Social dialogue and the setting of occupational safety and health standards in Brasil: approaches to improvement

Abstract

Social dialogue can be considered the key instrument of the ILO in promoting and achieving decent work and an important tool to improve governance. One of the ILO Governance Conventions, namely, Tripartite Consultation (International Labour Standards) Convention, 1976 (No.144) and one of the ILO technical conventions, namely, Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 1981 (No.155), are very important instruments to ground sound National Tripartite Social Dialogue (NTSD). After ratifying both Conventions, Brazil adopted in 1994 a National Tripartite Social Dialogue (NTSD) for the setting of OSH standards, which has been considered a good practice since its inception. Despite this successful experience and a number of revamps, a few challenges emerged during this period. To address these challenges, a deep analysis of this form of social dialogue has been undertaken, taken into account key publications in this area and the social partners' perspectives. The results of this analysis were compared with some international experiences, with a view to proposing suggestions for improvement and establishing the elements of an action plan to be implemented.