Health, Safety and Environment - International Labour Organization

Manual 4:HEALTH, SAFETY & ENVIRONMENT FACT SHEETSArticle 101. A woman shall be provided with the right to one or more daily breaksor a daily reduction of hours of work to breastfeed her child.2. The period during which nursing breaks or the reduction of dailyhours of work are allowed, their number, the duration of nursing breaks andthe procedures for the reduction of daily hours of work shall be determinedby national law and practice. These breaks or the reduction of daily hoursof work shall be counted as working time and remunerated accordingly. Trade union actionCollectivebargainingA gendersensitiveapproachPromptingemployeractionYour union can use collective bargaining to overcome any limitations inyour country’s health and safety legislation. Encourage your union todevelop agreements to tackle women’s health and safety in a gendersensitive way.A traditional gender-neutral health and safety approach has failed toprotect women from harm. Work has to be safe for everyone. It’s notacceptable to have health and safety guidance and law which works just formen or only affects men’s jobs. This can lead to discrimination in thefollowing ways: ergonomically, in terms of assumed limb length, reach and so on muscle strength, especially in the use of hand tools manual handling, if there is no distinction between women and menchemical exposure, where many of the standards are based upon malebodies, and do not take account of “double exposure” where womenmay be exposed to the same chemicals at work and at homepersonal protective equipment (PPE), where improperly fitting PPE canbe a significant cause of workplace injuries to womenhealth and safety training, with women less likely to be trained thanmenSafety policies should: include a general statement of intent to treat men and women equally provide details of how the employer will listen to women’s concerns identify any hazards to which women and men are exposed separately indicate what will be done about risks which are specific to women167 Health, Safety and EnvironmentA Series of Trade Union EducationManuals for Agricultural Workers