Researches analyse OHS laws in South Africa and Estonia for the global hotel housekeepers initiative

Two important research documents have been prepared for the IUF Initiative, “Make My Workplace Safe” by students of the Labor Law Clinic at Cornell University Law School, under the supervision of Professor Angela Cornell.

The first, a study of occupational health and safety frameworks set by law and policy in South Africa and Estonia, develops and expands on research originally conducted by Yale Law School, on Argentina, India, and Indonesia, is available here. The research reinforces the idea that domestic law, though crucially important to keep hotel housekeepers safe and free from injury, is not a substitute for the global standards that they need, in a highly globalized industry.

The second study draws on existing principles from international and domestic bodies concerned with occupational health and safety, to begin to outline some initial steps toward articulating these global standards, in order to better protect the millions of workers who clean hotel rooms every day.