Transcript ICEM HIV/AIDS Workshop Johannesburg, South Africa

IFBWW
Protecting Workers’ Rights
Global Health and Safety
Programme
Problem:
Every
year around two million
workers die as a result of bad
and illegal working conditions
Almost
all of these deaths are
foreseeable and preventable
Costs at macro economic level
�Prevention
of injuries and ill
health is a development issue
�4%
GDP of any nation lost on
workplace accidents and ill
health
Problem:
Every
year around 100,000
people suffer fatal injuries
on construction sites.
Almost
all of these deaths
are foreseeable and
preventable
Routine work - well known
hazards - but no collective
prevention measures…..
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Falls: roof work, no edge protection
Inadequate, unguarded scaffolding
Unprotected openings and shafts
Inappropriate use of ladders
Excavations: not shored up, unstable
Struck or crushed by objects, materials, walls
or vehicles.
Wood and forestry
Tropical Loggers run a one in ten risk of
being killed in a working lifetime
 Sawmills are increasingly subcontracted
and informal
 Woodworking machinery still causes
more injuries than machinery in any
other sector
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Wood and forestry
Machinery hazards
 Transport hazards
 Stacking of timber
 Manual handling
 Falls from heights
 Slips and trips
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Invisible and ignored
work related ill health accounts for many hundreds
of thousands of premature deaths. Asbestos
diseases alone kill about 100, 000 people every
year
 yet….
 Published data grossly underestimates the real
number of accidents, and reporting of work related
ill health is practically non existent.
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Building Ill Health
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Deafness
Vibration syndromes
Back injuries
Musculo skeletal disorders
Respiratory illness, asthma, cancer
Central nervous system disorders
Reproductive ill health
Renal, hepatic,cardio-vascular problems
Dermatitis
Dengue, malaria
HIV AIDS
Why lack of prevention?
�Globalisation- competition and the race to
the bottom, hostility towards unions
�Deregulation, downsizing and outsourcing
� Workers seen as a cost by employers
�Productivity and time pressure
�Precarious contractual conditions, informal
work, migration
�Low trade union density, low social status,
poverty, lack of respect for human and trade
union rights
�Governments passive and permissive on
workers rights and social protection
Leading to chaotic working
conditions. Lack of:
Compliance with basic legislation.
� Planning and co-ordination.
� Responsibilities and management
system for health and safety
� Investment in prevention measures
� OHS policy, supervision and
instruction,
information and
training.
� Possibility for workers to exercise their
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The Trade Union Effect
rights -based focus
Trade Union Structure
 Institutional participation
 Legislation and policy agenda
 Collective bargaining on OHS
 Recruitment and organising
 Reps and Committees
 Information and training
 Organising informal and migrant workers
 Campaigns on health, safety and welfare
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Legislation
Promotion activities: guidelines, information,
and training, assistance, inspections.
Targeted campaigns on specific hazards and
prevention measures.
Enforcement and real deterrents: the fear
factor: costs of fines and compensation,
social stigma and loss of license or liberty
for negligent employers.
Role of the Safety Representative
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Participate in Health and Safety Committee
Inspections, health /symptom surveys, accident
book, documentation, reports and
recommendations
Information, training and communication with
workers on health hazards and the prevention
measures to be taken.
Represent workers interests, including the right to
refuse dangerous work without victimisation - not
only injuries but exposure to hazardous substances
such as asbestos
Safety Representatives on site
Low union density is a key factor in explaining the
poor safety standards in our sectors
Informal workers are widely dispersed in small
companies. The use of casual and temporary
labour, subcontracting and the so-called selfemployed, creates an increasingly complex
working environment where unions represent
workers across multiple employers.
Safety Representatives on site
Unions find it difficult to identify, train and retain
trade union safety representatives given the mobile
and temporary nature of the work in our sectors.
Workers are often reluctant to take on a union
position because they fear that they are risking
their jobs.
Imaginative structures need to be considered to
ensure that workers have similar rights to
representation as in workplaces with a higher level
of union membership.
Roving Safety Representatives
Unions at branch or regional level should be
able to provide an appropriate union
representative to support all members of
that union wherever and for whomever they
work.
Organising on worker’s rights
All workers have rights, regardless of
employment status, but how?
 Unorganised, exploitative working
conditions and inhumane living
conditions,rural -urban migration as
survival strategy
 Address immediate needs for shelter
and protection; water, fuel, food; chid
care and education; health and above
all employment.
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Workers rights Educate! Agitate! Organise!
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Educate on workers rights:
Workplace - of course
Pick up points- early morning
Where workers live: roadside, shelters, on
sites - night meetings or early morning; rural
organising in villages; door to door, markets;
Public and community meetings - evenings
weekends
At the union premises - get workers along to
file complaints of rights abuses.
Workers rights Educate! Agitate! Organise!
Winning a few small victories on shelter,
water, minimum wage, creches,
convinces workers about the union
 Have to recruit workers and approach
employers and middle men and
authorities
 Have to confront exploitation and
demand social justice
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Workers rights Educate! Agitate! Organise!
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Many of our affiliates in India and Nepal are
experts in organising in the informal economy
Use health safety and welfare as organising
tools, practical, visible and relevant
improvements
Health camps and health insurance is a big
attraction
Creches, childcare and education to get kids
out of work and off site
Unionisation and respect for wokers rights is
the long term goal