From 27-30 November 2023, Sydney will host the 23rd World Congress on Safety and Health at Work at the International Convention Centre.
The announcement was made today during an official handover ceremony at this year’s World Congress hosted by Canada.
Australian President of the World Congress, Andrew Gavrielatos, said this is a great opportunity to showcase Australia’s innovation on the global work health and safety stage.
“The congress has become one of the world’s largest events for the international occupational safety and health community – attracting thousands of delegates from across the world,” Mr Gavrielatos said.
“This is the first time Australia will host the event and given the technological advancements we’ve seen in recent years, the timing couldn’t be more appropriate to showcase our progressive approach to work health and safety.
“The Centre for Work Health and Safety are currently developing ground-breaking technology to accurately monitor airborne silica dust levels in real time, which will prevent workers cutting or working with manufactured or other silica containing stone from exposure to silica.
This method has been proven successful in accurately identifying the presence of silica dust and we are working towards having a commercially available model by March 2022.
“In the last 12 months we established a world-first Taskforce on Food Delivery Rider Safety whose work has seen a 70 per cent reduction in incidents. SafeWork have since developed an Industry Action Plan highlighting specific commitments from seven delivery rider platforms, which will improve the health and safety of riders through better rider education and training, high visibility uniforms, helmets, personal alarms and delivery vehicle maintenance,” Mr Gavrielatos said.
Speaking at this year’s virtual event, Mr Gavrielatos, introduced the theme of Sydney’s Congress – ‘Shaping Change: Collaborating for a healthier and safer world of work’.
The World Congress was established in 1955 and has been held every three years as a global forum to advance worker health protection, each time hosted by a different country.
“The world is changing and so is the world of work. The World Congress is a forum for the global health and safety community to come together to shape change and create safer work for all’, Mr Gavrielatos said.
The Sydney World Congress is being co-organised by the International Labour Organization, the International Social Security Association and SafeWork NSW.
