TUAC - TRADE UNION ADVISORY COMMITTEE TO THE OECD

28/04/2010

Trade unions, workers and their communities are mobilising on this 28th April 2010 to commemorate workers who have lost their lives or health at work, and to fight for better occupational health and safety.

Each and every day of the year, workplace accidents kill more than 1,000 workers.  And diseases related to working conditions add more than 5,330 to this death toll every day. In other words more than 270 workers are killed every single hour.  In addition, 906,000 workers suffer injuries every day because of accidents at the workplace.

“On top of the already unsafe and precarious working conditions many workers face around the world, these times of economic crisis – and unscrupulous employers – mean less protection and more insecurity,” said ITUC General Secretary Guy Ryder.

“Unions are key for ensuring that safe and sustainable work is not a privilege for the few, but a right for every worker. That is why the Global Unions has chosen ‘Unions make work safer’ as the motto for our actions on this 28th April 2010.”

“Good occupational health and safety is firstly most important because it saves and improves workers’ lives” said John Evans, TUAC General Secretary. “However, the economic impact of work-related accidents and diseases is also massive. The financial burden of compensation, health care, rehabilitation and invalidity on the economy could be as much as 4 per cent of GDP, and even higher in some developing countries”.

28 April is set to be the largest workplace health and safety event in history, with events set to take place in over 100 countries. The ITUC/Hazards global events map is already becoming crowded with 28 April updates from throughout Africa, Asia, South America, North America, Australasia and Europe. So far, unions in over 70 countries have confirmed activities ranging from commemorations, to protests, to training days, and new national reports are pouring in by the hour.

TUAC will organise its own event at 11 am, in its headquarters in Paris, France. Activities include a minute of silence and a debate on ergonomics, which will count with the participation of Philippe Buet, ergonomist in the training institute of CFDT’s Fédération Générale de l'Agroalimentaire.