ITUC/Hazards coronavirus workplace health resource hub

Resources

International union resources

ITUC Covid-19 resource pages – news, resources and publications from ITUC affiliates, Global Union Federations and LabourStart.

Labourstart unions and Covid-19 news service.

ETUC trade unions and the coronavirus webpages. Include ETUC statements, the European social partner statement, and national bipartite and tripartite agreements on dealing with the impacts of coronavirus emergency.

TUC Covid-19 guidance TUC’s freshly revised Covid-19 guidance for union reps covers all the top concerns. The updated guidance includes information on issues including risk assessments, ventilation, shielding, the Employment Rights Act section 44 right to refuse, PPE, testing and vaccines… and a whole lot more. TUC

Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) Centre for Health and Safety Covid-19 resource page. ACTU’s online COVID-19 Workers' Rights Resource Centre includes a suite of resources and tools on action in the workplace, including a workplace letter that asks the employer to implement a paid special leave policy.

New Zealand Council of Trade Unions (NZCTU) Covid-19 Rights at work guide.

Public Service International (PSI). Safe Workers Save Lives campaign, including a campaign video, poster on ‘your rights as a health worker’ in English, Français, Español. and guidance briefing for union action. PSI Public Health, Once and for All campaign.

International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) coronavirus updates.

IUF information and resources for affiliates.

Education International: COVID-19 tracker and guiding principles on the COVID-19 pandemic.

UNI global union – response to Covid-19.

IndustriALL Covid-19 webpages.
- Covid-19 - Advice for workers and employers
- COVID-19: Recomendaciones para trabajadores y empleadores
- COVID-19 - Conseils aux travailleurs et aux employeurs
- Covid-19 – советы работникам и работодателям
- Saving ourselves
- Mantenernos a salvo
- La sécurité c'est notre affaire

Preguntas frecuentes sobre el COVID-19, Confederación Sindical de Comisiones Obreras (CC.OO).

LHSFNA Coronavirus & COVID-19 resources for construction work

United Steelworkers (USW), North America.

AFSCME, USA (English and Spanish)
- AFSCME En Español Recursos de coronavirus (COVID-19)
- AFSCME Resources: Coronavirus -Public Service Workers on The Front Lines

US Teamsters union (IBT) Coronavirus factsheets/resources for non-health care workers from the including waste, transit, emergency response and airline workers.

AFL-CIO, USA: Covid-19 pandemic resources

US National Council for Occupational Safety and Health. Coronavirus: Resources for Workers • Recursos de Coronavirus para Trabajadorxs en Español.

Covid-19: Rights and resources, National Employment Law Project, USA.

Coronavirus/ COVID-19 Guidance to Unions, TUC, March 2020.

GMB coronavirus hub and GMB Coronavirus Briefing on Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

Unite Coronavirus/Covid-19 advice and guide for union officers.

UNISON coronavirus Q&A and guidance on Personal Protective Equipment and coronavirus.

Other UK union and other resources.

Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) COVID-19 Resource center

Congrès du travail du Canada Centre de ressources sur la COVID-19.

Other International resources

International Labour Organisation (ILO)
•	ILO International Labour Standards related to COVID-19 (coronavirus)
•	Normes de l’OIT et COVID-19 (coronavirus)
•	Las normas de la OIT y el COVID-19 (coronavirus)
•	COVID-19 and world of work: Impacts and responses, International Labour Organisation (ILO) Note, 18 March 2020.
•	COVID-19 and the world of work – ILO.
•	El COVID-19 y el mundo del trabajo – OIT.
•	Le COVID-19 et le monde du travail – OIT

World Health Organisation (WHO)
Protection of health workers and emergency responders
•	Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19) Outbreak: Rights, roles and responsibilities of health workers, including key considerations for occupational safety and health (English only)
•	Health workers exposure risk assessment and management in the context of COVID-19 virus
•	Rational use of personal protective equipment for coronavirus disease (COVID-19)
•	WHO, ePROTECT respiratory occupational health and safety
•	The COVID-19 risk communication package for healthcare facilities
•	WHO and ILO, Occupational safety and health in public health emergencies: A manual for protecting health workers and responders (English) (Chinese)
•	ILO and WHO, Work improvement in health services (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Arab, Chinese)
Non-healthcare workplaces
•	Getting your workplace ready for COVID-19
•	Business and employees
•	Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) technical guidance: Points of entry and mass gatherings
•	Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) advice for the public
•	Coping with stress during the COVID-19 outbreak
•	Travel and tourism
•	COVID-19 website
•	WHO Travel Advice
Infographics
•	Prevention COVID-19 at the workplace

Other resources

•	US NIOSH coronavirus at work advice.
•	US OSHA guidance on preparing workplaces for Covid-19 and additional resources.
•	The Lancet COVID-19 Resource Centre
•	Society of Occupational Medicine COVID-19 summary update
•	Annals of Work Exposures and Health: Articles related to COVID-19.
•	JAMA Coronavirus resource centre
•	Institution of Occupational Safety and Health coronavirus webpages.

Hazards features

NO! NO! NO! No prosecutions. No leadership. No clue. Hazards looks at the impact of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) keeping a safe distance from enforcement activity as Covid-19 raged in the workplace. Hazards 152, December 2020

VENTING Hands, face, space. We all know the mantra. But you can’t stop breathing and if the workplace air is going nowhere and is chock-full of coronavirus, you’ll still be at risk. Hilda Palmer of the Hazards Campaign explains the critical importance of ventilation and why it is necessary to clear the air. Hazards 152, December 2020

Laid bare
Most workplaces never saw an inspector. Workers struggled to get PPE. Whistleblowers were silenced. That was before Covid-19. Hazards editor Rory O’Neill reveals how the pandemic didn’t cause a crisis in workplace health. It exposed it.
Hazards 151, November 2020

Biohazard
Long before Covid-19, unions made repeat warnings about the need to prepare for ‘emerging threats’. Hazards editor Rory O’Neill exposes the decades of inaction that paved the way for the pandemic and left us without a workplace biohazards law.
Hazards 151, November 2020

WHO knew?
Who’d have thought we’d have to put a health warning on the World Health Organisation? Hazards editor Rory O’Neill discovered WHO’s ‘incredibly harmful’ advice on workplace Covid-19 risks is leaving workers in mortal danger.
Hazards special report, July 2020

Pieces of meat
In March 2020, Boris Johnson vowed to ‘beat the enemy’ as Covid-19 raced through the country. Then on 23 June, with the infection rate still worryingly high and hundreds of typically low paid 'essential' workers already dead, the prime minister announced a dramatic relaxation of the rules. Hazards editor Rory O’Neill explains how, for the sake of the economy, the prime minister decided more would have to die.
Hazards special report, July 2020

Out of touch
In most normal social or workplace circumstances, 1 metre physical distancing is tantamount to no physical distancing at all. In a Covid-19 pandemic, it might increase the risk of infection 10-fold, government advisers have warned. But Boris Johnson ignored the science, finds Hazards editor Rory O’Neill, and moved to a new 1 metre rule regardless.
Hazards special report, July 2020

Abdication
It is hard to see what the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has done during the pandemic, MPs found, noting it had only required one business to close. Wrong. Hazards editor Rory O’Neill discovered not a single workplace had been shut by the absentee regulator, which appears to have little idea what is going on.
Hazards special report, July 2020

Exposed
Workers need health, pay and job protection from all workplace risks
It wasn’t a microscopic virus that caused the shutdown of entire countries. The new coronavirus pandemic could persist because public health is not a high enough priority and most workers do not have the sick pay and employment protection necessary to survive.
Hazards special report, 20 March 2020.

Outbreak
Union guide to workplace protection
The coronavirus pandemic has shown how workers are crucial to preventing public health disasters, a TUC guide notes, but it says they need to be protected too.
Hazards special report, 20 March 2020.

On this page
•	International union publications
•	International union resources
•	Other international resources
•	Other resources

•	Hazards features
	- WHO knew
	- Pieces of meat
	- Abdication
	- Out of touch
	- Exposed
	- Outbreak

•	Hazards news
	- Infections
	- Work and health