International Workers' Memorial Day
Queensland Teachers' Journal, Vol 128 No 3, 5 May 2023, page no. 25
On Friday 28 April, unions, activists, community, and family members gathered at Emma Miller Place, Roma Street, Brisbane to mark International Workers’ Memorial Day.
A strong QTU delegation turned out for the Queensland Council of Unions organised event, joining with other unionists to remember those workers killed, disabled, injured, or made unwell by their work.
While construction has the highest representation in the recent death figures, they have also occurred in arts and recreation, retail, and public administration and safety. Many thousands more workers have their lives changed due to injuries. All workers deserve safe and healthy workplaces as a fundamental employment right, workplaces designed to ensure work doesn’t hurt or kill.
Being abused or harassed is not part of your job. In our schools, teachers deserve physically and psychosocially safe workplaces where aggression and occupational violence is addressed effectively, and controls eliminate or genuinely mitigate risks of psychological injury.
WorkSafe Queensland’s new “Managing the risk of psychosocial hazards at work code of practice” emphasises the duty of care employers have always had to both the psychosocial safety of workers as well as the physical. This code and the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld) provide the legal framework and practical steps through which violence and workload can be addressed.