Posted By Martin Does anyone know of where to start looking for the H&S situations of other countries outside of Europe. I am after things like: the legal systems in use for H&S, the various approaches in use i.e. prescriptive or goal setting, government campaigns or initiatives, the relative success or standards achieved etc. I've tried some web-sites but if anyone knows of a definitive information source, or of any journals or articles comparing H&S globally, this would be very helpful. Many thanks

Posted By pat hartford Martin: For Ontario, Canada try www. wsib.on.ca and this will lead to other links and websites that pertain to government legislation.Good luck pat

Posted By Duncan Wall Martin I've been fortunate enough to travel to plenty of overseas locations during the past five years - most of them within developing countries. The organisation I work for has been trying to raise standards on OH&S, environmental, and social issues within our investee businesses but its been a difficult road! Self-preservation often doesn't form part of the culture so educating people of the hazards they will encounter at work has been a challenge. As a generalisation, only very poorly developed legislative and enforcement frameworks seem to be in place, and where they do exist they tend to be reactive rather than proactive. Much of the legislation is based loosely on the old UK Factories Act and as such is often prescriptive and very out-of-date. Review of OH&S law is not a priority in many countries. There is often nothing in the way of a framework on which governments or agencies can collate and report on accident or fatality rates. Changes to working conditions are being driven by external investors with good ethical principles who put money into businesses on the condition that standards either meet, for example, World Bank levels or that standards are brought up to an acceptable level within a set time-frame. Unfortunately, for every company with good principles there are likely to be many more, either locally or internationally, that don't care very much just as long as the profit comes in! We tried to set out a series of guidelines culled from many sources such as WB, HSE, OSHA, the Australian enforcement agencies, and others who have established 'good practice'. That was the easy part - it has been more difficult to apply those guidelines everywhere from Papua New Guinea to Bolivia without too many compromises. Still, we've had some success. If you want information on OH&S then I would recommend that you get hold of a book from the Occupational Health and Safety Series published by the ILO in Geneva. It is entitled "International Directory of Occupational Health and Safety Institutions" (ISBN 92-2-106452-2) from ILO, CH-1211, GENEVE 22, Switzerland. (It'll cost you about £19) It gives contacts for organisations in many countries. Their website is http://www.ilo.org/ You could also try WHO at http://www.who.int/home-page/ but they tend to be more health oriented. The OSHA website is at http://www.osha.gov/ Good luck! Duncan Wall

Posted By Rob Todd Martin, I don't know if you are aware but IOSH now have an International Safety Specialist Group who are looking at these types of queries. We are in the process of setting up a website which will contain various information and hopefully will include legal info by country. I am involved in safety in most areas of the world and obviously we have to treat each area on a country-by-country basis. If you would like to send me an e-mail I would be happy to discuss. Cheers Rob

Posted By Ken Urquhart Martin. I am currently based in Hong Kong but also have Construction H&S involvement in the wider Asia Pacific region. As other respondents have advised there are laws and rules in most of the countries of the world, and certainly in the Asia Pacific region. (If you research the IOSH archive over the last two months you will find that this topic has been covered before and there might well be other useful information for you on these earlier postings). Much of the current regulation and law is however out of date and of the prescriptive type. Although another respondent has indicated that credible International Organisations/Companies setting up in what are in some cases Third world conditions, and they are driven by organisations such as The World Bank and The ILO who are often facilitators in the enterprise, to introduce, develop and drive best practice and modern standards, there are also unscrupulous companies and organisations or divisions of such, and they are less than willing to contribute. Some initiate no more than compliance with the local rules if any, rather than starting fom a higher base point by using the systems that would prevail in their homeland and main base of operation. It is all often about money. Also you have to be mindful in some parts of the world of the corruption potential,(It is endemic in some societies often a cultural thing and in some of these societies is not seen as a problem) although much denied, it exists and can be a significant influencer against you. In HK as well as other places there is an awful lot of talk about Safety Culture and changing Safety perception, behaviour and performence. There are also many Laws and regulations and an Enforcement system in place and staffed. Unfortunately however, apart from a few Companies and some clients really trying to change their style and safety performence radically,or who have already achieved some notable change (They are trying to drag the rest of the local Construction industry into the 21st century, success is limited.) the incumbent system is not very favourably followed and is equally not very well policed. Part of the problem is the age of the HK legislation, although again in fairness they are slowly reviewing it and trying to bring on stream more modern regulations. In the Construction Industry in particular, the fragmenation, the numbers and tiering of the sub - contracting principle and the liability lying always with the principal contractors does little to encourage compliance or behavioural change. There is much information available on the web however in the International Health & Safety arena and the following web details might be of interest to you. (Can I also suggest to IOSH web site moderators and Angela, if not all these sites are on our own IOSH LINKS page can we please add them and will the International Division please issue some details of such sites on its special Link page) Hope the following information helps. Health and Safety Sources and Organisations World wide: The following list may be of help. www.iosh.co.uk The Institutions own web site, go to LINKS and you will get a list of Organisations and agencies that deal with Health and Safety throughout the world. www.hse.gov.uk The HSE web site UK: For International Safety go to Links on the HSE homepage and down the right hand side of the page that it takes you to, you will find a whole list of International safety links. www.info.gov.hk/labour/eng The web site of the Hong Kong Governments Labour Department “Links Page” This will give you Canada, Singapore, Japan, Australia, Finland and of course, Hong Kong. Also in Hong Kong, The OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH & SAFETY COUNCIL on www.oshc.org.hk/index_eng www.gov.sg/mom This is the web site of the Ministry of Manpower, Singapore and gives you access to its Safety, Occupational Health and Environmental sites, and again its LINKS page which takes you to many international organisations and Government H&S Sites. www.safetyline.wa.gov.au The Government of Western Australia’s Safety site, again with Links, and: www.nohsc.gov.au The National Occupational Health & Safety Commission of Australia, again with Australian and International links. www.jicosh.gr. and www.jisha.or.ip/ These will take you to Two sites in Japan with local, Japan National and International links Safety pages. www.gio.gov.tw/taiwan-website This will take you to the Labor Department of the Government of Taiwan and its Labour and Health & Safety pages. www.iosh.gov.tw This one puzzles me slightly (and perhaps IOSH might like to look into this – Moderators or Angela please note). Although the opening page indicates that it is a Government site the name is to say the least, interesting. www.ilo.org The site of The International Labour Organisation with its many links to countries of the world and details of their social and industrial infrastructures, rules and regulations etc. www.tuc.org.uk/ Go to the TUC Union web site, access Health & Safety and then go to Links under that page, (Left hand page column). In the LINKS section go to INTERNATIONAL. This will give you many Government, Union and Organisations in many countries and regions of the world that are directly Health & Safety sites or are related to Health & Safety and Labour laws, Conditions of Employment etc and socio-economic related Employment conditions and arrangements in foreign countries. Some useful stuff and good links here. You already have the New Zealand Governments web site address, but for others who may be interested, try: www.dol.govt.nz I am not aware of any definitive document that will cover the details that you asked about but access to all or any of these sites should help you. Also by accessing the Government sites regularly you will keep abreast of updates and changes that might be useful to you. Good surfing and researching, thats how I found these sites. Regards. Ken Urquhart