A story came through my Twitter feed recently about Japanese workers.
Some of them are literally working themselves to death. One woman was found dead with her cellphone in her hand – she had logged 159 overtime hours in a month. The pressure on many urban office workers in Japan is to work longer and longer hours – to the detriment of their physical and mental health.
They even have a word for it – karoshi, meaning occupational sudden mortality – which is alarming all on its own.
We North Americans might scoff at that ever happening here, but I don’t think workers in some industries are that far off.
Look, for instance, at the tech industry. There are countless articles detailing the unreal expectations placed on many software developers to not leave the office and keep working to finish looming projects. Many of these companies offer free food, ping-pong tables and comfy couches – not really out of the goodness of their hearts but to make it easier for workers to stay at work.
Apart from long hours, there is also the issue of workplace safety that is putting many employees at risk. The worst example is perhaps a few years ago when an overloaded van carrying farm workers crashed with multiple fatalities because there were no real seats – just homemade wood benches – and no seatbelts.
I personally covered the death of Maple Ridge gas station attendant Grant De Patie, who was killed trying to stop someone trying to pull a gas-and-dash stunt. It was believed that DePatie was trying to stop the driver because he feared being docked pay to cover the cost of the stolen gas. He was run over and dragged to his death.
I mention all these examples because I want to give a shout-out to all of the organized labour and advocacy groups that are out there working to protect people.
The Labour Day holiday in Canada arrived at a time when print workers in Toronto were battling just to get a nine-hour day (yes, nine hours). It was also at a time when workers feared losing their factory jobs to automation.
As you can see, 1872 (the time of the first known Labour Day event) might have been a long time ago, but in 2018 people are still dying on the job, working too many hours, and fearing that their jobs will be replaced by automation (hello driverless cars and our future robot overlords!).
The death of the farmworkers in that van produced new workplace regulations that were pushed by advocacy groups representing such workers. Grant’s Law requiring pay-at-the-pump changes came directly out of the De Patie family’s lobbying of the provincial government (although, sadly, the BC Liberal government later allowed those changes to be watered-down through WorkSafe BC). Other advocacy groups are fighting to ensure federal temporary foreign workers are not exploited by unscrupulous fast-food outlet owners who find ways to claw back their wages. And, finally, there are many unions working to ensure their members are protected, as well as lobbying various levels of government to pass regulations to protect workers even further.
So on this Labour Day, take a moment to thank all of these groups and unions out there making the working world a better and safer place.
Follow Chris Campbell @shinebox44.
