Employmentweb_low

EmpLoymEnT, work, And HEALTH inEquALiTiES - a global perspective
Construction: reconstructing the facade of
St.Joseph's Cathedral - dar Es. Salaam
(united republic of Tanzania).
source: © ilo/m. crozet (2003)
annually. Globally, every day about 5,000 workers die due to workrelated
diseases (Hämäläinen, Takala, & leena, 2007). Workrelated
injuries and diseases have a profound effect on the health
of the working population, involving an enormous and
unnecessary burden and suffering for workers’ families and
communities, and a high economic loss for firms and countries.
Depending on the political tradition of each country, its
economic activity and level of industrialisation, the development
of laws, regulations and social protection, the type of industrial
relations, and the power and involvement of unions, workers are
more or less likely to be exposed to hazardous occupational
factors. Poor countries that still employ a major part of the
workforce in agriculture and other types of primary production
face occupational health problems that are different than those of
rich countries. Faster industrialisation, urbanisation, a great
increase in construction, and agricultural mechanisation in
middle- and low-income countries have led to a rise in the
number of workers exposed to traditional (e.g., heavy physical
workload) and new (e.g., work-related stressors and precarious
work) occupational hazards. Heavy physical work often combined
with heat stress, occupational injuries, pesticide poisonings,
organic dusts and biological hazards are the main causes of
occupational morbidity. These hazards are aggravated by
numerous non-occupational factors, including parasitic and
infectious diseases, poor hygiene and sanitation, poor nutrition,
general poverty, and illiteracy. a growing number of studies
(mainly conducted in wealthy anglo-Saxon countries) illustrate
the positive effect of unions and worker participation, particularly
through safety representatives, occupational health, reducing
occupational injuries, increasing the training of workers, and
stimulating the firms into implementing more effective preventive
policies (Menéndez, Benach, & Vogel, 2009).
The globalisation process has increased unequal work-related
transfers between countries. a particularly important problem is
the transfer of hazardous substances, materials and persons
between rich and poor countries. Transfers can have either
positive or negative impacts on the health of workers and the
environment. But nothing that is unacceptable in the exporting
country should be transferred to the importer, no matter what the
legislation of the recipient country states about such practices.
There are three main types of transfers that are typically
involved. First, raw materials, products and minerals are
produced and extracted from workers in poor countries, where
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