Essential services may refer to a class of occupations that have been legislated by a government to have special restrictions in regard to labour actions such as not being allowed to strike.
Industries defined as essential services differ based on the organization or government but generally include services such as hospitals and other healthcare, utilities such as electricity and water supply, law enforcement and firefighting, and food services.
"Essential services" may also refer to those services that are vital to the health and welfare of a population and so are essential to maintain even in a disaster.[2] During the COVID-19 pandemic, many jurisdictions ordered non-essential services to close for several weeks in an effort to control the spread of the virus.[3] The United States Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued a nation-wide guidance document that defined activities that the Agency had determined to be "essential" to the control of the pandemic and the management of its effects.[4]
Examples of industries in which at least some workers were classified as "essential" during the pandemic included:
Health care, public health, and human services
Law enforcement, public safety, and first responders
Food and agriculture
Energy
Water and wastewater
Transportation and logistics
Public works
Communications and information technology
Other community-based essential functions and government operations
Critical manufacturing
Supply chains
Retail and wholesaling
Food services and accommodations
Institutional, residential, commercial, and industrial maintenance
^International Labour OrganizationArchived October 24, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, Freedom of association – Digest of decisions and principles of the Freedom of Association Committee of the Governing Body of the ILO. Fifth (revised) edition, 2006.
