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The Emeritus Bishop of Palmerston North, Peter Cullinane, was the keynote speaker at a gathering to mark International Workers Memorial Day.
About 50 people gathered at Memorial Park in Palmerston North last week to remember those workers who have been killed whilst at work.
Last year 47 people died at work in Aotearoa New Zealand; in 2013 57 people died in the workplace.
Bishop Peter said these figures were more than statistics.
“Each one is a person, each one is dear to somebody.”
Bishop Peter has attended the International Workers Memorial Day for a number of years.
In 2013 he said, “Human well-being – which includes the dimensions of cultural, spiritual, social, environmental and economic well-being – is not a side issue to be addressed after economic planning has taken place.”
“‘Holistic planning includes those dimensions of human well-being in the economic planning. They have to be factored in even before the profits are calculated.”
He said the starting point of all economic and social planning needs to be the innate dignity of the human person, because otherwise ‘it’s no wonder you end up concluding that human labour is only a cost to be reduced as far as possible’.
This year the Universal theme for the day was Removing exposure to hazardous substances in the workplace
It is claimed that hazardous substances are found in almost every workplace in NZ and many workers have no protection against the possible effects, despite the fact that tens of thousands of workers have their health destroyed by asthma, dermatitis, lung disorders and cancers because of exposures.
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