Members mobilise for IWMD 2025

IWMD is held on 28 April every year.  It brings together workers and their unions from all over the world to remember all workers who lost their lives to workplace illness or injury.

It is the day to recommit to fighting to keep workers safe. 

The International TUC chooses the annual theme.  For 2025, the ITUC is “Occupational health and safety: A fundamental right at work” including an explicit additional focus on the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digitisation on occupational health and safety.

Mobilise for IWMD 2025 

Unite’s branches and workplaces direct their own focus for IWMD.  It could be mental health, asbestos, exposure to chemicals or the environment – whatever matters to your workplace. 

The important thing is that Unite mobilises our reps to ensure 28 April remains the biggest and most effective OHS activity in the country.  This is the day to move health and safety at work centre stage.

Unite health safety representatives play a vital role in keeping workplaces safe and healthy and have traditionally come out in force to support this day and hold events both in person and virtually.

Whatever your theme for the day, Remember the Dead and Fight for the Living.

UK work deaths and illness – we need to focus on the shocking true figures 

The official UK figures from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) show an annual average of around 135 deaths in work-related accidents. 

But this pales in comparison to human beings dying from work-related health conditions. Official figures from HSE put deaths around 13,000 in the UK each year from conditions related to lung disease and cancer caused by past exposure at work to chemicals and dust.

However, unions and safety and health campaigners estimate that the true figure for all work-related deaths is closer to 50,000 each year.

Not only are true figures underestimated, but there are also large gaps in identifying many diseases caused in work. For example, deaths from cardiovascular disease caused by workplace stress and exposures to chemicals and dusts.

Artificial Intelligence – what does it mean for safety at work?

While Artificial Intelligence can assist in workplaces such as mitigating monotonous work, there are many negative aspects, such as job losses and worker monitoring.

AI at work is increasing work intensification, monitoring, and surveillance, generating negative impacts on mental and physical wellbeing as workers experience the extreme pressure of constant, real-time micromanagement, and automated assessment. 

The transport sector is faced with inward-facing cameras which can monitor drivers’ every move, calculating faults and fatigue factors.

Big Brother IS watching you!

In the US alone, the number of medium-to-large employers using tools to track workers doubled in two years from March 2020 to 60 per cent.  It is expected to rise to seven in ten (70%) by 2025. 

In the UK, 19 percent, one in five, workers believe they have been monitored by an employer (Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO, 2024).

ILO to campaign on AI risks

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) will be highlighting workplace health and safety risks associated with AI.  It is developing a campaign with tools and information for reps. 

This area is moving at great pace and includes advanced robots, exoskeletons, AI learning machines, and unmanned vehicles.

Find out more here

Get ready for IWMD 2025!

Hold an event in your workplace to promote the issues of workers’ right to a safe job, or to remember colleagues that have died or been injured at work. Inform UniteLive ([email protected]) and the Unite press office of your event. 

Do you need materials to promote your event?  Visit Unite’s dedicated IWMD web page here

Don’t forget to send us your IWMD pictures!  If you’re marking IWMD, take a photo and send it to [email protected].  Remember to tell us the name of the workplace or branch. However please keep the number of photos to a minimum for each event.

Take part in IWMD 2025

Register your WMD event on the interactive map, and find details of other events here 

Access TUC online memorial wall to remember someone who lost their life to work here 

Ask your local council to sign up to our Stay Safe, Join a Union campaign here 

TUC will be focussing on asbestos on IWMD through a one-day event at Congress House. Open to all H&S reps.  Register for the in-person TUC conference, Asbestos: time to get rid of it! here