The Case For Health And Safety - CWU Urges USRs To Contact MPs

As previously reported, the TUC have published this report, timed to coincide with the imminent publication of "Lord Young's report and recommendations" on his review of health and safety legislation and the compensation culture in the UK.

In his latest letter to branches Dave Joyce CWU's National Health, Safety & Environment Officer urges all members and USRs to write to their MPs defending the need for health and safety elgislation and arguing agianst the coalition government's planned Troy led cuts to health and safety protection for all workers.

LTB826/10 includes hard copies of the TUC report which was first reported on this website earlier this month. As previously, it can also still be downloaded from the E-Library Database using the key word "TUCongress"

The full LTB is reproduced below and all readers are urged to contact their MPs using the details of the report in their argument to their MP against cuts in health and safety protection for workers. Expect the media to support the Con-Dem(ned) coalition attack on workers rights:

After three muted publication dates being postponed it is now understood that the report will be launched by prime minister David Cameron at the Conservative party conference next month amid planed atmosphere of hype and more sensationalism. We have already seen headlines such as 'David Cameron goes to war on Elf and Safety' and there's now talk of the Tories building a bonfire to torch health and safety laws. Sadly the Clever headlines about burning red tape and getting rid of the ridiculous ‘elf-n-safety laws’ are misleading and lead to attacks on all health and safety practices, including the sensible and necessary ones that protect workers lives and save them from serious injury or damaged health. 

It all sounds wonderful to those reading the tabloids, but it seems to me that this is being approached without any real appreciation of the real issues which lie beneath it or the potential dangers and difficulties workers will face if Young's report goes too far and erodes important regulations and enforcement.

According to the Daily Telegraph, Lord Young will make 40 recommendations for changes to health and safety rules in his forthcoming health and safety review report. According to the paper, the report will recommend that emergency services workers, including police and ambulance staff, should be exempt from being sued for breaching health and safety rules when they risk their own safety to help others. It also says teachers will be freed from filling in risk assessment forms, which will be replaced by simple parent consent forms. It is also suggested that Young will recommend watering down and weakening health and safety regulations and risk assessment requirements for so called 'low risk' workplaces such as small and medium enterprises, shops and offices. This may appeal to the Daily Mail readership and to the Tory party grassroots, but will the proposals ultimately be beneficial to workers? probably not, and will the Coalition Government fall foul of EU which governs Health and Safety standards across all EU States through EU Directives?

The Young Report and Recommendations will no doubt be used to set the scene for the Coalition Government's cuts campaign which is launched in October which will include no doubt big cuts for the HSE.

The TUC Report tells government "Don't ignore health and safety". More than 20,000 people in the UK are killed prematurely by their work every year, according to the 16 page report. The case for health and safety smashes the myth that Britain is one of the safest places to work and demonstrates that health and safety at work is as relevant today as it has ever been. The TUC analysis of the most conservative official safety figures shows that at least 20,000 people - the equivalent of the entire population of the Orkney Islands - die early as a result of their work every year, through conditions such as occupational cancers and lung disorders, exposure to fumes and chemicals, and fatal traffic accidents. The report finds that many workers are also injured during the course of their work. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) estimates that 246,000 workplace injuries should have been reported last year, but many accidents go unreported or are not reported correctly.

The case for health and safety reveals that 1.2 million working people in the UK believe they are suffering from a work-related illness. These illnesses include: heart disease; stress; musculoskeletal disorders, such as back, shoulder and neck pain; and mental health issues, such as depression and anxiety. The TUC report disputes claims, which have fed calls from business for regulations or "red tape" to be reduced, that the workplace is now much safer than it has ever been. While the number of fatalities and injuries at work is falling, modern workplaces are different to those of the past, and employees still face dangerous hazards, diseases and illnesses at work, says the TUC.

The TUC says on the government should ignore calls from the business lobby to reduce regulation and enforcement, and support the work of the HSE and local authorities in protecting people at work. The report also calls for the government to champion the issue and appoint a government "tsar" for health and safety. And it says the government should the use the UK network of 150,000 trained union health and safety reps to even greater effect.

The TUC, supported by the CWU and all other Trade Unions is calling on the Government to:

· Ignore calls from the business lobby to reduce regulation and enforcement;

· Champion the issue and appoint a Government 'tsar' for health and safety;

· Use the UK network of 150,000 trained union health and safety reps to even greater effect;

· Support the work of the HSE and local authorities in protecting people at work.

Regulation works, as long as it is enforced, and it saves lives and prevents the contraction of unnecessary illnesses. That is why the UK continues to need strong regulation and enforcement. Fatalities are not just statistics - they are real people, with lives and families - and any fall in inspections and enforcement will lead to an increase in accidents, injuries and deaths, and will have a huge impact on the already grave problem of workplace diseases.

Read the Report and then Contact Your MP relaying  the above 4 bullet points.

You can find out who your local MP is and their address details here

See also: Health And Safety Legislation As Relevant As Ever Says TUC

Source: CWU

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