In Zimbabwe, the BWI-affiliated ZCATWU is stepping up! Ahead of International Workers’ Memorial Day, they gathered workers for an awareness programme on the dangers of deadly dust, while driving efforts to organise and recruit more members. Together, they are building a stronger, safer movement — because every worker’s life matters! #IWMD2025#StopDeadlyDust
Standing strong for workers’ lives: BWI-affiliated PROFBUD joins this year’s International Workers’ Memorial Day, rallying behind the global campaign to end deadly dust in workplaces. Every worker deserves a safe and healthy job! #IWMD2025#StopDeadlyDust
In occasione della giornata mondiale per la salute e sicurezza sul lavoro, i rappresentanti di Feneal, Filca, Fillea, le categorie che tutelano il settore delle costruzioni di Cgil, Cisl e Uil, si sono recati presso la sede dell’Inail a Piazzale Pastore, per deporre una corona di fiori davanti al monumento in memoria degli operai che persero la vita durante lo scavo del traforo di San Gottardo. Prima della deposizione i rappresentanti hanno avuto un incontro con il direttore generale Marcello Fiori, un momento di confronto per analizzare e valutare le misure per la prevenzione degli infortuni e le malattie professionali e anche riguardanti i nuovi rischi connessi alla rivoluzione digitale e alla riorganizzazione del mondo del lavoro.
“Quello di oggi è un appuntamento di grande importanza – sottolinea Marcello Fiori – che rende omaggio alle vittime sul lavoro e testimonia la imprescindibile necessità di un impegno comune tra le parti sociali e le Istituzioni nell’azione di contrasto alla tragedia degli infortuni sul lavoro e delle malattie professionali. Restano fortissime le parole pronunciate da Papa Francesco in occasione dell’udienza dedicata all’Inail: senza tutele e sicurezza per i lavoratori prevale nella società, la cultura dello “scarto”. Rimettere al centro la persona significa “vedere, avere compassione, farsi vicini, fasciare le ferite, farsi carico” e considerare tutti gli infortunati, persone e non numeri. Missione fondamentale dell’Istituto deve essere quella della prevenzione che richiede un accordo, un impegno corale e il pieno coinvolgimento di tutte le Istituzioni e le parti sociali, come il Presidente della Repubblica ci esorta energicamente a realizzare, per mettere in campo tutti gli strumenti necessari: norme tecniche aggiornate e puntuali, informazione e formazione dei lavoratori e dei responsabili per la sicurezza, incentivi e finanziamenti al sistema delle imprese per innovazione tecnologica e sistemi di gestione per la salute e la sicurezza, un efficace e diffuso sistema di controlli”.
“I numeri – dichiarano i segretari di FenealUil, Filca Cisl e Fillea Cgil– continuano ad essere preoccupanti, con 1.090 vittime nel 2024, 49 in più rispetto al 2023, di cui 156 nelle costruzioni, che si riconferma tra i settori più a rischio. Gli infortuni in più rispetto all’anno precedente sono stati 4.215, e 15.745 le denunce di malattie professionali. Anche oggi c’è stato un incidente mortale sul lavoro nella cava di marmo di Miseglia costato la vita ad un uomo di 59 anni.
In questa giornata così importante le nostre categorie, che combattono ogni giorno per contrastare le irregolarità, tutelare i lavoratori e cambiare la cultura sulla sicurezza sul lavoro, avviano una fase collaborativa con Inail, attraverso un tavolo permanente sulla prevenzione in materia di salute e sicurezza che ci auguriamo porterà alla sottoscrizione di un protocollo operativo, in grado di generare effetti concreti quanto prima”.
Heute ist #WorkersMemorialDay. Wir gedenken weltweit der Menschen, die bei der Arbeit erkrankt oder zu Tode gekommen sind. Die Beschäftigten müssen durch hohe Standards beim Arbeits- und Gesundheitsschutz besser geschützt werden! Jeden Tag! #StarkMitUns#IWMD#IWMD25#IWMD2025
(28 April, 2025) Today is Workers’ Memorial Day. We commemorate all those workers who have lost their lives at work. On this day, we cannot separate their memories from the legislative challenges facing workers in the European Union.
Workers’ lives are protected by national and European legislation. Health and safety laws are a achievement of the international labour movement – particularly in the EU, where there is a strong legal basis in the European Treaties to protect workers. However, these protections are in danger.
The current European Commission is leading an attack on its own rules and regulations in the name of ‘simplification’ – better known as deregulation – with the stated goal of making Europe more ‘competitive’. Numerous protections introduced to safeguard the environment, public health, working conditions, and other crucial aspects of our lives are now at risk. Prominent voices within the European Commission, including President von der Leyen, argue that these rules undermine Europe’s competitiveness. We are witnessing a dangerous pivot towards dismantling the European social model and all the protections it has developed for workers.
From chemical safety (the REACH Regulation) and data privacy (GDPR) to social and environmental corporate reporting, everything appears up for sacrifice to make businesses more competitive. For EPSU, true competitiveness begins with well-funded, quality public services: schools, hospitals, transport infrastructure, universities, and public administration. Prioritising corporate interests over human dignity must be stopped.
EPSU is proud to have negotiated with the employers European rules to protect healthcare workers from injuries from sharp objects. Equally important EU rules provide firefighters with standards for adequate Personal Protective Equipment and regular health checks and protect waste workers from exposure to hazardous substances, among so many other protections for so many workers.
Workers do not need health and safety regulations to be rolled back in the name of ‘competitiveness’ and ‘simplification’. On the contrary, the changing world of work – from teleworking and digitalisation to artificial intelligence and platform work – demands new protections to face new realities. A new ETUI study reveals that workplace stress is responsible for over 10,000 deaths in Europe each year. More than ever, workers need a dedicated directive addressing psychosocial risks.
EPSU will be at the forefront of the fight against the EU’s deregulation agenda. Workers deserve strong protections fit for the future – not weakened rules designed solely for corporate gain.
Od leta 1996 sindikati po vsem svetu na 28. april obeležujejo Mednarodni spominski dan na umrle in poškodovane delavce (International Workers’ Memorial Day – International Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured Workers) z geslom: “Spominjaj se umrlih in bori se za žive!” Namen je s kampanjami ozaveščanja počastiti spomin na žrtve poškodb pri delu in poklicnih bolezni. 28. aprila se po vsem svetu pregleda statistika umrlih zaradi nezgod pri delu in poklicnih bolezni. ZSSS od leta 2006 dalje na ta dan javnosti posreduje svoja sporočila o stanju varnosti in zdravja pri delu v Sloveniji. Glej spodaj sporočila po letih !
Izhajajoč iz te tradicije Mednarodna organizacija dela (ILO / MOD) od leta 2003 vsako leto 28. aprila obeležuje Svetovni dan varnosti in zdravja pri delu (World Day for Safety and Health at Work) z namenom, da bi po vsem svetu spodbudila preprečevanje nezgod pri delu in poklicnih bolezni. Gre za kampanjo ozaveščanja, katere namen je usmeriti mednarodno pozornost na nove trende na področju varnosti in zdravja pri delu ter na obseg poškodb pri delu, bolezni in smrtnih žrtev po vsem svetu.
Today, 𝟐𝟖 𝐀𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐥, we remember the countless workers who have lost their lives, health, and dignity due to unsafe and unfair working conditions, which come with occupational risks, injuries, and diseases.
From the 1993 Zhili factory fire in Shenzhen and Kader factory fire in Thailand, the 2013 Rana Plaza collapse in Bangladesh, to the ongoing struggles of the 2020 LG Vizag gas leak in India, the 2023 Morowali Park explosion in Indonesia, and asbestos victims across Asia, these tragedies remind us of the heavy cost of neglect, corporate greed, and the lack of government accountability.
We honor the voices of victims and survivors. We must listen to them, stand with them, and demand real change. Justice must not end with remembrance; it must drive action for safer workplaces and stronger protection for all workers.
Miles de trabajadores se enfrentan a violencia, agresiones y acoso en el trabajo. Sara García, sec.
“Thousands of workers face violence, assaults, and harassment at work. Sara García, sec. This 28 April we demand urgent measures and greater protection for the victims.”
This 28 April, International Workers’ Memorial Day (IWMD), the global trade union movement is focusing on technology and workplace health and safety.
UNI is bringing together content moderators from around the world for the first-time ever to Nairobi, Kenya, to build a shared strategy for making their jobs safe, sustainable and union.
Content moderators, who shield billions of social media users from harmful and traumatic material, are exposed to hundreds of videos, images and texts every day depicting extreme violence, sexual abuse, hate speech and other egregious behaviour. Depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, sleeplessness and suicidal thoughts as a result from this work is all too common.
For two years, I spent up to ten hours a day staring at child abuse, human mutilation, racist attacks and the darkest parts of the internet so you did not have to.
You could not stop if you saw something traumatic. You could not stop for your mental health. You could not stop to go the bathroom. You just could not stop. We were told the client, in our case Facebook, required us to keep going.
Kgomo highlighted not only the disturbing nature of the content but also the intense pace demanded by her employer, the outsourcing firm Sama. Moderators’ performance was closely tracked, often given just seconds to evaluate each piece of troubling content.
Such precise and constant monitoring is increasingly enabled by algorithmic management systems and artificial intelligence. The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) is focusing this year’s IWMD on the consequences of digital surveillance and automation for workers’ health as part of their campaign ahead of important discussions at this year’s International Labor Conference.
Across nearly all economic sectors, this technology is squeezing workers to meet inhumane production targets and deteriorating workers’ mental and physical wellbeing with the extreme pressure of constant, real-time micromanagement and automated assessment.
For example, Amazon’s performance monitoring systems make workers feel “stressed, pressured, anxious, like a slave, robot and untrusted,” according to an international study of Amazon employees. Nearly 60 per cent of the over 2000 Amazon worker respondents from eight countries
UNI Global Union General Secretary Christy Hoffman said:
Job titles like ‘content moderator’ and the extreme surveillance workers now endure were unimaginable just a short time ago, but workers organizing for safe jobs and a real say about their conditions is as old as the labour movement itself. Unions have always fought and won protections against technological abuse. With every new form of workplace tech, the urgency grows to make it serve rather than hurt workers.
UNI has compiled many examples of unions pushing back against the expansion of bossware and digital surveillance in its report, Algorithmic Management: Opportunities for Collective Action. Showing yet again that it is union workplaces that are safe workplaces.
International Workers Memorial Day is the day that the trade union movement unites to remember workers at home and across the globe who have paid the ultimate price, those who left for work and never returned, as well as those whose lives have been altered by workplace injury or harm.