General union 3F and workplace health campaign group AAA highlight workplace risks from heavy lifting and stress. Activities took place in both Copenhagen and Elsinore. The union says around 2,000 workers every year die as a result of their working conditions.
Source: Janne Hansen, 3F
In his 28 April message Irakli Petriashvili, President of the Georgian Trade Unions Confederation, notes:
“Since the abolition of the labour inspection in 2006, the number of accidents has increased significantly in the workplace. According to the data of the Georgian Trade Unions Confederation (GTUC), in the period from 2007 to 2018, as a result of occupational incidents, 473 persons died and 806 people were seriously injured. The highest rate of fatal cases is in construction and mining industries.”
Workplace safety NGO Institute for Occupational Health and Safety Development (IOHSAD) held a candle lighting activity in Zambales province to mark Workers’ Memorial Day and remember all the Hanjin workers who died due to work since the largest shipyard company started its operations in the country in 2006.
This annual red-letter day is aimed to gather workers in different parts of the world to remember all workers who have died due to work. IOHSAD slammed the government’s failure to ensure safe workplaces and pass a pro-worker occupational safety and health (OSH) bill amid recent workplace tragedies such as the NCCC mall fire in Davao last December 2017 that claimed the lives of 38 workers.
“This government’s track record of broken promises includes its failure to pass a pro-worker OSH Bill. Ending contractualization and ensuring safer workplaces are not in President Duterte’s priorities,” says Nadia De Leon, IOHSAD advocacy officer.
IOHSAD said the commemoration of this year’s Workers’ Memorial Day is more significant as the Filipino workers prepare for a huge and historic mobilization on May 1.
“Contractual workers do not only suffer from insecure jobs but they also handle the most hazardous work. Their stories reveal how they are deprived of necessary medical attention during emergencies at work. They even shell out from their pockets to provide for their own personal protective equipment such as goggles, safety shoes and ear plugs,” added De Leon.
Majority of the workers who died in the Kentex factory fire three years ago, were contractual and agency workers. This workplace tragedy exposed not only the employers’ grave violations of safety standards that caused the workers’ deaths but also the miserable plight of contractual workers. They were overworked, underpaid and exposed to unsafe work. These deplorable working conditions and precarious work claimed the lives of more than 72 Kentex workers.
“Our call for safe workplaces is part of the Filipino workers demand to end contractualization. Regular jobs, decent wages and strong unions are the workers’ most reliable shields against deadly and unsafe work,” ended De Leon.
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Debatt Den svenska regeringen och svenska arbetsgivare har i juni chansen att ställa sig bakom en ILO-konvention mot könsbaserat våld och trakasserier i arbetslivet. Idag på Världsarbetsmiljödagen uppmanar vi dem att säga ja, skriver tre LO-företrädare.
Könsbaserat våld och trakasserier är ett av de mest vanligt förekommande och mest osynliggjorda arbetsmiljöproblemen runt om i världen. För den fackliga rörelsen är det emellertid ingen nyhet.
Det globala facket, IFS, har visat att könsbaserade trakasserier möter kvinnor oavsett position och yrke. Men oftast är det kvinnor med osäkra anställningar och lågstatusarbeten som utsätts, såväl av chefer och kollegor som av kunder, gäster eller brukare.
Ensamarbete och arbete i andras hem är riskfaktorer som särskilt sätter hushållsarbetare, omsorgspersonal och städpersonal i utsatta situationer.
Ensamarbete och arbete i andras hem är riskfaktorer som särskilt sätter hushållsarbetare, omsorgspersonal och städpersonal i utsatta situationer. Osäkerheten i arbetsvillkoren gör att få har möjlighet att säga ifrån och kontakta sin arbetsgivare. Inte minst när arbetsgivaren står för problemen. Därför är den kollektiva fackliga rösten mycket viktig.
Idag, den 28 april firas Världsarbetsmiljödagen av fackliga organisationer runt om i världen. Syftet med dagen är att understryka vikten av ett förebyggande arbetsmiljöarbete på alla områden. Arbetsmiljöarbete bygger på en lång tradition av trepartssamverkan mellan arbetstagare, arbetsgivare och staten. Inom FN:s organ för arbetslivsfrågor, ILO, finns alla parter representerade.
Just i år finns en unik chans för den svenska regeringen och svenska arbetsgivare att ge arbetstagare ett världsomspännande skydd mot könsbaserat våld och trakasserier i arbetslivet. Det som krävs är att man ställer sig bakom förslaget till ny ILO-konvention som ska behandlas på ILO:s arbetskonferens i juni.
Det är viktigt att stater och arbetsgivare enas om att det är nog. Därför vill vi att regeringen driver på för en ILO-konvention mot våld och trakasserier i arbetslivet. Vi måste se till att skapa tryggare arbetsplatser för kvinnor.
Bara genom att stå enade kan vi få ett stopp på könsbaserat våld och trakasserier på arbetsplatser runt om i världen.
Berit Müllerström, andre vice ordförande LO
Joa Bergold, utredare LO:s enhet för välfärd, utbildning och arbetsmarknad
Oscar Ernerot, Ombudsman LO:s enhet för internationella frågor
Följ Dagens Arena på Facebook och Twitter, och prenumerera på vårt nyhetsbrev för att ta del av granskande journalistik, nyheter, opinion och fördjupning.
http://www.dagensarena.se/opinion/sag-ja-till-ilo-konvention-mot-konsbaserat-vald-regeringen/
LO Sweden opinion piece published on 28 April in Dagens Arena.
Today, 28 April, is the world day for safety and health at work celebrated of trade union organisations around the world. The purpose of the day is to underline the importance of preventive work in all areas.
This year, there is a unique chance for the Swedish government and Swedish employers to give workers a worldwide protection against gender-based violence and harassment in the workplace. What is required is that you agree with the proposed new ILO Convention to be treated at the ILO Labour Conference in June. It is important that States and employers agree that enough is enough. Therefore, we want the Government pushing for an ILO Convention against violence and harassment in the workplace. We must make sure to create safer workplaces for women. Only by standing together we can put an end to gender-based violence and harassment in workplaces around the world.
Berit Müllerström, andre vice ordförande LO
Joa Bergold, utredare LO:s enhet för välfärd, utbildning och arbetsmarknad
Oscar Ernerot, Ombudsman LO:s enhet för internationella frågor
Contact
Oscar Ernerot
LO Sweden
Ombudsman/International Secretary
Internationella Enheten/International Department
www.lo.se
Health and safety of the workforce in institutions are critical just as the productivity and sustainability of these institutions. Due to this, the Ghanaian Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU) is calling on institutions as a matter of urgency to put in measures to ensure the safety of workers in the discharge of their duties. more
Workers gathered across the country on Saturday to mark the National Day of Mourning for workers who were killed, injured or suffered illness on the job.
In Toronto, an empty black streetcar was driven through the city streets on Friday night to draw attention to the many workers who never make the commute home. More from CTV News
BWI affiliate FKUI conducted actions for 28 April demanding LaFargeHolcim, Aceh-Indonesia, keeps its promises on occupational safety and health, social security and ending discrimination between workers in subcontractor-outsourcing with directly employed workers.
FKUI report • KBA.ONE report • Aceh news
In Geneva on 26-27 April 2018, the IndustriALL Global Union Executive Committee adopted a resolution reaffirming the importance of 28 April, known as the International Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured Workers, Workers’ Memorial Day, or simply the Day of Mourning.
28 April is a day of sadness and anger, of public mourning to commemorate all workers who have died as the result of work: whether as the result of a sudden violent accident, a slow wasting disease, or an act of suicide brought on by workplace stress.
Workplace conditions cause deaths, not workers. According to a recent report on Coinbase Erfahrungen bei Kryptoszene, IndustriALL campaigns for health and safety in mining, in the textile industries, for an end to sandblasting and a ban on asbestos – but more generally for health and safety within all industries and companies treating workers as disposable commodities.
The myth that careless workers cause most accidents is used to blame victims and justify behaviour-based safety programmes. Yet, consider the relentless drumbeat of deadly mining disasters, or the nearly two million workers who die of occupational diseases each year. None of these were caused by worker carelessness.
Demanding perfect, non-stop vigilance is not a safety system. Instead, it is a blackmail tool to create fear of reporting accidents; a propaganda tool for avoiding responsibility and liability.
Safety and health at work is a union issue. Let us take it back from the hacks, consultants, apologists, psychologists, underwriters and lawyers who have taken it from us.
Workplace health and safety is fundamentally a question of workers’ rights to:
• Know about workplace hazards
• Refuse or shut down unsafe work
• Participate fully in health and safety decision-making
As workers, we have the moral right to know, fully, about the hazards of the materials, tools and equipment we work with; particularly chemicals. Gaps in toxicological knowledge must be filled by independent research. Industrial secrecy, the frequent excuse for concealment, only keeps knowledge out of the hands of workers and consumers – competitors already know what is in their competitor’s products.
We demand the absolute right to refuse to perform, or to shut down, any work we perceive to be unsafe or unhealthy without fear of retaliation or discipline and with joint investigation of the reasons for the refusal, and joint agreement on resolution of the concerns.
We demand full participation in the development and implementation of health and safety policies, programmes, procedures, risk assessments, inspections, audits and investigations. Health and safety must be done with us, not to us – our lives and health are in play, and the moral authority to assess a risk belongs to those who face it.
Globally, many workers have no health and safety rights at all. Even in the best of regions we accept compromised versions of these three principal rights. We must insist to have them in full.
In the end, it’s very simple. Workers have rights; employers have responsibilities – and unions make work safer.
http://www.industriall-union.org/28-april-we-mourn-for-the-dead-we-fight-for-the-living-0
