SAFETY AND HEALTH AT WORK AS PART OF SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS

Corporate social responsibility can influence development of occupational safety and health management and contribute to integration of safety and health into overall company’s management. It is of particula importance when managing psychosocial risks. Various instruments have been created to support the implementation of corporate social responsibility into management practices, including among others codes of conduct and different types of guidance and standards. A lot of them can be used to develop occupational safety and health management in the framework of corporate social responsibility. Occupational safety and health (OSH) covers issues related to the social, mental and physical wellbeing of workers. For many years these issues have been recognized as main aspects of corporate social responsibility (CSR), which is based on voluntary integration of social and environmental concerns into the companies’ decision-making. This has been expressed (directly or indirectly) in various definitions and approaches to CSR developed in the last decades. The World Business Council for Sustainable Development has defined CSR as the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large.