Purpose and scope of the Convention
The 1985 instrument promotes the progressive establishment of occupational health services across branches of activity. It also covers the public sector and production cooperatives. Organisation should reflect companies’ actual risks.
As a convention, it binds States whose ratification has been registered. Before applying a requirement to a company, check ratification and national legislation; there is no identical universal health-service arrangement.
Functions beyond examinations
Article 5 includes identifying and assessing health risks, observing working conditions and practices, and advising on design, organisation, equipment and substances. It also covers health surveillance, work adaptation, occupational rehabilitation, training, first aid and analysis of harm.
These functions explain why occupational medicine needs information about the activity. An isolated clinical result does not describe how exposure occurs or determine the appropriate technical measure.
Organisation and cooperation
The Convention permits services for a single company or shared by several, using arrangements appropriate to the national context. Professional composition depends on the functions performed; it envisages a multidisciplinary approach and cooperation with other services.
The employer’s preventive responsibility remains. Contracting a service does not replace employer decisions about processes, resources and working conditions. Worker and representative participation helps compare planned tasks with actual ones.
Professional independence and conditions of care
Article 10 requires professional independence from employers and from workers and their representatives. Technical conclusions must not be adjusted to satisfy production or employment pressures.
Article 12 provides that work-related health surveillance must not involve loss of earnings, must be free of charge and should, as far as possible, take place during working hours. The competent authority determines personnel qualifications according to their functions.
Useful information, without turning it into absence control
Services need to understand work factors that may affect health. Article 15 connects information about illness and absence with identifying possible occupational relationships and distinguishes this purpose from an employer-commissioned check of the reasons for absence.
Collective health surveillance can guide improvements while maintaining confidentiality and national health-data rules. It does not mean providing individual diagnoses to managers.
Hypothetical example: symptoms in a new process
After a cleaning product changes, several people report symptoms. The health service gathers clinical information and works with occupational hygiene specialists to understand composition, use and exposure. The employer reviews conditions and implements appropriate measures.
The example illustrates the connection between health and the job. It does not permit diagnosis or attribution of cause without professional assessment, nor justify waiting for symptoms before controlling the risk.
