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25 April, 2002Two million workers lose their lives every year due to occupational injury or disease.
GLOBAL: On April 28, workers and trade unions around the world will observe Workers' Memorial Day, a commemoration of the millions of workers who, each year, die due to work-related accidents or diseases, or fall ill or suffer injuries.
It is not only important to draw attention to the high numbers of job-related accidents or illnesses, but also to raise people's awareness about such issues and to promote actions to improve conditions for health and safety in the workplace.
According to the International Labour Organisation, the lives of an estimated two million workers are lost every year due to occupational injury or illness - that's over 5,000 a day. At least 350,000 deaths are caused by accidents. The ILO says that half of the deaths by accident could be prevented by safe working practices, and all accidents are avoidable. Some 340,000 workers are killed annually by hazardous substances, with asbestos alone taking a toll of 100,000. Studies show that the presence of trade unions greatly reduces the number of accidents and health problems at work.
With regard to health and safety in the workplace, the IMF has recently published a report on "Stress and Burnout - a Growing Problem for Non Manual Workers", giving an overview, general trends and the response so far of the trade unions to this increasing challenge of modern-day working life (available in English, German, French, Swedish, Spanish and Italian, under publications on the IMF website or can be ordered from IMF headquarters).
The IMF has also published the pocket-sized "Health and Safety in the Steel Industry: a Workers' Handbook", intended to help steelworkers recognise the sources of the many different hazards they are likely to be exposed to in the course of their employment and be able to demand improvements in their health and safety provisions and conditions of work. It is available from the IMF, in English and Spanish.