Health, Safety and Environment - International Labour Organization

Manual 6:HOW TO RATIFY & USE ILO CONVENTION NO. 184ON SAFETY & HEALTH IN AGRICULTUREManual 6:HOW TO RATIFY & USEILO CONVENTION No. 184 ONSAFETY & HEALTH IN AGRICULTURE ForewordThe 21 June 2001 was an historic day for the world's agricultural workers,with the adoption by the International Labour Conference of theInternational Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention No. 184 andRecommendation No. 192 on Safety and Health in Agriculture. This is thefirst time that waged agricultural workers 1 – whether permanent,temporary or seasonal – are guaranteed in international law the same rightsand levels of protection as other categories of workers, despite the fact thatthe agricultural industry is one of the three most dangerous in the worldand has the largest workforce of any. There are an estimated 450 millionwaged agricultural workers worldwide, and their numbers are growing inmost regions of the world. They account for 40% of the global agriculturalworkforce of over 1.1 billion. Twenty to thirty per cent of the waged workersare women. Unfortunately, child workers also form part of the agriculturallabour force.In June 2001, governments, employers and worker trade unionsparticipating in the 89 th International Labour Conference (ILC) in Genevadecisively adopted the new instruments despite the fierce resistance of theemployers' group at the ILC in 2000. There were only two opposing votes,1 Waged agricultural workers are the women and men who labour in the crop fields, orchards, glasshouses, livestockunits, and primary processing facilities to produce the world’s food and fibres. They are employed on everything fromsmall- and medium-sized farms to large industrialised farms and plantations. They are waged workers because they do notown or rent the land on which they work nor the tools and equipment they use and so are a group distinct from farmers.Such workers include the following categories: permanent agricultural workers; temporary agricultural workers;seasonal/casual agricultural workers; migrant agricultural workers, piece-rate workers; or workers receiving some form of‘in-kind’ payment. There are also many indigenous agricultural workers who are part of the employed workforce.Agricultural workers work for some kind of ‘wage’ which can include payment in kind in an employment relationship, be itwith a farmer, farming or plantation company, or agricultural contractor. (IUF 2002)271 Health, Safety and EnvironmentA Series of Trade Union EducationManuals for Agricultural Workers