TUAC NEWS
TUAC Makes Occupational Health & HIV/AIDS a Priority for 28 April
On this 28 April, International Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured workers, the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD (TUAC) is taking part in an OECD Environment Ministerial meeting, as part of its efforts to convince the OECD Council of Ministers next June and the G8 next July to strengthen the linkages between public and occupational health. Marie-Louise Knuppert from LO-Denmark will be among the trade union speakers at the meeting.
28/04/2008
On this 28 April, the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD
(TUAC) is taking part in an OECD Environment Ministerial meeting,
as part of its efforts to convince the OECD Council of Ministers
next June and the G8 next July to strengthen the linkages between
public and occupational health. Marie-Louise Knuppert from
LO-Denmark will be among the trade union speakers at the
meeting.
General Secretary, John Evans of TUAC said the delegation would
signal the significance of 28 April with the Ministers today but it
aims also to influence the G8 to take up the issue of occupational
health. The trade union statement, prepared by TUAC, will be
released next week, ahead of consultations with Japanese Ministers
on 13 May. It deals with current social and economic issues but
contains a section on Linking Poverty Reduction and
Public Health Strategies.
The entire trade
union statement to the G8
English
Français (available soon)
The TUAC paper to the G8 says the root causes of
occupational illness and injury must be met with initiatives at the
workplace level to link these to public health promotion and says
that occupational factors are responsible for 13 percent of
cancers. It argues that Governments should be encouraged to seek a
double dividend by linking occupational and public health efforts
with bans on certain chemicals, such as asbestos and a renewed
commitment to eliminate Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) and
that they should build on the positive implementation of the
EU REACH Directive.
Since 24 percent of the global burden of disease is attributable to
environmental factors, TUAC says public health must be linked to
the activities of the OECD and UNEP and to efforts that link public
health to other serious threats, such as climate change, water
stresses related to droughts or floods, waste contamination and
population displacement or migrations.
Particular action, it says, is needed to build the capacity of
health systems by increasing the employment of health workers and
protecting their own health. Governments should strengthen the
implementation of the WHO ‘Global Plan of Action for Workers
Health’ and ratify OHS-related Conventions and programmes by the
ILO.
Major emphasis on HIV/AIDS
The trade union paper to the G8 recognizes that for the last three
years trade unions have called for a high level Working Group on
HIV/AIDS and that last year substantial progress was made by the
German Presidency issuing a first-report on meeting G8 targets for
AIDS. It calls for a G8 mechanism, with technical assistance
provided by UNAIDS and other agencies to be given the task of
overseeing such a review process and to provide recommendations to
subsequent G8 summits for future action.
Trade unions also call on the G8 to encourage the monitoring and
implementation and clear targets on access to health and disease
issues involving trade unions and other stakeholders at the
national level within government, industry, civil society and
across the entire health community. The Global Fund to fight AIDS,
TB and Malaria should encourage the direct representation of trade
unions in its Country Coordinating Mechanisms, it says. The paper
calls on Governments to promote joint workplace initiatives on
occupational health and AIDS.
Trade unions contend that over 100 million people fall into
absolute poverty each year due to illness or disability. Therefore
expanding access to health care and providing better prevention and
treatment has to be a focus for the G8 in 2008. To achieve this
there must be a commitment to strengthen health services world
wide, especially in poor countries.
TUAC serves as the
communication centre for 28 April
For the last several months trade unions and other bodies have
received a continuous stream of communications about 28 Activities
from all over the world. TUAC hosts the Sustainable Development
Unit which manages the extensive information flow.
John Evans says the work is part of TUAC’s commitment in working
with the ITUC and Global Union Federations to strengthen trade
union capacity in many areas of work, including occupational health
and safety. “Our role to represent trade unions
at the international level continues to be strengthened by being
connected to concrete mobilization efforts in each country”.
On this day the international candle for 28 April is let to burn
for the entire day at the TUAC office in
Paris to commemorate the workers who have died or have become ill
throughout the world in the last year .