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Over the past six years, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has succeeded in achieving many successes in the field of occupational safety and health as a result of the programs and initiatives implemented in conjunction with the launch of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 in order to develop occupational safety and health standards and practices in the work environment and to enhance the Kingdom’s pioneering role in applying the latest occupational safety and health practices in the region.
As part of its efforts to consolidate the values of occupational safety and health, the Kingdom has provided many capabilities for all concerned entities to develop occupational safety and health practices, and to enable these entities to comply with occupational safety and health requirements by providing cadres and developing national capabilities in this field. As well as developing technical support through electronic platforms to ensure the health and safety of workers with the diversification and expansion of accelerated economic fields and activities in the Kingdom, so that the Saudi labor market attracts local and global talents and capabilities, provides job opportunities for citizens, and promotes the transition to a diversified and prosperous economy.
The Kingdom’s efforts have also contributed to many achievements in the field of occupational safety and health, foremost of which is the Kingdom’s signing of the International Labor Organization Convention No. 120 to regulate health regulations in commerce and offices of 1949, in addition to the launch of a national policy for occupational safety and health approved by the Council of Ministers.
In order to enhance the organization and governance of occupational health and safety in the Kingdom, the Council of Ministers approved the establishment of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, which works to follow up and implement the national policy for occupational safety and health. In addition to developing and implementing a governance framework for occupational safety and health at the national level, coordinating roles and responsibilities between relevant government entities, as well as carrying out the terms of reference that enable it to regulate this field at the national level.
Moreover, the approval of the occupational safety and health governance framework at the national level, which was in last April, is one of the most prominent successes that took place during the last period. Where this was done through several stages that included studying the best frameworks for occupational safety and health governance at the international level, then studying the current situation of occupational safety and health applications in the Kingdom to identify gaps, and holding multiple workshops with parties that included workers, employers, and relevant government agencies. This is to ensure the effectiveness and applicability of the governance framework with the participation of a number of local and international entities and specialists to ensure the long-term sustainability of the governance framework and its promotion of best practices in the field of occupational safety and health , which enhanced the speed of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health adoption of the governance framework.
These achievements come as an important step to enhance the concept of a safe work environment, which contributes to creating a work environment that is free from accidents and injuries and attractive to the recruitment and continuity of human cadres, in line with the efforts of the National Strategic Program for Occupational Safety and Health, which resulted in 22 specialized initiatives, the most prominent of which were: The launch of the Administrative Regulations for Safety Occupational health and the “Safety Cadres” initiative for qualifying human cadres to work in the field and matching the qualifications and experience of workers to ensure their competence for work.
An initiative was also launched to develop a comprehensive national system for reporting and investigating work accidents and injuries and occupational diseases, in order to ensure the continuity of the culture of preventive work at work. This initiative aims to identify the causes of all types of work accidents in order to eliminate them and prevent their recurrence. In addition to sharing and employing the lessons learned in the roles of research and innovation in this field, with the initiation of an initiative to organize work in high-risk professions by identifying and controlling occupational safety and health risks, as well as an initiative to organize occupational safety and health in small and micro enterprises.
As part of the Kingdom’s endeavors to preserve the health of workers exposed to occupational risks, the infrastructure has been developed to provide specialized occupational health services to workers in order to implement the pre- and periodic occupational examinations necessary to ensure their safety, in addition to The ongoing initiative aimed at raising awareness of occupational safety and health at the national level through seminars and conferences.
And based on the Kingdom’s continuous keenness to develop the labor market, and to enhance the level of awareness among employers and workers in private sector establishments, the labor market strategy was adopted, which included developing the occupational safety and health system so that the labor market would attract local and international talents and capabilities. The Kingdom also organized many conferences, the most recent of which was the Fourth Arab Conference on Occupational Safety and Health in cooperation with the Arab Labor Organization, which coincided with the Fifth Saudi International Conference on Occupational Safety and Health in 2022, with the participation of a number of government entities and the private sector, such as the General Organization for Social Insurance, Aramco and SABIC.
These efforts come to confirm the great interest that the Kingdom has attached to everything related to the promotion of occupational safety and health in accordance with local standards and regulations and international treaties and agreements, which resulted in the issuance of the ministerial decision that includes the localization of the profession of occupational safety and health, which aims to provide occupational safety and health specialists in establishments with more than fifty employees. An occupational safety and health cadres program was also launched to train graduates wishing to work in this field, as well as developing training programs (practitioners and professionals) aimed at training more than 18,000 people to enable them and cover the needs of the labor market. More than 7,000 jobs have been created in the field of occupational safety and health, and 43 technical guides in occupational safety and health have been published, as these efforts come to enable citizens to enter the labor market.
These efforts resulted in a decrease in the death rate to 74%, the rate of injuries ending in occupational disability to 91%, and a decrease in the strategic index of work injuries per 100,000 subscribers by 8% compared to 2021, according to a report published by the General Organization for Social Insurance on work injuries last February.
The International Labor Organization praised the Kingdom’s achievements in the field of occupational safety and health, noting the efforts achieved in the past few years. As the Regional Director for Arab Countries at the International Labor Organization, Ruba Jaradat, confirmed that the Kingdom has accomplished many achievements that promoted the improvement and development of occupational safety and health and the reduction of work accidents and injuries at the national level. Including the formation of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, and the employment of thousands of specialists in this field, in addition to its close cooperation with the International Labor Organization in the field of occupational safety and health, which resulted in the Kingdom’s recent signing of ILO Convention No. 120 in 1964.
It is noteworthy that these efforts confirm the Kingdom’s determination to move forward in developing the field of occupational safety and health, enhance awareness of its importance in all forums, allocate the necessary financial, human and technical resources for that, and work to put forward strategic projects in this context, which mainly contribute to achieving the requirements of occupational safety and health. This is to ensure the protection of workers from work hazards and occupational injuries as an inherent right.
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