NCDs related to working conditions and to occupational stress result in increasing rates of long-term illness and absence from work. Occupational NCDs include occupation-related cancers, chronic bronchitis and asthma caused by pollution in the workplace, and radiation. Chronic respiratory diseases, musculoskeletal disorders, noise-induced hearing loss and skin problems are the most common occupational diseases. Yet only one third of countries have programmes in place to address these issues.

Despite these diseases, in the majority of countries health workers are not adequately trained to address work-related health problems and many countries do not offer postgraduate education in occupational health. The COVID-19 crisis has intensified these vulnerabilities, particularly for female migrant workers, as they are overrepresented in low-paid and low-skilled jobs and may have limited access to health services and social protection and fewer options for support services. WHO has a number of guidelines and fact sheets on occupational health.

WHO’s proposed strategy to improve health coverage of workers, including those working in small companies and the informal sector, is to work with countries in the following strategic directions.

• Increase skills of primary care providers (general practitioners, nurses, environmental and public health technicians, and community health workers) to provide basic occupational health services such as advice on improving working conditions, monitoring the health status of workers and detecting the most common occupational diseases among workers in small companies, rural areas, farms, the informal sector and among migrants.
• Expand the coverage and improve the quality of specialized occupational health services in big and medium-sized companies and industrial zones, with a focus on assessing and reducing occupational risks; surveillance and improvement of the work environment, work organization, machinery and equipment; early detection and rehabilitation of occupational diseases; promotion of health; and the provision of first aid at the workplace.
• Establish connections between occupational health services and primary care centres to facilitate the care of workers suffering from chronic diseases and their return to work after long-term absence due to sickness.
• Develop workplace health initiatives, tools and methods for empowering companies and other work settings to take better care of health without unduly relying on professional health services.
• Include occupational health in the pre- and in-service training of all frontline health providers and certain medical specialists dealing with cancer; skin, respiratory and neurological diseases; and musculoskeletal disorders.
• Develop roadmaps for scaling up access of workers to essential interventions and services, as defined nationally, for prevention and control of occupational and work-related diseases, including monitoring coverage and setting realistic targets in line with available human and financial resources for health and local traditions.