Sixty years ago this weekend, on 28 August 1963 in Washington DC, Martin Luther King said to the hundreds of thousands gathered that he had a dream.
"I have a dream", he said, "that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."
I too have a dream.
I have a dream that one day every worker, every volunteer, every mother, father, brother and sister who goes to work, comes home in the same condition at the end of that shift. Without injury, without ill health, and without damage to their mental state caused by work.
There are no excuses at all why an employer cannot provide a safe workplace that will allow this dream to be reality.
There are no excuses at all why an employer cannot prove a healthy workplace free from anything that could risk the health of those workers.
King’s dream was about human rights.
So is mine.
It is our human right to work healthily and in safety. To go home to our families at the end of the working day.
That is why I am a Chartered Safety and Health Professional. It is why I have given almost a quarter of a century working towards that dream being accomplished.
To every health and safety professional around the world who shares that same dream, keep up the good work.
Together we can help bring that dream nearer to reality.