Editorial

Promoting Decent Work for All

September 2013
Sheila Pantry OBE

Work is central to people’s well-being. In addition to providing income, work can pave the way for broader social and economic advancement, strengthening individuals, their families and communities. Such progress, however, hinges on work that is decent. Decent work sums up the aspirations of people in their working lives.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has developed an agenda for the community of work. It provides support through integrated Decent Work Country Programmes developed in coordination with its constituents. Putting the Decent Work Agenda into practice is achieved through the implementation of the ILO’s four strategic objectives, with gender equality as a crosscutting objective:

Creating Jobs – an economy that generates opportunities for investment, entrepreneurship, skills development, job creation and sustainable livelihoods.
Guaranteeing rights at work – to obtain recognition and respect for the rights of workers. All workers, and in particular disadvantaged or poor workers, need representation, participation, and laws that work for their interests.
Extending social protection – to promote both inclusion and productivity by ensuring that women and men enjoy working conditions that are safe, allow adequate free time and rest, take into account family and social values, provide for adequate compensation in case of lost or reduced income and permit access to adequate healthcare.
Promoting social dialogue – Involving strong and independent workers’ and employers’ organizations is central to increasing productivity, avoiding disputes at work, and building cohesive societies.

In a radio interview ahead of the G20 Leaders’ summit in Saint Petersburg on 5-6 September 2013, ILO Director-General Guy Ryder stressed the need to boost consumer demand to spur growth and create new jobs.

He has urged G20 leaders to take decisive action to create more and better jobs. In an interview he gave before heading to Saint Petersburg for a summit of the G20, Ryder painted a glum picture of the employment situation.

“As you know there is a total of about 93 million people unemployed in the G20 countries alone. That is about the equivalent of the entire population of Germany and there are 200 million or so unemployed in the world.” “I think it is fair to say that every G20 country faces major jobs challenges and some face social tensions often linked to those challenges. And this situation is unlikely to change unless decisive action is taken. And that needs to start happening right now with the G20 in Saint Petersburg. So the message the ILO will be stressing is that these measures need to strengthen in particular domestic demand which will increase global aggregate demand, get growth moving and bring new jobs into circulation.”

English: Decisive action on jobs needed at G20, says ILO [MP3 – 2.2 MB]

More information on decent work and many related topics is available from a wide range of countries in OSH UPDATE www.oshupdate.com and FIREINF www.fireinf.com that answers your questions – quickly and easily.

It is always good to keep researching and finding out if there are services and other ways of keeping up-to-date in this fast changing world of ours. Time is precious and many people are really stretched in their jobs and find it difficult to keep ahead in current knowledge that they need to remain efficient and effective. But help is at hand for those working in health, safety and fire and fire related industries.

Information on health and safety at work – not only from Europe but from around the World, including advice, guidance, research results and legislation and much more can be found by checking out the OSH UPDATE electronic collection of information sources. Information Seekers will find a wealth of authoritative and validated advice from around the world. Best practices, case studies, journal articles, reports and knowledge of systems are in OSH UPDATE.

OSH UPDATE www.oshupdate.com is CONTINUOUSLY expanding and has 20 databases containing 833,049 full text and bibliographic records. It is a unique collection of quality information from major OSH sources e.g. A recent addition is the MHAID database containing major hazards accidents and incidents reports which complements the many thousands of similar reports within OSH UPDATE collection.

Also why not try the electronic services FIREINF www.fireinf.com that contains 17 databases with 547,702 sources of full text and bibliographic authoritative and validated information.

Both these services will help you and your organisation to keep up-to-date. These services continue to bring you the latest information on health, safety, environment, fire and other subjects that you will find useful in your daily work.

OSH UPDATE and FIREINF services contain both full text and bibliographic information are continuously enlarged as new information is published. These services are used by individuals, organisations, universities, institutions and companies worldwide.

For a 15 DAY FREE NO OBLIGATION TRIAL contact: Sheila Pantry Associates Ltd | email: sp@sheilapantry.com | or fill in the Interest form www.sheilapantry.com/interest.html

This month’s FOCUS is on the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) launches the health and safety leadership resources pack.

Worldwide, plans have been made already up to 2014 to have training courses, symposiums and conferences in many places in the world on a wide range of subjects. Look at the latest additions to the Diary of Events. Don’t forget to budget for these events – make sure that you and your colleagues are up-to-date with the very latest knowledge – remember that all workplaces and those working in them change, so continue to do your risk assessments.

One way of keeping up to date is to go to exhibitions and the world’s major OSHE events. Remember that even if you cannot attend these many events, speakers and organisers are often willing to share their knowledge. Look at the details – where possible, I add in the web sites of these events so you can request further information. And do let me know if you are organising any OSHE and fire events so that I can add them to the Diary send to sp@sheilapantry.com

OSHWORLD continues to bring you information on health, safety, environment, fire and other subjects that I do hope you find useful in your daily work.

It is always good to review health, safety, chemical, fire and environment procedures on a regular basis. It is also important that the practices and systems in the workplace are constantly reviewed and if necessary, improved. This review may also indicate training requirements and updates and re-thinking how systems and services can be improved. This is where the free-of-charge OSHWORLD can help you find the right course, seminar or conference.

Your OSHWorld Portal

Globally there are new publications, news items, new products so remember to look at the News section to find the latest information from an ever increasing number of sources such as the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work to the US National Institute for Occupational safety and Health (NIOSH). Use OSHWORLD as your portal to many hundreds of validated and authoritative web sites which you can find in the Country and Subject links we offer. New subject topics are constantly brought together on web sites, e.g. the various OSH related networks that exist around the world... there may be one where you live and work... why not join it!

Remember to look at the Products and Services on this web site and see what is new and updated.

OSHWORLD www.oshworld.com – your portal to some of the very best OSH web sites in the world!

Also look at our www.shebuyersguide.com that give you access to many organisations, their products and services. You may also wish to add your company’s information to the listing for free!

You can sign up for the RSS feed that alerts you each time there is an update in OSHWORLD!

OSH UPDATE was described recently as a “brilliant site”!

Don’t work harder – work smarter! Be ahead of the game.

Are you hoping to have a zero accident, incident-free and healthy record this year in your workplace? Some would argue that this is not possible! But keep on trying!