Akiko’s Blog No. 37: No.2 “Safety and health, and the future of work”
25 April, 2019
Fresh green brought in the new fiscal year.
A live 24-hour event touring 24 ILO offices throughout the world was aired on 11 April , to celebrate the centenary of the ILO constitution adopted at the Paris Peace Conference on 11 April 1919. You can still watch it on video. The UN also held an ILO centenary event .
One of the major donors of the ILO voluntary contributions, Japan launched a project supporting youth employment for refugees and host communities in Mauritania , in addition to the Mindanao project in the Philippines funded by the FY 2018 supplementary budget that I mentioned last month . This project in Mauritania is conducted as part of the ILO Employment-Intensive Investment in Africa. Japan is also going to provide about 5.22 million USD in voluntary contributions, mainly for Asia-Pacific projects.
Japan is hosting various international events including G20; civil society organisations-driven C20 was held in April, and its communique was hand-delivered to Prime Minister Abe.
The ILO Office for Japan will hold the ILO Centenary seminar on Labour Dimension of CSR – Sophia University UN Week, “Efforts of government, employers and workers towards decent work of migrant workers” in collaboration with the Japan Association for Advancement of ILO Activities and Sophia University on Friday, 31 May.
It’ll be well worth your time.
Our latest Japanese publication is “International Labour Standards: guide to ILO conventions and recommendations 2019” ; do make use of this useful and simple guide to key ILO instruments and ILS frameworks. We also launched an interview series titled ‘What We Expect from the ILO in its Centenary’ on our website.
Our expert and vacant positions throughout the world are now available on the ILO website (deadline 15 May) . We encourage all of you who are motivated and willing to work for international agencies to apply for these positions.
Now, we’ll discuss safety and health this month, as the ILO conducts educational campaigns to raise awareness on occupational hazards and diseases throughout the world on its World Day for Safety and Health at Work on 28 April. With “Safety and health and the future of work” as this year’s theme, the ILO released a report titled “Safety and health at the heart of the future of work: Building on 100 years of experience” .
The report consists of three chapters: the first chapter presents an overview of the ILO’s activities in this field over the course of past 100 years, the second presents new challenges and opportunities in four areas of changes in the world of work, and finally, the third proposes ways to cope with such matters of the future of work.
Occupational diseases and hazards impose tremendous suffering on workers, in addition to economic costs. What makes it even more tragic is the fact that many of them are preventable. More than 374 million people are injured or made ill in work-related accidents every year throughout the world; work days lost to OSH-related causes are equivalent of nearly 4 %, or even 6 % in some countries, of global GDP. Occupational deaths are caused mainly by diseases (86 % of the total fatalities); about 6,500 workers die from occupational diseases per day, while about 1,000 workers die from occupational hazards per day. Three biggest causes of death are circulatory diseases (31 % of the total), work-related cancer (26 %), and respiratory diseases (17 %).
The report lists the following four fields as drivers of change.
The first is science and technology; when used correctly, it could reduce hazardous exposure and facilitate training and labour inspection, while it may also impact psychosocial health and may usher in new materials that may be potentially hazardous.
The second is demographic shifts; it encompasses challenges such as high occupational injury rates among young workers, necessity for elderly workers to adapt to machinery and practices to work safely, and tendency for women to have non-standard work arrangements and a higher risk of musculoskeletal disorders, despite their rising participation rate.
The third is development and climate change; though they bring on risks of employment loss due to air pollution, heat stress, new diseases, and change in the weather and temperature patterns, they also lead to creation of new jobs through sustainable development and green economies.
The fourth is change in the work organization. While creating flexibility for more people to join the workforce, this could potentially lead to psychosocial issues such as lack of stability, threatened privacy and rest, insufficient OSH and social protections, and long hours of work. Currently, workers who work over 48 hours per week amount to nearly 36 % of the global workforce.
The report proposes the following six measures to focus on for policy-makers and stakeholders: fortifying activities to predict new OSH risks, taking a more multidisciplinary approach, promoting understanding on OSH issues, strengthening partnership with public health efforts, bolstering ILSs and domestic laws, and boosting collaborative activities between governments and social partners of employers and workers.
The report of the Global Commission on Future of Work, which will be discussed at the ILC in June, urges governments to acknowledge OSH as one of the fundamental principles and rights related to work.
Fresh green brought in the new fiscal year.
A live 24-hour event touring 24 ILO offices throughout the world was aired on 11 April , to celebrate the centenary of the ILO constitution adopted at the Paris Peace Conference on 11 April 1919. You can still watch it on video. The UN also held an ILO centenary event .
One of the major donors of the ILO voluntary contributions, Japan launched a project supporting youth employment for refugees and host communities in Mauritania , in addition to the Mindanao project in the Philippines funded by the FY 2018 supplementary budget that I mentioned last month . This project in Mauritania is conducted as part of the ILO Employment-Intensive Investment in Africa. Japan is also going to provide about 5.22 million USD in voluntary contributions, mainly for Asia-Pacific projects.
Japan is hosting various international events including G20; civil society organisations-driven C20 was held in April, and its communique was hand-delivered to Prime Minister Abe.
The ILO Office for Japan will hold the ILO Centenary seminar on Labour Dimension of CSR – Sophia University UN Week, “Efforts of government, employers and workers towards decent work of migrant workers” in collaboration with the Japan Association for Advancement of ILO Activities and Sophia University on Friday, 31 May.
It’ll be well worth your time.
Our latest Japanese publication is “International Labour Standards: guide to ILO conventions and recommendations 2019” ; do make use of this useful and simple guide to key ILO instruments and ILS frameworks. We also launched an interview series titled ‘What We Expect from the ILO in its Centenary’ on our website.
Our expert and vacant positions throughout the world are now available on the ILO website (deadline 15 May) . We encourage all of you who are motivated and willing to work for international agencies to apply for these positions.
Now, we’ll discuss safety and health this month, as the ILO conducts educational campaigns to raise awareness on occupational hazards and diseases throughout the world on its World Day for Safety and Health at Work on 28 April. With “Safety and health and the future of work” as this year’s theme, the ILO released a report titled “Safety and health at the heart of the future of work: Building on 100 years of experience” .
The report consists of three chapters: the first chapter presents an overview of the ILO’s activities in this field over the course of past 100 years, the second presents new challenges and opportunities in four areas of changes in the world of work, and finally, the third proposes ways to cope with such matters of the future of work.
Occupational diseases and hazards impose tremendous suffering on workers, in addition to economic costs. What makes it even more tragic is the fact that many of them are preventable. More than 374 million people are injured or made ill in work-related accidents every year throughout the world; work days lost to OSH-related causes are equivalent of nearly 4 %, or even 6 % in some countries, of global GDP. Occupational deaths are caused mainly by diseases (86 % of the total fatalities); about 6,500 workers die from occupational diseases per day, while about 1,000 workers die from occupational hazards per day. Three biggest causes of death are circulatory diseases (31 % of the total), work-related cancer (26 %), and respiratory diseases (17 %).
The report lists the following four fields as drivers of change.
The first is science and technology; when used correctly, it could reduce hazardous exposure and facilitate training and labour inspection, while it may also impact psychosocial health and may usher in new materials that may be potentially hazardous.
The second is demographic shifts; it encompasses challenges such as high occupational injury rates among young workers, necessity for elderly workers to adapt to machinery and practices to work safely, and tendency for women to have non-standard work arrangements and a higher risk of musculoskeletal disorders, despite their rising participation rate.
The third is development and climate change; though they bring on risks of employment loss due to air pollution, heat stress, new diseases, and change in the weather and temperature patterns, they also lead to creation of new jobs through sustainable development and green economies.
The fourth is change in the work organization. While creating flexibility for more people to join the workforce, this could potentially lead to psychosocial issues such as lack of stability, threatened privacy and rest, insufficient OSH and social protections, and long hours of work. Currently, workers who work over 48 hours per week amount to nearly 36 % of the global workforce.
The report proposes the following six measures to focus on for policy-makers and stakeholders: fortifying activities to predict new OSH risks, taking a more multidisciplinary approach, promoting understanding on OSH issues, strengthening partnership with public health efforts, bolstering ILSs and domestic laws, and boosting collaborative activities between governments and social partners of employers and workers.
The report of the Global Commission on Future of Work, which will be discussed at the ILC in June, urges governments to acknowledge OSH as one of the fundamental principles and rights related to work.