International Workers’ Memorial Day
Australian workers grieve for lives lost in workplaces.
Families of victims of workplace deaths will join with unions at rallies and memorial services tomorrow (Tuesday 28 April) to mark lives lost in workplace accidents. ACTU media release Monday, 27 April 2009
Loved ones, colleagues and unions will also call for greater health and safety protections for workers.
ACTU President Sharan Burrow said this year’s International Workers’ Memorial Day events will highlight the poor level of health and safety and discrimination faced by construction workers as a result of the Howard Government-created Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC).
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Ms Burrow, who will speak at a Brisbane rally said: “The ABCC powers are coercive, designed to intimidate building workers and provide fewer rights for those working in the construction industry. They must be abolished.”
She said the rising human and economic cost of workplace death should send a strong signal to State and Territory governments that health and safety standards should not be watered down.
Over the past year in Queensland alone, 20 construction workers have lost their lives.
In 2004-5, prior to the introduction of the ABCC and special laws which discriminate against building workers, 19 workers died on construction sites nationally, but in 2005-6, the figure jumped to 29 and rose again in 2007 to 33 deaths.
“The lack of action to reduce workplace deaths and improve health and safety on construction sites is further evidence of the need to disband the ABCC and abolish discriminatory laws for the industry.
“When lives are at stake, we need to be improving health and safety standards, not cutting corners or victimising workers who speak out about health and safety,” said Ms Burrow.
A new report from the Australian Safety and Compensation Council conservatively estimates there are 7,000 work-related deaths each year — more than four times the Australian road toll (see fact sheet).
“Unions support the development of new harmonised national workplace health and safety laws but it is essential the new laws deliver the highest standards and that the rights of every Australian worker are strengthened and not diminished,” said Ms Burrow.
“Workplace safety representatives are fundamental to protecting health and safety and unions will vigorously oppose any watering down of their rights and consultation arrangements.
“It is also vital that the new laws allow unions to initiate prosecutions over breaches of workplace safety where other agencies have failed to do so and that the onus is on employers to prove they have provided a safe and healthy workplace.”
ACTU
IWMD
This is a very important day in the international union calendar and should be observed by all union activists.
The day is endorsed by the ILO (International Labour Organisation),
8 international union confederations and a number of governments.
In Australia, the ACTU has a charter of workers’ OH&S rights. It considers that it is a basic human right for workers to return home after every day of work healthy and safe. Further, it sees that workers have a basic human right to enjoy long, happy and healthy
years of retirement.
However, this year in Australia we face the very real possibility that our OH&S laws will be severely diluted by the federal government as it attempts to “harmonise” OH&S laws around the country.
Deputy PM Julia Gillard promised the union movement that the government would aim for best practice model legislation, however, the recommendations from the panel she established could cause OH&S laws in this country to go back many years.
The ACTU OH&S conference in February this year called for a concerted campaign to support best practice legislation around the country and for IWMD to be a national day of action.
Sadly, it has not been endorsed as strongly as it should have.
The PSA/CPSU Worker Safety Committee in SA at its March 2009 meeting called for its members to:
* support the ACTU campaign to vigorously defend the
highest standards and rights of OH&S in model laws
* promote the slogan:
“Your OH&S rights at work are worth fighting for”
* promotes Internal Workers’ Memorial Day (28.4.09) and May Day
(1.5.09) as key days
* strongly urges SA Unions and affiliated unions to strongly support
the ACTU campaign
* promotes the idea that this campaign should be as well resourced as
Your Rights at Work Worth Fighting for/WorkChoices campaign
I have prepared a longer analysis of what the recommendations mean for workers in Australia. OUR OHS&W performance amongst the OECD countries is not good. Every year, Australia loses 8000 workers from work related causes. The money cost to the nation is estimated to be $57.5 billion! Economic rationalists normally get very excited about sums of money much smaller than this, but on OHS&W, they don’t want to spend money to save money. Of course this expenditure is about workers’ lives being lost and their health, safety and welfare going down the tube.
It is therefore crucial that the union movement and other organisations and individuals who fight for social justice to support this campaign very strongly.
We should also remember that IWMD is the day to remember union activists who have been gaoled, tortured or murdered because they supported workers basic human rights. Being union worker and members can be very dangerous in some parts of the world.
The ITUC (International Trade Union Confederation) has an international campaign to prevent occupational cancer (Zero Occupational Cancer Campaign or ZOCC). This also needs to be supported as cancer is the biggest killer of workers.
INTERNATIONAL WORKERS MEMORIAL DAY 28 APRIL 2009
SUPPORT THE ACTU CAMPAIGN ON NATIONAL MODEL OH&S LAWS
YOUR OH&S RIGHTS AT WORK ARE WORTH FIGHTING FOR TOO
PREVENT WORKPLACE CANCER
YOUR JOB SHOULD PROVIDE YOU WITH A LIVING – NOT CAUSE YOUR DEATH!
MOURN THE DEAD & FIGHT FOR THE LIVING
Andy Alcock
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