19. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to promote and encourage mental wellbeing at work, with a strong gender perspective, and to highlight the need to develop and share best practice; calls for an upgraded role for the social partners, in particular trade unions, given their important role in preventing and combating working practices which are an affront to human dignity and the concept of decent work;

(iv) Support the request by the International Labour Organization (ILO) to assess the situation regarding the alleged practice of forced labour and in particular forced child labour in harvesting cotton; insist in this regard on the Uzbek Government implementing comprehensively the formal prohibition of this practice in Uzbek legislation and the international conventions ratified by Uzbekistan; stress the need to establish reforms to modernise and motorise the agricultural sector, which would contribute significantly to the abolition of forced child labour;

As the minister responsible for ensuring that people have safe work practices, I also am concerned about the workers of Canada Post.

5. Calls on suppliers and manufacturers of sportswear and athletic footwear to adopt labour practices that provide working conditions which comply with international labour standards and national labour legislation;

Since this involves highly labour-intensive European manufacturing industries, it would be truly absurd if this penalisation were to benefit practices which run contrary to the principles of human rights or to benefit unacceptable working practices such as child employment or an absence of trade union protection. It really would be absurd if, to the detriment of our own footwear and clothing industries, we were to work to the advantage of companies and situations which violate those human rights that we have always vowed to protect.

Businesses must ensure that their employees are adequately supervised and consistently updated on safe work practices.