Tag Archives: Global

2024, 2024 Global, Events listing, News, Resources

Global: BWI call to action IWMD 2024: Enough is enough! Let’s talk about hazards

Leave a comment

The 28th of April marks International Workers’ Memorial Day 2024. Despite the success of establishing Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) as a fundamental right, the harsh reality persists: we witness a rise in fatalities each year due to work-related accidents and diseases. This year, BWI will put the spotlight on the risks leading to the loss of workers’ lives in our sectors daily, under the theme: ENOUGH IS ENOUGH—LET’S TALK HAZARDS.

Trade unions worldwide will collaborate with employers to conduct joint activities, and/or organise rallies to underscore the critical hazards in our sectors and strategize on preventing future workplace fatalities. These activities will take place from the 22nd to the 28th of April.

According to the November 2023 report by the International Labour Organization (ILO), the latest estimate for work-related accidents and diseases nears 3 million, with 2.6 million deaths attributed to work-related diseases and 330,000 to fatal accidents. This represents a more than 5 percent increase compared to 2015. The trend is clear, alarming and unacceptable! Each of these fatalities could and should have been preventable.

In memory of those we’ve lost, we call for a collective effort to ensure that all workers are aware of their rights, and that all employers understand their obligations in identifying, assessing, and controlling hazards in the workplace.

We pursue this through coordinated collective actions and other initiatives leading up to the International Workers’ Memorial Day on the 28th of April.

What can affiliates, partners, and allies do?

BWI regional offices will encourage and assist all affiliates in engaging in one or more of the following activities:

 Facilitate toolbox safety and health training sessions on hazards at worksites.

  • Conduct joint activities with employers at workplaces, demonstrating a shared commitment to addressing workplace risks.
  • Distribute BWI posters and hazard briefings.
  • Conduct safety and health worksite visits and inspections.
  • Organise mass rallies and demonstrations in front of companies to protest unsafe working conditions and poor safety records.
  • Arrange candlelight vigils or other commemorations for those who lost their lives or were injured at work.

Please share your plans with your regional coordinator, and we will include them on the dedicated website www.28april.org, where confirmed materials, activities, and events are shared.

During the Week of Action, document your activities by:  

  • Take photos and videos.
  • Issue press releases.
  • Share our activities through social media using the hashtag #IWMD2024.

Download our campaign materials.

Share all your content with the BWI communication team.

2024, 2024 Global, Events listing, News

Global: BWI launches series of comprehensive hazard briefers to ensure workplace safety

Leave a comment

As part of its commemoration of this year’s International Workers’ Memorial Day, the Building and Wood Workers’ International (BWI) has launched a comprehensive series of Hazards briefers to raise awareness among workers on how to protect themselves while on the job and to advocate for healthy and safe workplaces across the globe. This is part of BWI’s continuing proactive initiative to prioritise the health and safety of workers worldwide.

This is part of BWI’s continuing proactive initiative to prioritise the health and safety of workers worldwide.

First in its series of hazard briefers is on Biological Hazards such as infections, allergies, or poisoning caused by biological agents like bacteria, viruses, fungi, and toxins.

 

BWI stresses that the construction and woodworking industries carry significant risks and hazards, spanning from falls and exposure to hazardous substances to incidents involving heavy machinery. Consequently, BWI aims for its hazard briefings to be utilised by trade unionists and workers at large to disseminate critical safety information, empower them to advocate for their own safety, and advocate for improved working conditions. These briefings, directed at both workers and employers, underscore the substantial responsibility employers bear in maintaining safe workplaces. They serve to facilitate more constructive dialogues between trade unions, worker representatives, employers, government entities, and policymakers to establish more robust safety regulations.

BWI’s hazard briefers cover a wide range of topics, including but not limited to:

  • Fall Prevention: Providing guidelines and best practices to minimise the risk of falls from heights, a common hazard in construction sites.
  • Safety Equipment Usage: Educating workers on the proper use of personal protective equipment (PPE) such as helmets, gloves, and harnesses to ensure maximum protection on the job.
  • Chemical Safety: Informing workers about the potential hazards of exposure to harmful chemicals commonly used in construction and woodworking, along with measures to safely handle and store these substances.
  • Machinery Safety: Offering guidance on the safe operation of heavy machinery and power tools to prevent accidents and injuries.
  • Emergency Preparedness: Equipping workers with the knowledge and skills to respond effectively to emergencies such as fires, collapses, or medical incidents on construction sites.

As the construction and woodworking industries continue to evolve and expand, it is imperative that safety remains a top priority.

Through initiatives like the hazard briefers launched by BWI and the commitment of employers to implement in internationally-sanctioned safety measures, trade unions can strive towards a future where every worker returns home safely at the end of each working day.

https://www.bwint.org/cms/bwi-launches-series-of-hazard-briefers-to-ensure-workplace-safety-3110

2023, 2023 global, Events listing, News

Global: #iwmd 23 – Safety for all – the need for gender-responsive OHS | IndustriALL

28 April, 2023 Gender based division of labour, sexual biological differences, employment patterns, social roles and social structures mean that women and men are exposed to different risks at work, and also exposed in different ways. These differences need to be identified and acknowledged, OHS policies should be gender-responsive to ensure workplaces that are safe for all workers.

The TUC’s guide for trade union activists on Gender in occupational safety and health illustrates that occupational health and safety often treats men and women as if they were the same. Less attention is given to the health and safety needs of women.

Traditional emphasis of health and safety, and related research, have been on risk prevention in visibly dangerous work largely carried out by men in sectors like construction and mining, where inadequate risk control can lead to fatalities. As a result, women’s occupational injuries and illnesses, like work-related stress or musculoskeletal disorders have been largely ignored, under-diagnosed, under-reported and under-compensated.

Across the world, work equipment, tools and personal protective equipment (PPE), have been traditionally designed for the male body size and shape. Moreover, as explained by the ILO, the design of most PPE is based on the sizes and characteristics of male populations from certain countries in Europe, Canada and the United States. As a result, not only women, but also many men experience problems finding suitable and comfortable PPE because they do not conform to this standard male worker model.

Gender inequality both inside and outside the workplace can affect women’s occupational safety and health and there are important links between wider discrimination issues and health. According to the ILO, in general, women are more exposed than men to psychosocial risks that can cause work-related stress, burnout, violence, discrimination and harassment.

The extra responsibilities that women face as paid workers and unpaid carers for their families make that women’s stress levels remain high after work. Not acknowledging gender differences may mean that apparently neutral policies impact differently on women and men and reinforce existing inequalities. OSH is a core aspect of promoting gender equality.

“We need a gender-responsive approach, based on the analysis of sex and gender disaggregated data, that acknowledges and makes visible differences between male and female workers, identifies their differing risks and propose control measures so that effective solutions are provided for everyone,”

says Glen Mpufane, IndustriALL OSH director.

ILO Convention 190 on violence and harassment in the world of work is a, calling on employers to conduct gender responsive risk assessment, taking into account gender stereotypes, multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, and unequal gender-based power relations.

Consultation with women workers and the women health and safety representatives in health and safety committees are key for the development of gender responsive OHS.

Guidelines on out gender-responsive risk assessment on violence and harassment

https://www.industriall-union.org/safety-for-all-the-need-for-gender-responsive-ohs

2023, 2023 global, Events listing, News

Global: Remarkable rise in safety activity worldwide to mark 28 April International Workers’ Memorial Day / Day of Mourning #iwmd23

Unions make a world of difference. We called for occupational health and safety to be an ILO fundamental right. We won it. And now we have got active worldwide in our workplaces, communities and on the streets on #iwmd23 to make it happen. Unions make work better. Make work safer.

 

2023, 2023 global, Events listing, News

GLOBAL: Health and safety at work is neither a perk to be bargained for nor a favour to be asked – IndustriALL – #iwmd23

28 April is International Workers’ Memorial Day, a day to remind us that health and safety at work is neither a perk to be bargained for nor a favour to be asked. It is our right in the workplace. #iwmd23 #genderbasedviolence #SexualHarassment

IndustriALL @IndustriALL_GU

Image

2023, 2023 global, Events listing, News

Global: On 28 April ITF says it is inexcusable that employers’ negligence costs lives

Global union ITF #iwmd23
Millions of workers never make it home from work every year. It is inexcusable that employers’ negligence costs lives.
Join us in honouring the memories of lost colleagues by finding an #IWMD23 event near you:
International Workers' Memorial Day: Remember the dead, Fight for the living. Join an event near you. 28 April.

2023, 2023 global, Events listing, News, Resources, Videos

Global: Watch Q&A with Manal Azzi – Implementing the fundamental right to a safe and healthy working environment

Video

In June 2022, the International Labour Conference included “a safe and healthy working environment” as a fundamental principle and right at work.  Continue reading Global: Watch Q&A with Manal Azzi – Implementing the fundamental right to a safe and healthy working environment →

2023, 2023 global, Events listing, graphics, News, Resources

Global: BWI Call to Action: 2023 International Workers’ Memorial Day

International Workers’ Memorial Day 2023 is annually observed on April 28. This year, BWI will highlight ways to put the right to safe and healthy workplaces into practice through the theme “MAKE IT HAPPEN.” This is an effort to celebrate and raise awareness on occupational health and safety (OHS) as a basic right.

Trade unions worldwide will carry out joint activities with employers and/or organise rallies to promote the implementation of OHS as a fundamental worker right. Activities will take place the whole week covering 24-30 April.

On 10 June 2022, the International Labour Conference (ILC) adopted a resolution to add the principle of a safe and healthy working environment to the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. With this groundbreaking development, Occupational Health and Safety is now secured as ILO’s fifth Fundamental Principle and Right at Work.

 

 

 

However, the time for celebration is over; we now shift our campaign to its full implementation. All workers worldwide must become conscious of this landmark agreement, and together, we will call on every government and employer to deliver a healthy and safe work environment.

445 joint declarations covering 480,000 workplaces and 18 million workers worldwide were signed by trade unions and employers calling for the recognition of OHS as a fundamental right leading to its adoption before the ILO. We will now go back to each and every employer who signed the joint OHS declarations and ask them to implement OHS as a right and MAKE IT HAPPEN. We do this by:

  1. Holding joint safety and health trainings at worksites.
  2. Conduct joint safety and health worksite visits/inspections.
  3. Hold candlelight activities and other commemorative events to honour all workers who lost their lives and/or were injured in the performance of their work.

For affiliates with uncooperative employers, we call on them to hold mass rallies and demonstrations in front of companies to protest their unsafe working conditions and poor safety records.

BWI regional offices will assist affiliates in carrying out one or more of joint activities with employer signatories, document their activities and distribute knowledge material and information posters.

Please share your plans with your respective regional coordinators.

We will include them on our dedicated website www.28april.org where various materials, activities and events are shared.

During BWI’s Week of Action, document your activities by:

  1. Taking photos and videos of your activities. Please dowload and promote our campaign posters online and offline.
  2. Issuing press releases and other media publications.
  3. Spreading our activities through social media using the hashtag:  #IWMD2023

Lastly, share all your content with your respective regional BWI communication teams.

 

 

2023, 2023 global, Events listing, News

Global: la organización en favor de la salud y la seguridad –una parte crucial de la acción sindical

2023 será un año clave para los sindicatos y para los trabajadores y las trabajadoras. El año pasado conseguimos que se reconociera que un entorno laboral seguro y saludable es un derecho de los trabajadores. Esto ha dado un nuevo impulso a la organización en favor de la salud y la seguridad –una parte crucial de la acción sindical–. La Jornada Internacional de Conmemoración de los Trabajadores Fallecidos y Lesionados, el 28 de abril, está dedicada este año a esta prioridad sindical fundamental.

Owen Tudor, secretario general adjunto de la CSI.
Boletín de la CSI – Febrero 2023.

#iwmd23

#iwmd22, 2022, 2022 Europe, 2022 Poland, Events listing, Gallery, News

Poland: 28 April event report from OPZZ

Dear Colleagues,

We would like to share with you the OPZZ’s activities to memorialise Workers’ Memorial Day.

Today two hundred eighteen candles were lit under the OPZZ headquarters building in Warsaw. It is a tribute to the 218 victims of accidents at work in 2021.

In front of the OPZZ building, 218 candles were lit to symbolise the victims of last year’s accidents at work, emphasise the importance of worker participation and stress the role of social dialogue in creating a safety culture at work.

A press conference on safety and health at work was also held.

Andrzej Radzikowski, President of the OPZZ, said:  These burning candles symbolise those who died at work. In 2021, it was 218 people. Today, we particularly remember the miners who died in recent days in the Pniówek and Zofiówka coal mines. He said: we honour their memory and express our sincere condolences to their families.

Practice and statistics show that in workplaces where trade unions and the social labour inspectorate actively operate – safety at work has higher standards, and employees are better protected. The time has come for a systemic debate on working conditions in Poland, especially given new threats and challenges resulting from technological progress – continued Andrzej Radzikowski. – Digitalisation of work processes and technological changes have increased the risk of psychosocial problems at work.

Previously unseen phenomena have appeared, such as blurring traditional boundaries between work and private life, limiting the employee’s right to disconnect from the phone and the Internet, or the lack of social interaction. Workplace stress is an ongoing challenge. The number of cases of mental disorders is increasing.

Andrzej Radzikowski drew attention to the fact that the number of victims of accidents at work in Poland is increasing. In 2021, almost 70,000 workers suffered accidents at work – 10% more than the year before, and 218 people died at work.

As a society, we still bear the enormous social costs of accidents resulting from more than 2.5 million days of incapacity to work and the high medical and social costs of post-accident disability.

We trade unionists are hurt by pathologies in the labour market, which have a terrible impact on work safety. Without their elimination, there will be no improvement in safety – stressed Andrzej Radzikowski.

Best regards,

Magdalena Chojnowska

International department of the All-Poland Alliance of Trade Unions (OPZZ) https://www.opzz.org.pl/en/about-us/opzz/