Editorial

Editorial Archive

The value of essential work: World Employment and Social Outlook 2023

April 2023
Editorial by Sheila Pantry OBE

At the end of March 2020, 80% of the world’s population lived in countries with required workplace closures. At the same time, in the hushed streets of cities and towns throughout the world, key workers left the safety of their homes to go to work.

Across the world, these workers produced, distributed and sold food, cleaned streets and buses to minimize the spread of the pandemic, ensured public safety, transported essential goods and workers to their jobs, and cared for and healed the sick. These are the key workers.

The COVID-19 pandemic has made evident the extent to which societies need key workers – in both good times and bad – but also how undervalued most key jobs are, raising concerns about the sustainability of these essential activities, especially given the possibility of future shocks.

This report calls for a revaluation of the work of key workers to reflect their social contribution and greater investment in key sectors.

The report is organized around seven chapters:

• Chapter 1: Who are the key workers?
• Chapter 2: The risk and strain of working during the COVID-19 pandemic
• Chapter 3: Working conditions of key workers
• Chapter 4: Specific challenges faced by the eight key occupational groups
• Chapter 5: Strengthening the institutions of work
• Chapter 6: Sectoral investments to support key workers and enterprises
• Chapter 7: Policies to build resilience

Full report: https://www.ilo.org/digitalguides/en-gb/story/weso2023-key-workers

OSH UPDATE + FIRE

You will find many examples of good practices, information, guidance and advice, research reports, leaflets and much more that has been brought together in OSH UPDATE + FIRE www.oshupdate.com – THE key tool to all your happiness, health, safety and fire information requirements!

OSH UPDATE + FIRE is:

• is easily searchable by keywords, titles, journal names, standard number, authors, organisations, and will keep you and your colleagues alerted to hot topics such as air pollution, robots in the workplace, stress, mental health, wellbeing and aggression in the workplace, workplace health risks, lone workers, preparedness and business continuity, risk assessment, bioterrorism, management of road risks, all aspects of fire and related fire topics, workplace health and safety and much more.
• long established from mid 1990s with some of the databases in the collection service having information going back over 80 years or more.
• arguably the largest electronic collection in the world in these very wide subject areas from worldwide sources. There is a special collection of OSH legislation, guidance and advice within OSH UPDATE and FIRE!
• The 26 databases and contents are from worldwide class organisations such as the US NIOSH, the UK Health and Safety Executive, the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work and many more similar organisations in the world.

This time of the year is a good time for all organisations worldwide to review their health and safety goals for 2023 and decide on the training or re-training that is needed for all levels of staff whether they are working from home or actually in the workplace and update their information resources.

Check out these successful efforts that are in OSH UPDATE + FIRE collection www.oshupdate.com and OSHWORLD www.oshworld.com and introduce them into your workplace!

• 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 should have for their jobs.
• So help is at hand for those working in health, safety, fire and fire related industries which are brought together in an easy to use web service entitled OSH UPDATE + FIRE www.oshupdate.com that is constantly updated.

Then try these long established Practical, Affordable Solutions for your health, safety, fire and environment information needs from Sheila Pantry Associates Ltd.

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

Update your 2023 diaries with training for workers at all levels

Whether you are a manager, director, safety representative, supervisors or worker it is time to:

• check out the training needed in your workplace.
• look at the latest additions to the Diary of Events and you will see plans have been made already worldwide well into 2023 offering training courses, symposiums, webinars and conferences by Zoom, Microsoft Teams in many places in the world on a wide range of subjects.
• make sure you do not put off training for yourself and your staff. In these days of tighter budgets perhaps training may be put on the “back-burner” – but think again how you can keep up with the latest techniques and training opportunities.
• remember accidents and ill health in the workplace is costly.

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, we 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 events so that these can be added to the OSHWORLD Diary.

FOCUS

This month’s OSHWORLD FOCUS is entitled A Focus on the Occupational Safety and Health of Women in Mining by Brianna M. Eiter, PhD; Zoë J. Dugdale, MPH; Tashina Robinson, MS; Carol T. Nixon, PhD; Heather Lawson, PhD; Cara N. Halldin, PhD; Casey Stazick, BS

The mining industry plays an important role in the U.S. economy and supply chain, with most products derived in part or entirely from mined rocks and minerals. Active mines can be found in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and include underground and surface mines operating in several different sectors, such as coal; metal; nonmetal; and stone, sand, and gravel. Women make up 10-17% of the mining workforce and have been underrepresented in occupational safety and health (OSH) research. A new paper from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) describes the unique OSH challenges women as miners face that may contribute to the continued under-representation of women in the mining industry.

OSHWORLD – your portal to some of the greatest OSH and Fire web sites in the world

Wherever you are in the world have a look at your health, safety, chemical, fire and environment procedures in your workplace and update them. Your review may also indicate training requirements and re-thinking how systems and services can be improved. This is where the free-of-charge OSHWORLD can help you.

Resources

In addition to the above we hope that you find the information in OSHWORLD useful in your daily work. Globally there are continually new titles, news items, new products so remember to look at the News to find the latest information from a range of worldwide sources.

Use OSHWORLD as your portal to many hundreds of validated and authoritative web sites that you can find in the Country and Subject links we offer. New subject topics are constantly brought together on web sites, e.g. working from home, hybrid workers.

Most information services have a reference shelf where you can quickly check the reference sources – so OSHWORLD brings you a collection of Reference sources and also teaches you how to Search the Internet.

Visit the various Bookshops to order any new document as they are being published. Many of these Bookshops have a constant stream of new titles available.

Please send any suggestions or comments about OSHWORLD – your portal to validated and authoritative information. Remember also to look at our other really useful sites – www.sheilapantry.com and why not make a free entry about your company’s products in www.shebuyersguide.com.

Don’t forget to learn from history – visit www.historyofosh.org.uk
An invaluable resource for students, lecturers, trainers, health and safety professionals and others with a general interest in industrial history, the site sets out developments from the 1802 Factory Act all the way through to the most recent regulatory changes made by the UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

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

Well did you have a zero accident, incident-free and healthy year in your workplace? Some would argue that this is not possible! But keep on trying again in 2023.

And do continue to make plans for your campaigns for 2023 and beyond! Remember everything is possible!