By Aída Chacón Barraza, National Director of the Institute of labor Security.
Every April 28 we commemorate World Safety and Health Day at work, a date that invites us to reflect on the conditions in which thousands of people perform their work daily. It is not only a technical ephemeris established by the International Labor Organization (ILO), but an opportunity to reaffirm an ethical conviction: the life and health of those who work must be in the center of all labor policy.
From the Institute of Occupational Security (ISL), as the only Public Social Security Administrative Agency against Risks of Occupational Accidents and occupational diseases, we firmly believe that prevention is more than a legal obligation, it is an act of justice. Each product with our image, each training, security protocols and talks with workers are pieces of a culture that protects. And that must be a minimum standard throughout the country’s work space.
-Today, Chile faces new challenges. Technological transformations, remote work, informality and emotional demands of our time require us to expand the look. Labor security cannot be reduced to avoiding visible accidents, we must also address psychosocial risks, chronic stress, harassment, lack of pauses and disconnection. Emotional well -being is part of the decent work and its care is a debt that we are facing in a determined way.
As Isl we have the mandate and also the commitment to especially accompany the most unprotected sectors, such as independent workers, of private house, the MSMEs, migrants, elderly and young people. They concentrate the greatest protection gaps.
In the ISL we work with the conviction of making this country one that understands that taking care of working conditions is to take care of life. That there is no possible growth if there is no protection. And that prevention, far from being a cost, is the best investment we can make as a society.
