Ensure safety in workplace, says ILO

May 1st is international labour day, a day which commemorates a time of civil unrest in the late 19th century when workers in industrialised countries demonstrated for improved working conditions, wage raises and an the establishment of a maximum working day and week. The rights that demonstrators fought for at that time are featured in the preamble to the original ILO Constitution and are still current today. Read more to know about the origins of MayDay. World Day for Safety and Health at Work Indian woman carrying basket of stones/ Photo credit: ILO/ Crozet M. World Day for Safety and Health at Work, observed on April 28, is an international campaign to promote safe, healthy, and decent work. The world of work marked the World Day this year amid a new call by the International Labour Office (ILO) for managing risks in the work environment to reduce both the human and the economic burdens of work-related accidents and ill health. This year, as in previous years, numerous field events and activities were planned around the world to mark the day. In India, to commeorate 60 years of Factories Act, the year 2008 is being marked as the year of Industrial Safety & Health. Every year more than 2 million people die from occupational accidents or work-related diseases. "Injury and disease are not 'all in a day's work'", says ILO Director-General Juan Somavia. "We must promote a new 'safety culture' in the workplace - wherever work is done - backed by appropriate national policies and programmes to make workplaces safer and healthier for us all." Sewage worker without protection, Hyderabad, India/ Photo credit: ILO/ Crozet M. The ILO estimates that some 6,000 workers die each day worldwide as a result of work-related accidents or illness. And occupationally related deaths appear to be on the rise. Moreover, each year there are an estimated 270 million non-fatal work-related accidents (each resulting in at least three days’ absence from work) as well as 160 million new cases of work-related diseases. The total cost of such accidents and ill health have been estimated by the ILO to equal 4 per cent of global GDP, or more than 20 times the global amount of official development assistance. In a new report published on the occasion of the World Day entitled “My life, my work, my safe work: Managing risk in the work environment”, the ILO listed risk management techniques which identify, anticipate and assess hazards and risks and take positive action to control and reduce them. Watch a slideshow by ILO on My life, my work, my safe work Workshop in Pakistan/ Photo credit: ILO/ Crozet M. “We know that by assessing risks and hazards, combating them at source and promoting a culture of prevention we can significantly reduce workplace illness and injuries,” said Juan Somavia. In 2003, the ILO began to observe the World Day for Safety and Health, bringing its tripartite strength and social dialogue to the International Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured Workers organised worldwide by the trade union movement since 1996 and coordinated by the International Trade Union Federation (ITUC). Source: ILO

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