MODULE 7: PSYCHOSOCIAL ISSUES AND OTHER MISCELLANEOUS TOPICS IN OCCUPATIONAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH SECTION 9: ASPECTS OF OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY LEGISLATION THAT IMPACTS ON THE HEALTH AND SAFETY OF WOMEN AT WORK - Background

BACKGROUND:

The intended role of occupational health legislation is to protect workers from physical, chemical, biological, ergonomic and psychosocial hazards in the workplace. A further role is to ensure proper diagnosis and adequate financial compensation for workers who nonetheless develop diseases or sustain injuries. Some of the legislation is effective in that primary prevention is encouraged but there is room for improvement with regards to a gender sensitive approach to occupational health and safety legislation. This lecture will explore aspects of occupational health and safety legislation from a gender perspective and attempts to make more visible the nature of women’s work, the lack of adequate health and safety training, the lack of occupational health services, and the enabling role of participatory forms of research. It also examines aspects of men’s occupational health and safety, what the risks are and emphasises the central importance of making workplaces safe and healthy for women and men rather than having selective exclusionary policies for women during the child bearing years or during pregnancy.

Trying to ensure there is greater gender sensitivity in occupational health and safety practice for women does not mean that this is concerned only with women. Often attempts to address gender concerns focuses only on women’s reproductive health and tends to exclude men from preventive interventions. It is however, not only biological differences that shape patterns of health and ill- health for women and men. Differences in living and working conditions and in the nature of their duties as well as their entitlement and access to resources tend to put women and men at different risk of developing certain specific health problems while protecting them from others. The ongoing quest for equity, both in civil society and in workplaces, require that women and men have the same opportunity for participating in health and safety programmes, in the development programmes and equal access to resources and benefits. Unless this is achieved, individuals will not be able to realize their potential for health and wellbeing at workplaces and beyond.

The socio-economic and political status of women has a direct bearing on their occupational health and safety. The often unrecognised societal norms and legacy of gender discrimination concentrates the majority of women in the low paid, poorly regulated and poorly organised sectors of the economy eg. private household sector, agriculture, catering services. The nature of the waged work, the majority of women engage in, is therefore mostly an extension of the type of work they do at home. The invisible nature of this work contributes to both mental and physical ill-health and is by and large not considered to be related to work. Some recent research papers show that depression and related disorders are associated with female gender, poverty, low education and the tasks women engage in for a living and as caregivers.

In South Africa, women still carry the main responsibility for child-care and for unpaid household duties. This leaves little time for adequate rest, for skills development, leisure or for taking on positions in health and safety structures at work or in trade unions.

Since 1994 there have been enabling changes for women with regards to legislation but much still has to be done to make it possible for women to redress many of the discouraging inequalities. The Constitution of South Africa, as well as a number of Acts, Regulations, Conventions and policies have an impact on the health and safety outcome for women and men as workers.