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Together For A Just World

ILC Secretary General Öksüz Shares Views at the Interna-
tional Occupational Health and Safety Seminar in Riyadh

The International Labour Confederation (ILC) reaffirmed its commitment to a
rights-based, preventive, and labour-centred approach to occupational health
and safety (OHS) at the international seminar titled “Occupational Health and
Safety in the Workplace,” held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on 25 January 2026.
The seminar brought together trade union leaders, experts, and institutional
representatives to discuss emerging challenges in workplace health and safety
in the context of technological change, global inequalities, and evolving labour
markets.
The ILC Secretary General Hamza Öksüz conveyed the Confederation’s per-
spective on the future of occupational health and safety.
In his address, the ILC Secretary General highlighted the global scale of oc-
cupational accidents and diseases, the concentration of risks in specific sec-
tors, and the significant disparities in OHS standards and enforcement across
countries. He stressed that occupational health and safety should no longer be
approached primarily as a post-accident response mechanism.
Instead, Öksüz underlined the need for a preventive and proactive OHS fra-
mework, centred on early risk identification, systemic prevention, and active
worker participation.

“Occupational health and safety must be understood as a forward-looking ap-
proach that aims to identify risks in advance and prevent accidents before they
occur,” Öksüz stated.

In this context, the ILC emphasized that occupational health and safety is not
merely a technical or regulatory issue, but a core component of social justice,
decent work, and labour rights.

Addressing the growing role of digital technologies and artificial intelligence in
OHS, Öksüz acknowledged their potential to improve safety outcomes, while
cautioning against their use as tools of surveillance or control that may under-
mine workers’ rights, dignity, and privacy.

“The ILC supports technology only insofar as it serves human beings and wor-
kers. People should not be forced to adapt to technology; rather, technology

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