• Officials and members of the Employers’ Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP);
• Partners from the government and workers’ organizations;
• Colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon!

I am glad to take part in today’s launch of the Employers Confederation of the Philippines' (ECOP) Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Academy.

It shows the employers’ and the country’s commitment to a safe and healthy workplace. This complements ECOP’s general assembly theme to sustain the company’s safety, health, and wellness in the new normal.

ECOP’s OSH Academy is a welcome initiative that aligns with the ILO’s aim to protect workers from work-related illness and injury through building a national preventative safety and health culture in a management systems approach.

ILO through the International Training Centre (ITCILO) and ECOP have jointly established the e-Campus, the online training platform, and developed the Basic Occupational Safety and Health (BOSH) manuals for this OSH Academy. We will also work together to strengthen ECOP OSH programmes and services.

The OSH Academy is a result of ILO’s support to create a learning management system (LMS) platform that offers occupational safety and health courses and programmes online, face-to-face, or in a blended format.

Occupational safety and health, OSH is central to ILO’s work under its mandates and efforts, as well as the Decent Work Country Programme (DWCP) of the Philippines, jointly developed by government, employers and workers’ organizations through social dialogue.

OSH is a crucial element of the National Employment Recovery Strategy (NERS), the Sustainable Development Goals, and the ILO’s Global Call to Action
for an inclusive, sustainable and resilient human-centred recovery from the COVID-19.

This year, the International Labour Conference adopted the Resolution, which recognizes OSH as Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work (FPRW).

It emphasizes that all workers, regardless of gender, age, nationality, employment status, sector, enterprise size, or country’s development, have the universal right to a safe and healthy working environment.

ECOP and its members can contribute significantly and practically to promoting a preventative safe and health culture, from large enterprises to MSMEs, and rural sectors, which are disproportionately constrained in financial, technical and managerial capacity to a achieve a safe and healthy working environment.

I hope ECOP’s OSH Academy will offer a wider array of services to help its members design and implement OSH programmes that go beyond compliance, and integrate social consciousness and inclusivity.

It will demonstrate ECOP’s OSH programme anchored on responsible business conduct and sustainable business model.

Again, we congratulate ECOP for its endeavour to build a positive safety and health culture through the OSH Academy. Together, we can help ensure the right to decent, safe and health working conditions.

I wish you success and hope that your efforts through the OSH Academy will help make decent work a reality for all!

Maraming salamat po (Thank you very much)!