Today marks the World Day for Safety and Health at Work.
In order to raise public awareness of the importance of creating safe and healthy working conditions in workplaces, the International Labour Organization (ILO) declared 28 April as the World Day for Safety and Health at Work in 2003.
One of the main priorities of state policy in Azerbaijan is the provision of decent work and the establishment of safe and healthy working conditions. The Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan, adopted through a referendum in 1995 under the leadership of National Leader Heydar Aliyev, enshrines the right of everyone to work in safe and healthy conditions. In 1999, Azerbaijan became the first country in the CIS to adopt a Labour Code, which covers occupational safety norms as well as legal, organisational, technical, and financial provisions.
Citizen welfare lies at the centre of the successful policy pursued by President Ilham Aliyev, and as a result, important steps have been taken to strengthen social protection. Over the past seven years, five social reform packages have been implemented, leading to significant increases in social payments, including wages. The targeted social policy is aimed at ensuring safe and normal working conditions for employees, as well as strengthening occupational safety and technical protection in workplaces.
To date, Azerbaijan has ratified around 60 ILO conventions, including those related to fundamental labour rights and occupational safety, such as the “Occupational Safety and Health” Convention. Two Decent Work Country Programmes have been successfully implemented in cooperation with the ILO, and a new “Decent Work Country Programme for 2025–2029” was signed in November last year. In recent years, significant progress has been made in improving labour legislation in line with international best practices. The Labour Code of Azerbaijan places broad emphasis on occupational safety standards and guarantees for their implementation. According to the Code, employment contracts must comply with occupational safety requirements and include the employer’s obligation to ensure safe and healthy working conditions.
One of the main activities of the State Labour Inspection Service under the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of the Population is ensuring safe and healthy working environments. The Service actively cooperates with employers and carries out regular awareness-raising activities involving both employers and employees. In the liberated territories, 115 awareness events have been organised on this topic.
At the same time, important steps have been taken to introduce innovative solutions, modern technologies, risk-based inspection models, and transparent control mechanisms in labour law enforcement and occupational safety oversight. The “Labour and Employment” subsystem, launched in 2022, ensures the full digitalisation of labour relations and provides a unified platform for efficient and transparent service delivery. The Occupational Safety Centre, established under the State Labour Inspection Service in 2023, works with employers to conduct workplace assessments, organise training activities, and implement practical occupational safety measures. In addition, the Technical Committee on Labour Standards has developed and approved 167 state standards on occupational safety over the past three years, with 60 more expected this year. The “DOST Inspector” project provides employers with recommendations following workplace assessments regarding compliance with labour legislation, including occupational safety regulations.
This year’s theme for the World Day for Safety and Health at Work, announced by the ILO, is: “Let’s ensure a healthy psychosocial work environment.” Alongside physical safety, psychosocial working conditions play an important role, as they can significantly affect the workplace environment and employee productivity. Proper risk management and assessment of psychosocial factors are therefore essential in modern labour relations.
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