28 April is International Day to Commemorate Dead and Injured Workers. The day is celebrated around the world, and is also called International Workers’ Memorial Day, the Day of Mourning, or World Day for Safety and Health at Work.
28 April is International Day to Commemorate Dead and Injured Workers. The day is celebrated around the world, and is also called International Workers’ Memorial Day, the Day of Mourning, or World Day for Safety and Health at Work.
IndustriALL Global Union highlights International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 176 on mine safety this year, because "there is a safety crisis in the mining industry" and "ratifying and implementing ILO C176 provides the organizing space for unions to build a workplace safety culture from the ground up." Read more on the Convention here and for a recent example of the safety crisis in the mining industry, read this article on a mining accident in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The ILO stresses the importance of this day by quoting the following numbers:
"Every 15 seconds, a worker dies from a work-related accident or disease.
Every 15 seconds, 153 workers have a work-related accident.
Every day, 6,300 people die as a result of occupational accidents or work-related diseases – more than 2.3 million deaths per year. 317 million accidents occur on the job annually; many of these resulting in extended absences from work. The human cost of this daily adversity is vast and the economic burden of poor occupational safety and health practices is estimated at 4 per cent of global Gross Domestic Product each year."
You can read more at the ILO website.
In an interview with ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow stated that: "Occupational cancers alone kill at a rate of one worker every minute worldwide, Burrow says. 'Yet pressure from corporate interests means that even asbestos, one of the worst industrial killers, is banned in only a minority of countries. This is not legitimate business activity - it is criminal behaviour.'"
Read the full interview on International Day to Commemorate Dead and Injured Workers here.
