Category Archives: Guides

2025, 2025 Global, Events listing, Guides, News

Global: International Workers’ Memorial Day 2025: Protecting workers’ rights in the age of digitalisation and artificial intelligence – ITUC

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The ITUC is using this year’s International Workers’ Memorial Day, 28 April, to call for urgent action to safeguard workers’ lives and rights in the age of digitalisation and artificial intelligence (AI).

AI is transforming the world of work at unprecedented speed. But behind the promise of innovation lies a darker reality: algorithmic management, constant surveillance, impossible productivity targets, and dangerous working conditions. Technology is being used not to improve working conditions and safety, but to exploit them — putting lives and health at risk.

  • AI-driven management is already intensifying pressure on 427 million workers worldwide.
  • 80% of large employers use AI to track individual worker productivity.
  • Workers are facing burnout, injuries and unbearable stress from non-stop monitoring, unrealistic targets and zero input on how technology is used.

“Too often artificial intelligence is being deployed not as a tool for progress but as a weapon against workers.”ITUC General Secretary Luc Triangle

“From warehouses to hospitals, delivery bikes to data labs, workers are under pressure like never before. The deployment of new technologies must respect the norms of any other changes in the workplace: workers have a right be consulted and included. This basic, democratic, workplace right will ensure the use of AI is designed with safety, fairness and dignity at is core. Workers and their unions must have a seat at the table for the benefit of all.”

Deployment of new technologies, such as AI, without proper consultation with workers and their unions is already causing serious problems around the world:

  • In the Philippines, 19-year-old delivery rider Jasper Dalman died while working for Foodpanda. His union, RIDERS-SENTRO, won recognition and insurance rights after his death highlighted the deadly consequences of algorithmic exploitation that set impossible productivity targets.
  • In Turkey, TikTok content moderators employed by Telus were sacked after organising against inhumane AI-managed workloads and trauma-inducing content.
  • In the US, nurses working through platforms face AI-controlled shift apps that bypass worker protections that create dangerous conditions for them and their patients.

The ITUC is calling for:

  • Full involvement of unions in the design and deployment of workplace AI.
  • Transparent, human-centred technology that upholds rights and safety.
  • A binding ILO Convention on platform work to protect all workers in the digital economy.

This 28 April, we remember the dead – and fight for the living. Technology should work for us, not against us.

The new ITUC report, ‘Artificial intelligence and digitalisation: A matter of life and death for workers’, identifies the physical and psychosocial harms at work when these technologies are introduced without consulting workers. Check out the campaign materials.

https://www.ituc-csi.org/International-Workers-Memorial-Day-2025

2025, 2025 Global, Guides, News, Resources

28 April: Revolutionizing health and safety: the role of AI and digitalization at work | International Labour Organization

Every year, the ILO commemorates the World Day for Safety and Health at Work on the 28 April

Content also available in: español français

The 2025 World Day for Safety and Health at Work will focus on the impacts of digitalization and artificial intelligence (AI) on workers’ safety and health.

This theme will examine various new technologies through an occupational safety and health lens, including:

  • Advanced robots
  • Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning
  • Exoskeletons
  • Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)
  • Internet of Things (IoT)
  • Virtual and Augmented Reality

The campaign will also shed light on new work practices, such as automation of tasks, big data analysis, smart digital systems and workers management through AI.

New technologies have also given rise to new types of work, such as digital platform work and remote work/hybrid work/telework, which will be further examined.

The ILO will produce a report and other promotional materials examining these critical issues, looking at how the digital transformation of work may support safe and healthy working environments and what governments, employers and workers and other stakeholders are already doing to respond to these emerging challenges.

https://www.ilo.org/meetings-and-events/revolutionizing-health-and-safety-role-ai-and-digitalization-work

2024, 2024 Global, Events listing, graphics, Guides, News, Resources

Global: International Workers’ Memorial Day 2024: Action for climate-related workplace hazards

This International Workers’ Memorial Day, 28 April, trade unions are demanding urgent action to tackle ’Climate Risks for Workers’ – the escalating dangers posed by the climate crisis to workers globally.

There is an urgent need for emergency preparedness to be integrated into workplace safety policies, in democratic consultation with workers’ trade unions.

The World Health Organization’s statement in December 2023 highlighted an alarming surge in climate-related disasters, underlining the grave implications for workers’ health and job security.

Workers in agriculture, construction, postal delivery and other sectors have been particularly affected, with a marked increase in heat-related illnesses and fatalities. The threat is not just from heat; storms, hurricanes, floods, blizzards, lightning, tornadoes, wildfires and strong winds are a growing danger to the workplace.

ITUC General Secretary Luc Triangle stated: “The climate crisis is no longer a distant threat; it’s a present danger to workers around the globe. It’s imperative that we demand robust policies and practices to protect our working people from the hazardous impacts of climate change. Our call to action is clear: we must integrate climate risk assessments and emergency preparedness into our occupational safety and health standards.”

Around the world, trade unions are already succeeding in winning protections for climate-related workplace hazards:

  •  In Phoenix, USA, a campaign by the unions Unite Here and the SEIU won a new law requiring contractors to provide heat safety protections for outdoor workers.
  •  Firefighters in Spain won recognition that carcinogenic smoke from wildfires is an occupational health risk and they have the right to protection from it.
  •  In the Democratic Republic of Congo, several unions have united to create a set of demands for workers in the critical mineral mining industry who are exposed to dangerous working conditions inside and outside.
  •  In Australia, the CFMEU is actively winning changes to legislation and regulation to protect workers exposed to heat stress.
  •  In Brazil, SITICOP is working to expand protections to workers affected by environmental disasters.

Luc Triangle concluded: “The work by these trade unions, and many others, is inspiring. We need immediate action from governments, employers and regulatory bodies to address the current and growing threat of climate change to workers’ health and safety.

“This includes consultation with unions, the implementation of comprehensive safety training and enforcement of stringent safety standards to mitigate the risks associated with extreme weather conditions. At the heart of this is democracy, because democracy in the workplace means that workers are listened to, and they can play a part in their own safety. As the ITUC campaign For Democracy says, real democracies deliver for working people, and that includes delivering climate protection for workers.”

The ITUC has produced a detailed briefing about the health and safety impacts of the climate crisis that is available here. You can find social media materials here.

https://www.ituc-csi.org/iwmd24 

RESOURCES

ITUC 28 April videos
English https://28april.org/?p=6653
Spanish https://28april.org/?p=6651
French https://28april.org/?p=6649
German https://28april.org/?p=6646

ITUC 28 April graphics

English https://28april.org/?p=6627
Spanish https://28april.org/?p=6587
French https://28april.org/?p=6608

Other resources
https://28april.org/?p=6525

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