Health, Safety and Environment - International Labour Organization

IntroductionAt national level, the main activities have been to extend trade union Education Study Circles(ESC) to provide training on pesticide health, safety and environment (HS&E) issues. Initially,the GPP has concentrated on training local Study Circle leaders who then facilitate on othercourses and help in the setting up and running of new study circle groups.The unions involved in GPP also aim to improve national pesticide HS&E standards and laws.For example, some GPP unions are participating in the development of country-driven NationalProfiles to Assess the National Infrastructure for Management of Chemicals and Pesticides.This ensures that: the pesticide problems faced by agricultural workers, their families, communities andenvironment are documented in the Profiles union members are involved in relevant Action programmes resulting from the Profiles. Foragricultural workers, these include raising awareness, improving provision of HS&Einformation and training, and strengthening pesticides legislation and enforcementGPP unions are also working to ensure that the legally-binding Convention on the PriorInformed Consent (PIC) Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals in International Trade,1998 is ratified by their governments and then implemented effectively.Through the GPP, workers and union officials are being trained to: collect and document information on problem pesticides using PIC criteria report this information to their governmentsThe aim is for their governments to request that these severely hazardous pesticideformulations are included on the PIC list, and subject to the Convention’s notification andconsent procedure.National work is helping increase the activities of IUF at an international level. IUF ispromoting: GPP results and policies in international pesticide and chemical bodies, for example theIntergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety sustainable agriculture in meetings and working groups of the UN Commission onSustainable DevelopmentIUF is also working with the Global Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Facility to providetraining for GPP trainers and union members on IPM. Union members can then promote IPMtechniques as alternatives to chemical pesticides when they are negotiating or dealing withemployers, pesticide companies, and government agricultural departments/extension services.Unions are already experiencing benefits from the GPP. These benefits include: the training of large numbers of workers resulting in raised awareness on HS&E problems the inclusion of HS&E clauses in collective bargaining agreements (CBA) increased profile of GPP unions, some of which are now used as resource centres/centres ofexcellence by other organisations practical improvements in the workplaceimproved networking/campaigning with non governmental organisations (NGO’s). A goodexample is the co-operation, nationally, regionally and internationally with the PesticideAction Network (PAN)7 Health, Safety and EnvironmentA Series of Trade Union EducationManuals for Agricultural Workers