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IWMD 2010: Unions Make Work Safer! What will you do on and around April 28?Here are some ideas:
National initiatives
Contact your national trade union centre to ask them for support.
Write letters to employers organisations asking them to push for full compliance with health and safety legislation and to improve OSH standards in our industries
Organise a meeting to discuss the prevention of accidents and ill health at work.
Write letters to the authorities and ask for meetings to discuss H&S
Apart from writing letters, it may be possible to organise a demonstration to actually deliver the letters to government and /or employers' organisations. This is a good way to get media interest, and to create public support, particularly if there is some symbolic activity such as laying a wreath.
Write to your government and ask for a meeting to discuss these points:
Write to the relevant administrations who have responsibilities for health and safety, asking them to increase Public Labour Inspection and to enforce the legislation. Enforcement of legislation by government should be stronger. In a lot of countries there is beautiful, modern legislation, but there has never been a single prosecution. Employers who break the law should be prosecuted. Employers whose negligence results in serious injuries should face big fines and the threat of losing their right to operate a company. In the case of criminal negligence, where employers deliberately exposed workers to serious risks, they should face the possibility of imprisonment, as already happens in some countries.
ILO Conventions should be ratified and Codes of Practice on health and safety for construction, wood and forestry should be applied.
Legislation on health and safety should be improved to at least meet ILO standards. Policies and National Action Plans on Prevention for our industries should be developed with Trade Unions and Employers Organisations.
Workers' participation: Trade Unions make an important contribution to the prevention of accidents and ill health at work. Trade Union Safety Representatives should be elected to represent workers interests on health and safety. Joint management- union Health and Safety Committees should be established, as is already required by law in many countries
The right for Trade Unions to appoint Regional, or Roving, Safety Representatives to cover SMEs where Health and Safety Committees are not established.
Information, training and advice should be given to employers and workers.
Contractual conditions should be improved to provide stable employment.
Asbestos should be banned, and workers protected from exposure. The ILO WHO has a model National Action Plan for Elimination of Asbestos Related Diseases.
Download here NPEAD National Plan for the Elimination of Asbestos Diseases ILO WHO
Use it! Send this Model letter on asbestos to your government. Click here.
Local events
Get in touch with the local press to let them know what's going on and why. Send them a press release, briefly describing any events which are being organised, and invite them to attend so they can take photos and interview people. If there has been a fatal accident, or major injury or a problem with occupational ill health in your locality, this may create a focus for the day.
Hold memorial ceremonies in a public place, involve local authorities, plant a tree, put up a plaque in memory of those who have died.
Set up a stall someplace public. Give information and advice to the public on Trade Unions and H&S, explain our role in protecting workers rights and improving working conditions
Workplace activities
Organise to stop work for a formal two minutes of silence in remembrance of all the workers who have been killed over the last year.
Organise meetings to give information on health and safety or carry out a health and safety training session. Download BWI H&S training materials here.
Carry out a walk -through inspection of the workplace and talk to workers to identify health and safety problems.
Try to get everyone in the workplace involved, including management.
For More Information, See the BWI Briefing for International Workers’ Memorial Day 2010 “Unions Make Work Safer”
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