I don’t believe that International Workers Memorial Day (IWMD) or the World Day for Safety and Health at Work should be held on any day other than April 28 each year. I don’t think Christmas should be moved or ANZAC Day. All these days are of significant cultural importance in Australia, and each of these dates has been set for the last few decades in the case of IWMD and ANZAC Day, and centuries for Christmas. Commemorating International Workers’ Memorial Day on a different day places logistical reasons and convenience above the significance of the day and the message it gives to the community.
Workplace deaths are convenient for no one. They destroy the lives of the workers and severely corrupt the lives and expectations of those who knew the deceased. They are often sudden and unexpected. Sometimes, they are slow, painful, and tragic but always sorrowful. Sometimes, they are at the hands of others. Sometimes at the hands of the worker. The dates of each of these workers’ deaths are forever remembered by families and colleagues.
International and local labour organisations believe that these events are of cultural significance and deserve to be commemorated collectively. The number of people who attend these commemorative services is not important. One is enough for a commemoration; hundreds can be powerful, but change rarely results from these, which are effectively personal reflections.
It is not necessary to coordinate a ceremony with a meeting of Health and Safety Representatives, for instance. It is not necessary to schedule the time of the event to match that of the local Industrial Relations or Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Minister. The argument that the ceremony is necessary on a weekday so that workers in the cities can attend is almost insulting. IF the health and safety of workers is important, people will attend the ceremony held on the “gazetted” international day of mourning. IF OHS is important. IF the loss of a worker’s life is important. IF those who are identified as leaders in OHS are going to live up to their commitments and their belief in the sanctity of human life, as is often restated at these events, they should attend each memorial on April 28 each year.
To move a commemoration to another day, for whatever reason, tells people that remembering those workers who have died is a lesser priority, even though OHS will be stated at these events to be of the highest priority for workers and employers. This situation supports the often unfairness of managing OHS so far as is reasonably practicable. How would it look? How would the widows, widowers and children feel if International Workers Memorial Day was held on April 28 every year only so far as is reasonably practicable?
Any death that is found by the Courts to have resulted from reasonably practicable OHS decisions breaks the hearts of those left behind. And some of us seem to feel it is okay to move an internationally-recognised event to another day for a raft of reasons of convenience.
I do not support OHS commemorations on days other than those scheduled annually and globally. To do so sends the wrong message at a time when the importance of good OHS management is at its most prominent, topical, significant and influential.
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