Workers, occupational health and safety and primary health care

Workers, occupational health and

safety and primary health care

Health Services

Public Services International

29 November 2011

How to ensure that primary health

care meets the health needs of

workers?

Who will ensure?

What will be ensured?

Who are the actors?

Who is concerned?

Health services:

•Workers are invisible,

indistinguishable and

unidentified

•Women workers and men

workers differ

Who are the actors?

Who is concerned?

Employers:

•Costs: of insurance, of

services vs replacement

•Health costs are rising;

precarity is growing

Who are the actors?

Who is concerned? Workers:

•Workers have the necessary self-

interest

•Workers

•Lack knowledge

•Engage in unsafe/unhealthy work

•Lack protection

What are the health needs of

workers? In health services, workers are unexceptional:

•Occupational link may or may not be

salient

•Worker/patient may or may not make the

link

•Health care worker may or may not be

aware of the link


workers?

To employers:

•Observed connections are seen

•Unobserved connections depend

on time, place, frequency


workers? Workers have rights-based and

responsibility-based issues:

•Increased knowledge

•Access to participation

•Acceptance of prevention

•Engagement and adherence

The degree of penetration of occupational health

knowledge in the overall knowledge

base of service providers in the health field

is essential. Knowledge of relevant geographical

and epidemiological risks can be critical.

Often, furthermore, employers hold

important information on occupational

diseases related to their field of work,

owing to interest, experience, or

necessity

West Africa Health Sector

Unions Network (WAHSUN)

6 PSI health unions:

Ghana (2 unions); Nigeria (2 unions)

Liberia (1 union); Sierra Leone (1union)

Affiliate action.

That:

1. All Affiliate Unions/Associations

must intensify education on

Occupational Health and Safety at

all levels in the health sector to

create awareness and reduce the

incidence of work place injuries

Affiliate action.

That:


adopt innovative mechanisms to

identify workplace hazards and

injuries and maintain workplace

incidents book for the recording

and documentation of work-

related accidents

Affiliate action.

That:


ensure the formulation of OHS

policies, legal frameworks and

standards and form committees to

ensure compliance

Enterprise management/

Government action Management/Governments should:

1. In practical terms ensure a safe working

environment and the availability of the correct

equipment and disposable supplies in adequate

numbers. To reduce the high incidence of needle

stick injuries, the supply of retractable syringes

and needles is strongly advocated



2. Institute periodic inspection

programmes for all facilities to

identify occupational hazards and

take immediate action to

eliminate or reduce them



3. Direct the inclusion of OHS

modules in all educational curricula

at both Senior High School and Tertiary

Institution levels to sensitize a

prospective and potential workforce

adequately towards occupational

safety



4. Take up health worker migration issues more

seriously to reduce attrition rate of health

professionals in the sub-region. Right

equipment, occupational health and safety,

improved conditions of service, realistic salaries

and other inducements should be provided to

curb the attrition

The right to participate in

national policy-making

•Ratification of ILO Conventions

and Recommendations

•Application at national level

The right to participate in

national policy-making

•Unions to make policy not just

react to policy

•Fundamental principles and

rights at work – the core

conventions – as important as

OHS standards

ILO Occupational Safety and

Health Convention, 1981 (N° 155)

“Each Member shall...in consultation with

the most representative organisations of

employers and workers, formulate,

implement and periodically review a

coherent national policy on occupational

safety, occupational health and the

working environment”.

Occupational health and

primary health care

Lagging legislation opens doors to

patient-centered and universal

approaches to integrated

occupational and health care


primary health care

Occupational health and safety

policies are

Healthy Public Policies


primary health care

Unions can provide leadership to

negotiate and steer health policy,

alongside civil society, the private

sector, communities and the

business sector

“How primary health care can

integrate/support the preventive

services provided by workers

volunteers and representatives?”

can perhaps be more appropriately

approached with the questions

“When?” and “Where?” can this

happen?

Global work: Making ILO Conventions

and recommendations on

OHS user-friendly:

1. 37 Standards and 19 CoP into

plain language

2. Directory and key words

3. Matrix of ratifications by country

4. Applications, reports and surveys

Thank you for your attention

Public Services International is a global trade union federation representing 20 million working women and men who deliver vital public services in 150 countries. PSI champions human rights, advocates for social justice and promotes universal access to quality public services. PSI works with the United Nations system and in partnership with labour, civil society and other organizations.

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Workers, occupational health and safety and primary health care