Safety and health in shipbuilding and ship repair (Revised edition)

This revised code of practice, adopted by a Meeting of Experts in January 2018, reflects the development of modern ILO instruments on occupational safety and health (OSH) and the changes in the industry in the past 44 years since an earlier code was adopted.

Code of practice | 19 February 2019
The shipbuilding and ship repair industry is of strategic importance to many member States of the ILO.

The revised code promotes a preventative safety and health culture in which the right to a safe and healthy working environment is respected at all levels, where government, employers and workers actively participate in securing a safe and healthy working environment through a system of defined rights, responsibilities and duties, and where the principle of prevention is accorded the highest priority. It further promotes occupational safety and health (OSH) management systems as well as cooperation between employers and workers and their representatives. The revised code contains comprehensive guidance on how to improve OSH in the industry and sets out how governments, shipowners, employers, workers and their representatives should work together in doing so.