Work Improvement for Safe Home - International Labour Organization

PREFACE
Improving work conditions among home workers in the informal
economy is an important component of the ILO agenda to extend
decent work to all workers. In many countries, people get their
job and income opportunities from a range of home manufacturing
operation such as clothes, shoes, furniture, handcrafts, or foods. Although
machines, chemicals and other production materials are brought into
home workplaces, home workers have very little access to safety and health
protection. Practical safety and health improvement measures that can work
in the real situation of home workers are acutely needed.
Th e WISH (Work Improvement for Safe Home) action manual responds
to this immediate need of home workers and provides them with
practical, easy-to-implement ideas to improve their safety, health and
working conditions. Th ese improvements will also contribute to higher
productivity and effi ciency of their work and promote active participation
and cooperation of home workers in the same workplace or in the same
community. Th e manual refl ects the practical experiences in the home
worker training in Cambodia, Mongolia, and Th ailand carried out within
the framework of the ILO’s Informal Economy, Poverty and Employment
Project with the fi nancial support from the Government of the United
Kingdom. Th e participating home workers have implemented many lowcost
improvements for safety, health and productivity by using available
local resources.
Existing participatory, action-oriented training manuals and programmes
for safety, health and working conditions have given signifi cant insights
into the development of the WISH manual. Two ILO publications,
Higher Productivity and Better Place to Work, known as the WISE (Work
Improvement in Small Enterprises) manual, and Ergonomic Checkpoints
provided an important technical base. Th e WIND (Work Improvement
in Neighbourhood Development) manual for farmers developed by the
Centre for Occupational Health and Environment, Cantho, Vietnam, and
the Institute for Science of Labour, Kawasaki, Japan, and the POSITIVE
(Participation-Oriented Safety Improvements by Trade Union Initiative)
manual developed by Japan International Labour Foundation showed us
practical ways to design training programmes to meet the immediate needs
of local people.
Work Improvement for Safe Home
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WISH Programme