Deaths caused by hazardous substances at work are at an all-time high, linked to 1 million preventable deaths worldwide each year.
Unions are telling negligent employers, no more. If you expose us, we will expose you.
International Workers’ Memorial Day – Hazards magazine graphic 5
Deaths caused by hazardous substances at work are at an all-time high, linked to 1 million preventable deaths worldwide each year.
Unions are telling negligent employers, no more. If you expose us, we will expose you.
International Workers’ Memorial Day – Hazards magazine graphic 4
Deaths caused by hazardous substances at work are at an all-time high, linked to 1 million preventable deaths worldwide each year.
Unions are telling negligent employers, no more. If you expose us, we will expose you.
International Workers’ Memorial Day – Hazards magazine graphic 3
Deaths caused by hazardous substances at work are at an all-time high, linked to 1 million preventable deaths worldwide each year.
Unions are telling negligent employers, no more. If you expose us, we will expose you.
International Workers’ Memorial Day – Hazards magazine graphic 2
Deaths caused by hazardous substances at work are at an all-time high, linked to 1 million preventable deaths worldwide each year.
Unions are telling negligent employers, no more. If you expose us, we will expose you.
International Workers’ Memorial Day – Hazards magazine graphic 1
BWI affiliate the Union of Construction Workers (SUNTRACS) of Panama carried out a series of occupational health and safety activities throughout the month of April culminating in today’s official activity to commemorate the International Workers’ Memorial Day and highlight the importance of safe workplaces.
The event, which drew eight hundred workers was held at the Pacific Center construction project, in the banking area of Panama City. Representatives from the Ministry of Labor and Labor Development, Ministry of Health, Panamanian Chamber of Construction, Social Security Fund, Construction Company Diaz – Guardia and Nilton Freitas, BWI Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean attended to the activity.
Throughout April, SUNTRACS organized meetings with workers at the workplace, distributed health and safety materials in the streets and ended their 2019 health and safety campaign with this event and a big mobilization through the streets of the banking zone of Panama City.
“We are holding events on safety and health at construction projects and in the streets. These are the places where workers are. We left the offices to train workers directly at their workplace on health and safety because workers themselves, are the first security ring at every construction project,” Gregorio Guerrel, Secretary of Occupational Health of SUNTRACS.
SUNTRACS reminded everyone about the death of 350 construction workers in the past 20 years due to work-related accidents and reminded everyone of the shared responsibility in occupational risk and accident prevention.
Constant Demand to Governments in Asia for Immediate Ratification of ILO Convention 155 and 170
28 April a day of remembrance for workers who were killed, injured or disabled due to lack of proper health and safety at work. Workers’ Memorial Day is an opportunity to highlight the preventable nature of most workplace incidents and ill health and to promote campaigns for the fight of improvements in workplace safety.The basic slogan for the day is remembering the dead – fight for the living.
According to recent report of the ILO, currently, more than 374 million people are being injured or affected by illness every year by work-related accidents. It is estimated that economic loss due to OSH-related causes represent almost 4 per cent of global GDP, in some countries the cost can be as high as 6 per cent. The developing Asia is one of a key region in the world constantly suffering with high number of work related deaths, diseases and injuries caused by unsafe working condition.
According to a new report from the International Labour Organization (ILO), Changes in working practices, demographics, technology and the environment are creating new occupational safety and health (OSH) concerns. Growing challenges include psychosocial risks, work-related stress and non-communicable diseases, notably circulatory and respiratory diseases, and cancers. Death caused by hazardous substances at work are all time high linked to 1 million preventable death worldwide each year which is unacceptable.
It’s a great sorrow to mention that, the overall development approach in the field of OSH in Asia is mainly focused on workplace accident; addressing occupational diseases is still not a priority. Occupational diseases (silicosis, asbestosis and occupational cancers and many more) are invisible and imminent threat for workers in Asia. The absence of OSH Rights, social protection and just compensation for industrial accidents, injuries and diseases are pushing affected families deeper into poverty and making them vulnerable.
Recent tragic workplace accidents in various parts of Asia show that, health and safety of workers is not prioritized by employers or the enforcement authorities. Occupational accident victims specially women and young people are even being further marginalized as they find it even harder to find long term unemployment or forced to take precarious work that is low paid, unprotected and hazardous.
We must recognize the economic cost, the immeasurable human suffering such illnesses and accidents. These are all-the-more tragic because they are largely preventable.
According to UNHCR, exposing workers to substances that do not have a determination of a health-based safe level of exposure is a violation of their rights. At the most fundamental level, comprehensive information regarding the intrinsic health hazards of the vast majority of industrial chemicals continues to be absent, including their ability to cause cancer, to be mutagenic or to be toxic for reproduction Continued exposure of workers to such chemicals not only constitutes a challenge to the rights of these workers to information, but also may amount to exploitation by deception. Without such information about toxic exposures at work, this further limits the rights of workers to realize other related rights.
OSH legislations are outdated (regressive) as these generally fail to keep in step with emerging workplace issues and non-standard forms of employment. In many cases, workers in the informal economy, domestic workers, migrant workers are not covered under the legislations. Enforcement of OSH legislations are equally a serious concern in Asia and require joint responses at national and regional level. Updated OSH legislation in the Asian region reflecting the nature of work in Asia is crucial to prevent workplace accidents and diseases and to ensure just compensation for victims.
The ILO convention 155 (occupational health and safety) and 170 (chemicals convention) is considered as basic international labour standard for securing health and safety rights of all working people inside the national boundary; ensure safe chemical management and exposer fee workplaces. On the other hand, the important feature of the ILO convention 155 is applied to all workers in all branches of economic activity. Therefore, ratification of 155 by countries in Asia is very important to ensure state’s basic legal obligation, ensure occupational health and safety rights of all workers within the country. The formulation of harmonization of compensation systems and ratification of ILO Convention 155 is an urgent need in Asia.
Furthermore, the goal of ILO conversion 170 is to provide workers with information about the chemicals at their workplaces, and about appropriate preventive measures so that they can effectively participate in protective programmes; establishing principles for such programmes to ensure that chemicals are used safely, but regretfully it is found that, till now only few countries in Asia has ratified convention 155 such as China, Korea, Mongolia, Australia, Fiji and Kazakhstan. Its ratification status in south Asia and South East Asia is nil. On the other hand only 21 countries in the world ratified ILO convention 170 (chemical safety), and only China and Korea from Asian region are included that list.
The international community has long recognized health as a human right. But in a world where above 3 million workers continue to die every year as a result of occupational accidents and work-related diseases; it is time for safety and health at work to be recognized as a fundamental principle and right at work.
It has to be point out here that, one of key recommendations at just published Global Commission on the Future of Work report is a universal labour guarantee required that protects workers ’fundamental rights, an adequate living wage, limits on hours of work and safe and healthy workplaces.
On the International Workers’ Memorial Day 2019, ANROEV demanded to the governments in the region for immediately ratify the ILO Convention 155 and 170 as part of states obligation towards ensure safe, healthy and hazards free work places at national level.
Asian Network for the Rights of Occupational and Environmental Victims (ANROEV)
Cada 11 segundos una persona pierde la vida debido a condiciones de trabajo letales. Pese a que cada vez hay mayor conciencia del problema, en muchos países el cáncer sigue siendo la principal causa de muertes en el lugar de trabajo. En esta Jornada Internacional de Conmemoración de los Trabajadores y Trabajadoras fallecidos y heridos, la CSI reclama cáncer cero.
“Trabajar es sinónimo de ganarse la vida, sin embargo, los trabajadores y las trabajadoras siguen exponiéndose a substancias letales en el lugar de trabajo. Hoy rendimos tributo a todos aquellos que se dejaron la vida en el trabajo. En su memoria, continuaremos luchando por los vivos”, indicó Sharan Burrow, Secretaria General de la CSI.
Pese a que puede transcurrir cierto tiempo desde la exposición a una substancia peligrosa y el diagnóstico de un cáncer, los estudios cada vez dejan más patente el vínculo entre el cáncer y sus causas profesionales. La CSI, junto con la campaña Hazards, ha elaborado una breve guía donde se resumen los principales riesgos de cáncer en el trabajo.
“Los sindicatos hacen el trabajo más seguro. Las personas son quienes están más capacitadas para saber dónde está el peligro en sus lugares de trabajo, y es gracias a su comprensión y sus acciones colectivas que pueden introducirse mejoras duraderas respecto a salud y seguridad. Reclamamos condiciones aún más seguras, desde el lugar de trabajo hasta el nivel de las normas internacionales adoptadas por la Organización Internacional del Trabajo. Resulta fundamental garantizar la salud y seguridad en el trabajo. La Declaración del Centenario de la OIT supone una oportunidad real para lograr progresos significativos que podrían salvar millones de vidas. No debemos desaprovecharla”, afirmó la Sra. Burrow.
Se hizo eco de esta opinión el Sr. Baskut Tuncak, Relator Especial de las Naciones Unidas sobre las obligaciones de derechos humanos relacionadas con la gestión y eliminación ecológicamente racionales de las sustancias y los desechos peligrosos. Indicó que la comunidad internacional debe “aprovechar las oportunidades que se nos ofrecen de momento para eliminar algunas de las distintas normativas existentes entre países, que están siendo aprovechadas por empresarios sin escrúpulos a través de sus cadenas de suministro”. Comentando sobre la necesidad de reforzar la seguridad internacional, afirmó que “los instrumentos globales se limitan a prohibir o restringir la utilización o la emisión de menos del 0,1% de todos los pesticidas y productos industriales tóxicos que plantean inquietudes a nivel mundial y a los que están expuestos trabajadores/as y comunidades”.
Nuevos productos químicos se introducen en los lugares de trabajo continuamente, pero muy pocos de éstos han sido evaluados exhaustivamente en cuanto a sus efectos cancerígenos. Es necesario mejorar los estándares de control para evitar que se produzcan más muertes. La OIT es la principal institución encargada de garantizar mejores normas para millones de trabajadores y trabajadoras en todo el mundo. La CSI insta a empleadores y gobiernos a cumplir su mandato y aceptar la naturaleza fundamental de la salud y seguridad laboral, durante la Conferencia del Centenario de la OIT en junio de 2019.
Los sindicatos del mundo entero se movilizan hoy para rendir tributo y exigir mejores condiciones de salud y seguridad en el trabajo. Sigan las últimas novedades en 28April.org
Toutes les 11 secondes, une personne meurt en raison des conditions dangereuses dans lesquelles elle travaille. La prise de conscience gagne du terrain, mais le cancer est toujours la première cause de décès dû au travail dans de nombreux pays. Cette année, à l’occasion de la Journée internationale de commémoration des travailleuses et des travailleurs, la CSI appelle à «zéro cancer».
«Nous travaillons pour ‘gagner notre vie’ mais les travailleurs sont toujours exposés à des substances mortelles. Aujourd’hui, nous rendons hommage aux personnes qui ont perdu la vie au travail. En leur mémoire nous continuons à nous battre pour vivre,» a déclaré Sharan Burrow, la secrétaire générale de la CSI.
En dépit de la longue période qui peut se dérouler entre l’exposition à des substances dangereuses et le diagnostic du cancer, la recherche met de plus en plus souvent en évidence le lien existant entre le cancer et ses causes professionnelles. La CSI, en partenariat avec la campagne de la revue «Hazards», a réalisé un guide pratique qui résume les principaux risques de cancers professionnels.
«Grâce aux syndicats, le travail est plus sûr. Les travailleurs sont les mieux placés pour savoir où se trouvent les dangers sur leur lieu de travail et c’est leur connaissance et leur action collective qui permettent d’améliorer durablement la santé et la sécurité. Nous plaidons en faveur de conditions toujours plus sûres, depuis le lieu de travail jusqu’aux normes internationales élaborées par l’Organisation internationale du travail. Il est fondamental de garantir la santé et la sécurité au travail. La Déclaration du centenaire de l’OIT offre une réelle opportunité de réaliser les importantes avancées qui permettraient de sauver des millions de vies. Il ne faut pas la manquer,» a précisé Sharan Burrow.
C’est également ce qu’a annoncé M. Baskut Tuncak, le Rapporteur spécial des Nations Unies sur les droits de l’homme et les produits et déchets dangereux, pour qui la communauté internationale doit «veiller aux opportunités dont nous disposons actuellement pour éliminer les inégalités de traitement existantes entre les pays exploités par des entreprises peu scrupuleuses au travers de leurs chaînes d’approvisionnement.» Puis, s’exprimant sur la nécessité de renforcer la sécurité internationale, il a ajouté: «les instruments mondiaux interdisent ou limitent l’utilisation ou l’émission de moins de 0,1% seulement des substances chimiques industrielles toxiques et des pesticides suscitant une préoccupation mondiale auxquels les travailleurs et les populations locales sont exposés.»
De nouveaux produits chimiques arrivent sans cesse sur les sites de travail, et très peu ont fait l’objet d’un contrôle approfondi pour évaluer leur cancérogénicité. L’amélioration des normes de test est indispensable pour éviter d’autres décès. L’OIT est la principale organisation chargée d’améliorer les normes pour des millions de personnes à travers le monde. La CSI exhorte les employeurs et les gouvernements à se montrer à la hauteur de cette mission et à accepter la nature fondamentale de la santé et de la sécurité organisationnelle lors de la Conférence du centenaire de l’OIT en juin 2019.
Les syndicats de toute la planète se mobilisent aujourd’hui pour rendre hommage aux travailleuses et aux travailleurs et obtenir de meilleures conditions de santé et de sécurité au travail. Consultez les dernières nouvelles sur 28April.org.
Every 11 seconds a person loses their life because of lethal working conditions. While awareness is growing, cancer remains the number one workplace killer in many countries. On this International Workers’ Memorial Day, the ITUC is calling for zero cancer.
“We call it making a living, yet working people continue to be exposed to lethal substances. Today we pay our respects to those who paid the ultimate price at work. In their memory we continue to fight for the living,” said Sharan Burrow, ITUC General Secretary.
While there is a delay between exposure to dangerous substances and the diagnosis of cancer, research sheds increasing light on the link between cancer and its workplace causes. The ITUC, together with Hazards campaign, has produced an at-a-glance guide that summarises the most prominent cancer hazards at work.
“Unions make work safer. People are best placed to know where dangers lie in their workplaces and it is through their collective understanding and action that lasting health and safety improvements are made. We are pushing for ever-safer conditions, from the workplace right up to the level of international standards at the International Labour Organization. It is fundamental to guarantee safety and health at work. The ILO’s Centenary Declaration is a real opportunity for meaningful progress that could save millions of lives. It must not be missed,” said Burrow.
This was echoed by Mr. Baskut Tuncak, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the implications for human rights of the environmentally sound management and disposal of hazardous substances and wastes. He said that the international community must “look at the opportunities that we have at present to eliminate some of the double standards that exist between countries that are being exploited by unscrupulous businesses, through their supply chains.” Commenting on the need to reinforce international safeties, he said, “global instruments only ban or restrict the use or emission of less than 0.1% of toxic industrial chemicals and pesticides of global concern to which workers and communities are exposed.”
New chemicals are entering workplaces all the time, very few of which have been comprehensively assessed for carcinogenicity. Improved standards for testing are needed in order to avoid more deaths. The ILO is the leading institution for securing better standards for millions of people around the world. The ITUC is calling on employers and governments to live up to this mandate and accept the fundamental nature of organisational safety and health at the ILO Centenary Conference in June 2019.
Trade unions around the world are mobilising today to pay respects and push for better safety and health conditions at work, follow the latest on 28April.org.
