Working for Life: Sourcebook on Occupational Health for Women

For too long, the powers that be have gotten away with it.

Giant transnational corporations as well as medium-scale, locally owned enterprises have for too long neglected the issue of occupational safety on the ground that to invest in health and safety would be too heavy a financial burden.

How long more do workers, and in particular women, have to subsidise the profits of corporations with their health and lives? No longer should be the answer. The right to work safely is part of the right to health. If corporations are to profit from women’s work, it is incumbent upon them to provide safe and healthy working conditions. It is therefore imperative for women workers’ groups and trade unions to develop a worker-driven Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) strategy. Such a strategy will of course require substantive information on women’s OHS concerns.

Working for Life provides an introduction to some of the complexities of the issue of Occupational Health and Safety. Some of the topics discussed in the book include OHS regulations, occupational issues of specific interest to women, industry based hazards and personal protection and hygiene at work. It is hoped that the “how-to” approach of this manual will enable women workers and trade union organisers to develop action-oriented strategies based on the realities in their own workplace.