Physiology 2075G Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Occupational Safety And Health, Living Wage, Denis Arnold

• School: Western University
• Department: Physiology
• Course: Physiology 2075G
• Professor: Dean Proessel

Document Summary

Working conditions: safety and sweatshops by denis arnold lecture 9. This article examines issues concerning working conditions and worker safety in the so- called sweatshops. It discusses the extent of employers" obligations to protect workers from workplace hazards and evaluates whether they may be mitigated by other obligations or interests. Two general duties concerning safety play a key role in this analysis: (1. ) the obligation to inform workers in advance regarding workplace hazards and (2. ) the obligation to ensure minimum health and safety conditions. It rejects various defenses of sweatshops and defends the view a respectful treatment of workers requires that they be paid a weekly wage consistent with human dignity. Employers have obligations to protect workers from workplace hazards is uncontentious. The contentious issues concern the extent of those obligations and the degree to which they ought to be mitigated or modified by competing obligations or interests.