Abstract
The annual global death toll from accidents at work far outstrips that accrued in acts of war or terrorism, yet the phenomenon struggles to command anything like the prominence of these traditional priorities of international security in global politics. Whilst the ‘securitization’ of many non-military issues, such as climate change and disease, has come to be accepted in some circles of the academic and ‘real’ political world, this status has very rarely been granted to accidents. This seems to be because of the perception that a) accidental deaths cannot be equated to deaths inflicted directly by enemies (including non-human ones) and b) protecting worker is a domestic rather than an international political concern. Securing people against such accidents, though, is a political task accepted by industrialized governments since the late nineteenth century, when ‘social security’ policies began to evolve in response to changing economic and social conditions. Equally, incidents of workers in less developed countries being killed are no longer unfortunate problems unconnected with the relatively safe lives of people in the Northern areas since developed world consumers are functionally connected to these systemic failures as never before. On the basis of these considerations, this paper presents the case for a human security approach which allows for worker safety to be given the international political priority it deserves.
