Category Archives: Guides

2023, 2023 global, Events listing, Guides, News

Global: Union organisation is a life or death issue

No-one should die to make a living. After all, occupational health and safety is now a globally-binding ILO fundamental legal right at work.

But a new report warns bad jobs still kill someone somewhere every six seconds, every day, round the clock. It notes that last year the UN’s International Labour Organisation (ILO) recognised occupational health and safety as a top rated ‘fundamental’ right at work.

“Politically, it’s a game changer,” it notes. “Practically, workers have continued to die, an estimated 3 million in the last year alone.”

The report, published in the union-backed Hazards magazine ahead of International Workers’ Memorial Day, argues union organising can make the difference. “Whether you describe it as the ‘union dividend’, ‘union advantage’ or ‘union effect’, there is a long-established, well-tested proof of the life-saving impact of union organisation at work. It shows walking out or being walked all over can be a life or death decision.”

Organising for occupational health and safety is the theme this year for the 28 April event.

Full story: Everyday heroes: The lifesaving union effect. Hazards, number 161, 2023.

Guides, News, Resources

Deadline: International Workers’ Memorial Day – dying to work must end now!

Work is killing 3 million workers worldwide each year. Sharan Burrow, general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), says that dying to work must end now, and health and safety must be recognised as a fundamental right for all workers.

In the last three years, more than 9 million workers have died because of the work they do. As Italian and Spanish-speaking trade unionists say, “Basta!” Enough!

Three years ago this June, the International Labour Conference – the only global tripartite institution, with equal numbers of union, employer and government delegates – agreed that occupational health and safety should become a fundamental principle and right at work. This summer, that same International Labour Conference must finally make that a reality.

That’s the call we will be making this International Workers’ Memorial Day, on 28 April, when we mourn the dead but commit ourselves to fight like hell for the living.

Read the full story in Hazards magazine

2022, 2022 North America, 2022 USA, Events listing, graphics, Guides, Resources

USA: Workers’ Memorial Week resources from National COSH

A message from Jessica E. Martinez and Marcy Goldstein-Gelb
Co-Executive Directors, National COSH

Friends,

Workers’ Memorial Week will begin on April 23rd this year and continue through May 1. Across the country and around the globe, we’ll see worker actions, vigils and events to honor workers who have been killed, injured, and made sick on the job.

Here is the National COSH 2022 WMW Toolkit, which includes:

Got a memorial event coming up in your workplace or community? Let us know here and we’ll add it to the WMW Action Map.

National COSH will release our 2022 Dirty Dozen report on unsafe employers on Wednesday, April 27 at 2 pm ET/1 pm CT/12 noon MT/ 11 am PT.  If you’d like to join the release event on Zoom, please register here.

Thanks much – and if you have questions or need any assistance with an upcoming event, please contact National COSH at info@nationalcosh.org.

In solidarity,

Jessica E. Martinez
Marcy Goldstein-Gelb
Co-Executive Directors, National COSH

2021, 2021 global, Events listing, Guides, News, Uncategorized

Global: ITUC photostory – Why occupational health and safety must be a fundamental right at work

ITUC photostory – Why occupational health and safety must be a fundamental right at work. EN | ES | FR

2021, 2021 global, Events listing, graphics, Guides, Resources

Global: ITUC/Hazards 28 April fundamental factfile

Why must safety be fundamental? Because our jobs are killing us. The Covid-19 pandemic didn’t cause a workplace occupational health crisis; it exposed it. Millions are suffering and dying each year as a price for doing their job. Covid-19 added to this toll.

Find out the deadly truth with the ITUC/Hazards 28 April fundamental factfile.

 

2021, 2021 global, Events listing, Guides

Global: IT’S FUNDAMENTAL | Making work safety an ILO Fundamental Right at Work – Hazards magazine

An ILO Governing Body decision on 23 March 2021 was  a ‘significant step’ towards making occupational health and safety a fundamental workers’ right, global union confederation ITUC has said.  The  influential committee comprised of government, employer and union delegates overwhelmingly supported a call from worker members to move ahead with the process. It is expected that the decision will be formalised at the ILO Conference in 2022. The net.

The next step in the campaign is International Workers’ Memorial Day on 28 April 2021, when ITUC says “unions can send a message that health and safety protection at work must be recognised as a right for all. Whether it is Covid or occupational cancers, or workplace injuries and industrial diseases, every worker should have a right to a voice and a right to protection. No-one should have to die to make a living.”

According to ITUC general secretary Sharan Burrow: “We will keep up the pressure, on International Workers’ Memorial Day and beyond.” The union-driven move was supported by occupational medicine organisations the Collegium Ramazzini and the Society of Occupational Medicine and leading workplace safety bodies the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) and the International Commission on Occupational Health (ICOH). Unions had success at the ILO Governing Body meeting with another health and safety priority, striking an agreement that a Biological Hazards Convention will follow after occupational health and safety in ILO’s ruling making priorities.

It’s Fundamental: Making work safety an ILO Fundamental Right at Work – Hazards magazine, April 2021

2020, 2020 Global, Guides, News, Resources

ITUC/Hazards coronavirus workplace health resource hub

It wasn’t an infection that caused the shutdown of entire nations. The coronavirus pandemic could persist because public health was a low priority and workers do not have the sick pay and job protection necessary to survive.

ITUC/Hazards coronavirus workplace health resource hub

2020, 2020 Global, Guides, News, Resources

28 April theme announcement: ‘Tackling psychosocial hazards at work – taking the stress out of the job’

‘Tackling psychosocial hazards at work – taking the stress out of the job’

#iwmd20

28 de Abril Jornada Internacional de Conmemoración (JIC) de los Trabajadores Fallecidos y Heridos
28 Avril Journée Internationale de Commémoration (JIC) des travailleurs décédés et blessés
28 April International Workers’ Memorial Day
28 April International commemoration day for dead and injured workers 28 April International day of mourning

The 28 April 2020 campaign theme will be ‘tackling psychosocial hazards at work – taking the stress out of the job’. We will seek to highlight the harm caused by occupational stress and related conditions, including depression, anxiety, burnout, and work-related alcohol and drug dependency, and work-related suicides.

The theme allows us to campaign for action to remedy the broad range of contributory factors and will also engage those in the union movement not primarily interested in occupational health and safety, including:

– low pay, payment by results, piecework
– workload, working hours and work patterns
– inadequate staffing
– job insecurity, downsizing
– precarious/informal/gig work
– punitive sickness absence policies
– punitive disciplinary procedures
– oppressive performance management/appraisal systems
– lean production, new management techniques/behavioural safety
– surveillance at work
– lack of control

Unions have also identified a gap in the ILO instruments – there are not dealing explicitly with psychosocial hazards, so we could use 28 April to press for an ILO convention on this area, and for an expansion of the ILO list of occupational diseases to include a more detailed entry on work-related psychosocial conditions and impacts, including an explicit reference to the need for action to prevent the growing problem of work-related suicide.

There is also scope to link to existing international union campaigns on precarious work, low pay, safe rates, safe staffing and other issues. And we can highlight best practice – laws, agreements, actions, union resources and campaigns.

ITUC will be providing further details on the 28 April 2020 campaign early in the new year.

In the coming weeks, we will be posting updates and signposting resources on the dedicated 28 April webpages at: www.28april.org

In the meantime if you have successful case histories you would like us to feature in our materials please email them to: editor@hazards.org

Some general background materials and link are available here:

www.hazards.org/mentalhealth
www.hazards.org/lowpay
www.hazards.org/insecure

2020, Guides, News, Resources, Uncategorized

28 April theme announcement: ‘Tackling psychosocial hazards at work – taking the stress out of the job’.

‘Tackling psychosocial hazards at work – taking the stress out of the job’

#iwmd20

28 de Abril Jornada Internacional de Conmemoración (JIC) de los Trabajadores Fallecidos y Heridos
28 Avril Journée Internationale de Commémoration (JIC) des travailleurs décédés et blessés
28 April International Workers’ Memorial Day
28 April International commemoration day for dead and injured workers 28 April International day of mourning

The 28 April 2020 campaign theme will be ‘tackling psychosocial hazards at work – taking the stress out of the job’. We will seek to highlight the harm caused by occupational stress and related conditions, including depression, anxiety, burnout, and work-related alcohol and drug dependency, and work-related suicides.

The theme allows us to campaign for action to remedy the broad range of contributory factors and will also engage those in the union movement not primarily interested in occupational health and safety, including:

– low pay, payment by results, piecework
– workload, working hours and work patterns
– inadequate staffing
– job insecurity, downsizing
– precarious/informal/gig work
– punitive sickness absence policies
– punitive disciplinary procedures
– oppressive performance management/appraisal systems
– lean production, new management techniques/behavioural safety
– surveillance at work
– lack of control

Unions have also identified a gap in the ILO instruments – there are not dealing explicitly with psychosocial hazards, so we could use 28 April to press for an ILO convention on this area, and for an expansion of the ILO list of occupational diseases to include a more detailed entry on work-related psychosocial conditions and impacts, including an explicit reference to the need for action to prevent the growing problem of work-related suicide.

There is also scope to link to existing international union campaigns on precarious work, low pay, safe rates, safe staffing and other issues. And we can highlight best practice – laws, agreements, actions, union resources and campaigns.

ITUC will be providing further details on the 28 April 2020 campaign early in the new year.

In the coming weeks, we will be posting updates and signposting resources on the dedicated 28 April webpages at: www.28april.org

In the meantime if you have successful case histories you would like us to feature in our materials please email them to: editor@hazards.org

Some general background materials and link are available here:

www.hazards.org/mentalhealth
www.hazards.org/lowpay
www.hazards.org/insecure

2020, Guides, News, Resources

Anuncio sobre el tema del 28 de Abril: ‘Combatir los riesgos psico-sociales y eliminar el estrés en el trabajo’

‘Combatir los riesgos psico-sociales y eliminar el estrés en el trabajo’

#iwmd20

  • 28 de Abril Jornada Internacional de Conmemoración (JIC) de los trabajadores fallecidos y lesionados
  • 28 Avril Journée Internationale de Commémoration (JIC) des travailleurs décédés et blessés
  • 28 April International Workers’ Memorial Day
  • 28 April International commemoration day for dead and injured workers
  • 28 April International day of mourning

El tema para la campaña del 28 de abril en 2020 será ‘combatir los riesgos psico-sociales y eliminar el estrés en el trabajo’ Queremos poner de relieve el daño ocasionado por el estrés laboral y otras afecciones relacionadas, incluyendo depresión, ansiedad, desgaste profesional, alcoholismo y drogodependencia relacionados con el trabajo, y suicidios por problemas laborales.

El tema nos permite hacer campaña reclamando acciones para poner remedio a toda una serie de factores coadyuvantes, además de involucrar también a miembros del movimiento sindical que no se ocupan principalmente en la salud y seguridad en el trabajo, incluyendo:

– bajos salarios, pago en función de los resultados, trabajo a destajo
– carga de trabajo, jornadas laborales y pautas de trabajo
– carencias en materia de personal
– inseguridad del empleo, reducción de personal
– trabajo precario/informal/economía gig
– políticas punitivas en caso de ausencia por enfermedad
– procedimientos disciplinarios punitivos
– sistemas opresivos de gestión/evaluación de rendimiento
– producción ajustada, nuevas técnicas de gestión/seguridad conductual
– vigilancia en el trabajo
– falta de control

Los sindicatos han identificado además una laguna en los instrumentos de la OIT –no abordan específicamente los riesgos psico-sociales– de manera que podríamos aprovechar el 28 de Abril para incidir en la necesidad de contar con un convenio de la OIT al respecto, y para que se extienda la lista de enfermedades profesionales de la OIT incluyendo una mención más detallada de afecciones psico-sociales relacionadas con el trabajo y su impacto, así como una referencia explícita a la necesidad de actuar para prevenir la creciente problemática del suicidio relacionado con el trabajo.

También existe la posibilidad de vincular campañas sindicales internacionales existentes sobre trabajo precario, bajos salarios, ritmo de trabajo y dotación de personal adecuados, entre otras cuestiones. Pueden asimismo ponerse de relieve las mejores prácticas: leyes, acuerdos, acciones, recursos y campañas sindicales.

La CSI proporcionará detalles adicionales sobre la campaña del 28 de Abril a principios del año que viene.

En las próximas semanas, publicaremos información actualizada y apuntaremos a recursos disponibles en la página web sobre el 28 de Abril: www.28april.org

Entre tanto, si tienen historias de casos que quieran que incluyamos entre nuestro material, por favor remitirlas a la lista o directamente a editor@hazards.org

Pueden encontrar distinto material general de fondo (en inglés) en los siguientes enlaces:www.hazards.org/mentalhealth
www.hazards.org/lowpay
www.hazards.org/insecure