Employers Duties in Matters of Health and Safety

The union believes that deaths, injuries, and ill health are caused because employers fail to provide a safe and healthy working environment, and often over-rely upon personal protective equipment (PPE). In fact, (PPE) should only be used as a last resort and only then to supplement other control methods.
The employer should provide a working environment that is safe and without risks to health and does not damage the environment, identify hazards in the workplace carry out workplace risk assessments before exposing workers to hazards, identify and put into place risk management prevention and/or control measures to eliminate or minimize the risk from the hazards identified, provide full information to workers, provide good health and safety training programmes, provide opportunities for workers and their trade unions to be consulted about all aspects of health safety and environment.

Decent Work and the Care Economy

Care work is to be found in a variety of settings and across formal and informal economies. Some of this care is provided by the health services sector, most of which is formal and public. Public services for childcare, early childhood education, disability and long-term care, as well as elder care, are other areas comprising the care economy.

Yet health and social services overlap with other forms of paid and unpaid care that is given, for example, by family and community members often because there is a lack of access to quality services. Some governments may depend on women's and girls’ underpaid or unpaid work to deliver, or even replace, public services as they seek to limit the financial burden on the State.

Finding solutions to care work is a challenge faced by an increasing number of women entering the workforce as they seek to simultaneously fulfill their responsibilities in bearing and raising the next generations.
At the same time, the world's population is living longer than at any other time in history. Populations of all countries are ageing, even in countries that currently have comparatively high fertility rates but lower life expectancy at birth. Provision of care for persons with short-term or with chronic sicknesses and/or disabilities also needs to be considered. Care for the elderly and the sick often falls on women and girls.

The care economy is growing as the demand for childcare and elder care is increasing in all regions. It will thus create a great number of jobs in the coming years. However, care work across the world remains characterised by a void of benefits and protections, low wages or non-compensation, and exposure to physical, mental and, in some cases, sexual harm. It is clear that new solutions to care are needed on two fronts: in regards to the nature and provision of care services, and the terms and conditions of care work.

Decent work and the Sustainable Development Goals

During the UN General Assembly in September 2015, decent work and the four pillars of the Decent Work Agenda – employment creation, social protection, rights at work, and social dialogue – became integral elements  of the new 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Goal 8 of the 2030 Agenda  calls for the promotion of sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work, and will be a key area of engagement for the ILO and its constituents. Furthermore, key aspects of decent work are widely embedded in the targets of many of the other 16 goals of the UN’s new development vision.

Leaders’ statements and action plans of the G20 , G7, EU, African Union and other multilateral and regional bodies also confirm the significance of decent work to crisis recovery and sustainable development.