Workers’ Memorial Day an important platform for promoting safe, healthy and decent work
Workers’ Memorial Day an important platform for promoting safe, healthy and decent work - The Labour Party
Marking Workers’ Memorial Day today (April 28th), Labour workers’ rights spokesperson Senator Nessa Cosgrove has urged stronger adherence to health and safety at work.
Senator Cosgrove said:
“The most basic of worker’s rights is the right to come home safe from your day’s work. Every year on this date, we remember those who have died or have become injured or ill in the course of their employment.
“Those who have died and their families who were left behind are foremost in our minds today. But we cannot forget the workers who have been left to cope with debilitating injuries and impacts to both their physical and mental health.
“Today’s remembrance must also be an opportunity to reflect on the strength of our health and safety procedures in the workplace.
“On Wednesday, the Seanad will debate a bill to protect retail workers, workers we all engage with every day in our local communities. We are all too familiar with society becoming much less tolerant since the pandemic. Unfortunately, I am aware of a number of incidents in Sligo where retail workers have faced aggression, assault and threat of assault in shops.
“These incidents are on the rise across retail unfortunately and we are seeing more and more retail workers forced to go above and beyond the call of duty at work.
“Preventing and reducing the incidence of fatalities and injuries requires everyone engaged in working life to place their personal safety, health and welfare, and that of their fellow workers, actively at the centre of their thinking and organisational culture. This must also be supported by employers in compliance with best practice.
“Employers, both large and small, must ensure that health and safety is not treated as an afterthought but that it becomes a central part of all aspects of business planning. It is the responsibility of all bosses to ensure that there are protections in place for their workers.
“Ensuring high health and safety standards in the workplace is simply not enough. To ensure no worker is forced into taking unnecessary risks, we need to understand the financial pressure they are under, the wages paid, their living conditions and the capacity of that wage to afford them a decent standard of living.
“To deter from abusive practise and to provide confidence to workers that standards are being enforced, we need to be sure that the State’s Health and Safety Authority has all the necessary support.”