Aiming to guaranteeing that every Costa Rican workplace is healthy and safe, 74 technical standards were implemented with which it is intended to reduce the risk of accidents at work.
This is the National Project for the Update of the Technical Standards Package in Occupational Health and Safety (SST), which was prepared by the Costa Rican Technical Standards Institute (INTECO), along with the Occupational Health Council (CSO).
It consists of 74 technical standards that assure the reduction of occupational health and safety risks, economic savings for organizations, improvement of accident prevention culture at all levels of society, and assistance in law compliance.
Alfredo Hasbum, Minister of Labor and Social Security and president of the CSO, stressed the importance of updating this compendium of technical standards, since the conditions of jobs vary almost at the same pace of technological advances, and, according to him, this protection is necessary for working people.
The International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates that work-related accidents and illnesses cause more than 6,300 deaths every day and 2.3 million a year worldwide.
In Costa Rica, only during 2015, 80 workers lost their lives while performing their duties, according to data from the CSO. That year there were 115,817 occupational accidents.