Editorial
World Day for Decent Work - 7 October 2011 - Unions Worldwide Mobilise for Decent Work - Time to start planning
Sheila Pantry OBE
July 2011
For the fourth year in a row, trade unions and labour rights organisations across the world will mobilise again on 7 October 2011 in favour of Decent Work. Last year saw 430 actions in 98 countries, and expectations for this year are just as high. While actions in different countries will cover a wide variety of issues, the primary focus this year is on tackling precarious work and promoting global regulation of the finance sector.
"Working people, having already bailed out the banks, are now paying for the crisis again as public sector cuts reduce or eliminate crucial services and benefits. Business, supported by some governments, has also launched a relentless attack on wages and job security," said ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow.
With unemployment being the highest ever reported with as many as 205 million people out of a job, support for sustainable solutions including social protection is more important than ever. On current predictions, a further 45 million young people will join the ranks of the unemployed in the coming decade. Failure of governments to transform economic policy so that decent, sustainable jobs are generated would have catastrophic social and economic consequences.
Precarious work refers to forms of work characterised by atypical employment contracts, limited or no social benefits and statutory entitlements, high degrees of job insecurity, low job tenure, low wages and high risks of occupational injury and disease. Young people and women are disproportionately represented amongst those who only have access to such uncertain and unpredictable forms of employment.
The special website for the 2011 World Day for Decent Work is now online, and the ITUC urges all those who plan to participate in the day to sign up their actions on: www.ituc-csi.org/world-day-for-decent-work
The ITUC represents 175 million workers in 151 countries and territories and has 305 national affiliates. www.ituc-csi.org and https://www.youtube.com/user/ITUCCSI
OSH UPDATE and FIREINF will keep you up-to-date - bringing you quality fire, health and safety information easily, quickly and budget friendly
It is always good to keep researching and finding out if there are services and other ways of keeping up-to-date in this fast changing world of ours. Time is precious and many people are really stretched in their jobs and find it difficult to keep ahead in current knowledge that they should have for their jobs. But help is at hand for those working in health, safety and fire and fire related industries.
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FIREINF is continuously enlarged as new information is published and is used by organisations worldwide.
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More information on health and safety at work - not only from Europe but from around the World, including advice, guidance, research results and legislation and much more can be found by checking out the OSH UPDATE electronic collection of information sources. Information Seekers will find a wealth of authoritative and validated advice from around the world. Best practices, case studies, journal articles, reports and knowledge of systems are in OSH UPDATE.
OSH UPDATE is CONTINUOUSLY expanding and has 20 databases of full text and bibliographic records. It is a unique collection of quality information from major OSH sources.
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The electronic services OSH UPDATE www.oshupdate.com and FIREINF www.fireinf.com will help you and your organisation to keep up-to-date. These services continue to bring you the latest information on health, safety, environment, fire and other subjects that you will find useful in your daily work.
OSH UPDATE and FIREINF services contain both full text and bibliographic information are continuously enlarged as new information is published. These services are used by organisations, universities and companies worldwide.
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Don't re-invent the wheel... learn from others!
OSHWORLD - your portal to some of the best OSH web sites in the world
Also look at the portal OSHWORLD www.oshworld.com and view the latest additions to the Diary of Events where you will see that plans have been made up to late 2011 and now into 2012 to have training courses, symposiums, webinars and conferences in many places in the world on a wide range of subjects. Don't forget to budget for these events - make sure that you and your colleagues are up-to-date with the very latest knowledge - remember that all workplaces and those working in them change, so continue to do your risk assessments.
In these days of tighter budgets perhaps training may be put on the "back-burner" - but think again how you can keep up with the latest techniques and training opportunities.
Remember that even if you cannot attend these many events, speakers and organisers are often willing to share their knowledge. Look at the details - where possible, we add in the web sites of these events so you can request further information. And do let me know if you are organising any OSHE events so that I can add them to the Diary.
It is always good to review health, safety, chemical, fire and environment procedures on a regular basis. It is also important that the practices and systems in the workplace are constantly reviewed and if necessary, improved. This review may also indicate training requirements and updates and re-thinking how systems and services can be improved. This is where the free-of charge OSHWORLD can help you.
Globally there are continually new titles, news items, new products so remember to look at the News to find the latest information from a number of authoritative sources such as the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, the UK Health and Safety Executive and US NIOSH. Use OSHWORLD as your portal to many hundreds of validated and authoritative web sites which you can find in the Country and Subject links we offer. New subject topics are constantly brought together on web sites, e.g. nanotechnology.
This month's FOCUS is entitled One for the road... A new European-wide service has been launched to help managers of small businesses deal with employees whose drink or drug intake is affecting their work.
Remember to look at the Products and Services on this web site and see what is new and updated.
Don't work harder - work smarter! Be ahead of the game.
Are you hoping to have a zero accident, incident-free and healthy year in 2011 in your workplace? Some would argue that this is not possible! But keep on trying!
And do continue to make plans for your campaigns for 2011 and beyond!