Universal health coverage for workers

Overview

The links between health, sustainable development and poverty eradication become striking when we look at the world of work. Workers in poor communities are much more likely to be exposed to occupational hazards and to suffer work-related diseases and injuries. The resulting disabilities affect their working capacity and income earning potential. Furthermore, global health threats such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB), malaria and the growing burden of non-communicable diseases and mental ill health additionally reduce working capacity and labour force participation. Access of workers to health protection and preventive services is still limited mostly to workers in large enterprises in the formal sector with decent jobs and social protection benefits.

The working poor and informal sector workers do not have social protection and insurance for occupational injuries. The WHO global survey on workers’ health carried out in 2008/2009 among 120 countries found that two thirds of countries still had very low coverage of workers with occupational health services and one fourth of countries did not even know their actual coverage level.

More about occupational health