Google Doodle celebrates Labour Day: Has workplace safety improved?
From garment factories in Bangladesh to construction sites in the United States, working conditions across the world continue to get better.
From garment factories in Bangladesh to construction sites in the United States, working conditions across the world continue to get better.
It鈥檚 safe to assume that no workers were injured in the making of the Google Doodle that appeared today in commemoration of International Labour Day.
And good news for most workers across the world: workplace safety has dramatically improved since the holiday was first celebrated in the late 19th century.
Among the most notable gains in recent years have been made in Bangladesh's garment factories, where two years ago 1,136 people were killed when the Rana Plaza factory collapsed.
鈥淎lmost three-quarters of garment factories have now been assessed for structural and fire safety with only a very small number being deemed too unsafe to operate,鈥� said Labor and Employment Minister Mujibul Haque聽for the two-year anniversary of the disaster earlier this month.
As for the United States, workplace fatality and injury rates have fallen by more than half since 1970. According to the Department of Labor鈥檚 Occupational Safety and Health Administration:
Of the 4,585 workers who died in the US in 2013, 828 were in construction 鈥� making it the most dangerous job in the country. An additional 50,000 workers died from occupational disease.
The most dangerous state? North Dakota, where the AFL-CIO estimates there were 14.9 deaths for every 100,000 workers in 2013.
While much progress has been made in workplace safety across the world in the past few decades, there is still plenty of room for improvement. The International Labor Organization estimates that 6,400 people die from an occupational accident or disease each day, amounting to 2.3 million deaths per year.
Workers鈥� exposure to toxic chemicals has recently emerged as a top concern among labor groups. In a new report, the International Trade Union Confederation 鈥撀燼 Brussels-based organization that represents 176 million workers 鈥撀燾ites what it calls a 鈥渃autious estimate鈥� from the聽ILO that puts the annual death toll from workplace toxics at 651,279 worldwide. As the Center for Public Integrity reports, that鈥檚 one death every 52 seconds:
Although the majority of countries recognizes May 1 as Labour Day 鈥� also known as International Workers鈥� Day 鈥� the US celebrates the holiday on the first Monday in September. Never mind that workers鈥� groups selected May 1 to commemorate an historic American event: the 1886 Haymarket riot in Chicago.