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LINKING PEOPLE, JOINING NATIONS
The meeting in Bucharest was unique in that a joint seminar was held with
researchers from the host nation on occupational health aspects of welders in that
country. It was a means of providing technology diffusion to a Member Country of
IIW in much the same way as the Working Group
Regional Activities
(WG-RA) was
operating. As a consequence of visiting and providing assistance to developing countries
it was quite common for IIW members to see exploitation of child labour and the total
lack of consideration for the safety of young children working in welding.
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This was of
particular concern to IIW. The strengthening of ties with under developed nations was
encouraged along with cultural change to eradicate child exploitation in countries where
this was manifest. Education was the key to this and was a constant theme employed by
the Chair of WG-RA Mr Chris Smallbone (Australia) in presentations to national and
international audiences. Technology transfer, therefore, needed to be done with a certain
degree of sensitivity to the social and economic restraints existing in these countries.
Attracted by low labour costs and sometimes different regulatory regimes, transfer
of heavy engineering work to developing countries, in Europe and Asia, had become more
common from 1990 on. As a corollary to the lack of a safety culture and structure in such
countries, risk assessments of welding conditions were more likely not to be undertaken.
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The potential for ‘pollution exporting’ to such countries, through the building of polluting
factories there, was also considered to be problematic and unacceptable, as were companies
not controlling the risk to the workforce through the use of their consumables, or their
products. IIW had set up the SC-ENV, mentioned previously, as a focus for these companies
and other interested parties, to ensure that the correct processes were followed in engaging
with developing nations through optimum use and innovation of welding and joining
technologies.
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Examples of abuse of the health and safety of young people