national policy’ is the Inter-Governmental Agreement for Regulatory and Operational Reform in Occupational Health and Safety 2008 (IGA). The IGA is a Ministerial agreement at the Commonwealth, State and Territory level with the objective to develop uniform, equitable and effective safety standards and protections for Australian workers and achieve significant and continual reductions in the incidence of death, injury, and disease in the workplace.
3.16The IGA commits to harmonising WHS legislation and regulation across jurisdictions via model laws, supported by model Codes of Practice and complemented by a nationally consistent approach to compliance and enforcement.
3.17Safe Work Australia (SWA) was established as an independent tripartite body to develop and administer national policies, strategies, and model laws, as well as undertake research, education, and communication in consultation with all jurisdictions as well as employer and worker representatives.
National system
3.18Australia’s ‘national system’ comprises the WHS legislative framework, codes of practice, SWA and WHS regulators, and compliance and enforcement mechanisms.
3.19WHS is legislated and regulated separately in State, Territory and Commonwealth jurisdictions, with broad harmonisation through the model WHS framework. The model WHS framework consists of the model WHS Act, model WHS regulations and model Codes of Practice.
3.20The model WHS law aims to establish a nationally consistent approach to the WHS of workers and workplaces, including by minimising risks, ensuring fair representation, encouraging improvement, promoting education, and training, and ensuring an accountable compliance and enforcement regime. While Victoria has not adopted the model laws, its WHS legislation is similar to that in the jurisdictions that have adopted the model laws and the primary duties contained in its legislation are not inconsistent with the model laws.
3.21Australian WHS laws promote continuous improvement in WHS through a focus on the management and mitigation of risks to health and safety; the involvement of workers and elected worker representatives in risk management decisions; broad compliance and enforcement powers and the imposition of penalties for contraventions of duties.
3.22In conjunction with SWA’s guidance and education on WHS, regulators in each jurisdiction conduct monitoring and compliance, as well as provide information, training, and support. Each jurisdiction has a workers’ compensation scheme for injuries sustained at work. SWA develops national policy to improve workers’ compensation in Australia and promote national consistency.
National programme
3.23Australia’s ‘national programme’ is the Australian Work Health and Safety Strategy 2023-2033 (the Strategy), approved by SWA members and WHS ministers from each jurisdiction following development that involved extensive research and consultation with employers’ and workers’ organisations.
3.24The Strategy promotes consistency and mutual progress, complementing the role of the model WHS framework in supporting improvements over time. It contributes to the protection of workers by setting a national goal of ‘reduced work-related fatalities, injuries and illness’ with agreed actions and timelines to guide implementation.
Costs and Impact Analysis
3.25There are no costs for Australia associated with ratifying Convention No. 187, nor is an Impact Analysis required.
Future treaty action
3.26Ratification of Convention No. 187 is not expected to result in any future treaty action. If a new convention is adopted that revises Convention No. 187, ratification of the revised convention would be subject to Australia’s domestic treaty-making procedures.
Withdrawal or denunciation
3.27Members may denounce Convention No. 187 in the 12 months after each ten-year period from the date in which it entered into force generally. If the right is not exercised, Members are bound for another ten years. The next opportunity for denunciation would be in the 12 months following 20 February 2029. Denunciation takes effect 12 months after registration with the Director-General.
Consultation
3.28States and territories were provided the opportunity to comment on the draft texts of Convention No. 187 in 2005 (when it was first discussed) and 2006 (when it was adopted).
3.29Australia’s compliance with and ratification of Convention No. 187 has been discussed at regular meetings of Commonwealth, State and Territory officials responsible for ILO matters, most recently on 3 April 2024.
3.30The Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations wrote to State and Territory industrial relations Ministers on 2 August 2022 and 27 March 2024 in relation to ratifying Convention No. 187.
3.31Since Convention No. 187 was adopted by the ILO in 2006, its ratification has been periodically discussed at meetings of the International Labour Affairs Committee, comprising the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR), the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) and the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI). The ACTU and ACCI support Australia’s ratification of Convention No. 187.
Issues
Fundamental conventions
3.32In a submission to the inquiry, Professor Sean Cooney said that of the almost 200 conventions adopted by the ILO, ten had been identified as fundamental through their inclusion in the Declaration of Fundamental Rights and Principals at Work (the Declaration). The Declaration included eight of these conventions when it was first adopted in 1998 before being amended in 2022 to include Convention No. 155 and No. 187. Convention No. 187 is the only one of these ten that is yet to be ratified by Australia.
3.33These fundamental conventions are significant due to their alignment to fundamental human rights, the requirement to adhere to them being included in many international trade agreements, and their citation in national court systems.
3.34The Committee heard at the public hearing that by ratifying Convention No. 187, Australia would join a group of 20 countries that have ratified all ten fundamental conventions. DEWR said that by joining this group, Australia would be ‘upholding our standing in the international community and demonstrating Australia's commitment to the implementation of key ILO standards, including within our region’.
3.35DEWR stated that Australia would be the first country within the Asia-Pacific region to have ratified the ten conventions and that doing so would ‘help in [Australia’s] advocacy work in encouraging other countries in the Asia-Pacific to also ratify fundamental conventions’.
3.36Professor Cooney also emphasised Australia’s standing in the international WHS sphere, describing Australia as an ‘international exemplar’ in a region where WHS practices are ‘often poor’. Professor Cooney described Australia as well placed to assist other nations and that ratifying Convention No. 187 would affirm Australia’s beneficial role in an area ‘which is crucial to the lives and well-being of all people who work’.
Strategic and legislative alignment
3.37At the public hearing and in submissions to the inquiry, the Committee heard that the ratification of Convention No. 187 aligned with the aims of the Australian Work Health and Safety Strategy 2023-2033 and fell within a WHS framework already established by Commonwealth, State and Territory laws and policies.
3.38DEWR stated that it had ‘engaged extensively with the States and Territories through the law and practice assessment process, and all have provided information indicating their law and practice complies’. At the public hearing, DEWR said that all States and Territories other than Western Australia and Tasmania had provided formal support for Convention No. 187, with Tasmania providing in principle support.
3.39Following the hearing, DEWR communicated to the Committee that Western Australia had since indicated their formal support for ratification of Convention No.187. DEWR said that Tasmania’s in principle support remained while the ratification went through formal Cabinet processes.
3.40In their submission to the inquiry, the ACTU supported ratification and stated that the Convention No. 187’s requirement for a national tripartite advisory body was already fulfilled by SWA. The ACTU did note that there was currently no tripartite body in the Commonwealth regulated offshore oil and gas sector as well as other WHS jurisdictions and encouraged ‘the Government to reform these bodies to ensure tripartite representation, in the spirit of the Convention’.
Committee comment
3.41The Committee recognises that ratification of Convention No. 187 would reflect the importance Australia places on WHS and ensure the continued promotion of a safe and healthy working environment for all Australians. Beyond Australia, ratifying the last of the ten fundamental ILO conventions would also strengthen Australia’s position as an advocate for WHS in the international community and help to improve associated outcomes across the Asia-Pacific.
3.42The Committee understands the requirements of Convention No. 187 but appreciates that Australia already has the national policy, system and programme that is required to meet the obligations of the Convention. Ratifying Convention No. 187 places no additional obligations, costs or future treaty action upon Australia.
3.43At the public hearing, the Committee heard issues relating to both Convention No. 187 and Convention No. 191. The Committee was satisfied that issues relating to Convention No. 187, such as it being adopted into the ILO’s Declaration of Fundamental Rights and Principals at Work and its strategic and legislative alignment, were sufficiently addressed. The report on the Committee’s inquiry into Convention No. 191 can be found in Report 218.
3.44The Committee supports the International Labour Organization Convention No. 187: Promotional Framework for Occupational Safety and Health Convention and recommends that binding treaty action be taken.