Government Launches Website Dedicated To Eradication Of Health And Safety Regulation In a press release issued today 7th April, the government have officially launched its appalling attack on health and safety in an attempt to slander all health and safety legislation as mere RED TAPE! Hoping to utilise public ignorance of the issues involved and the ideological hatred that small and medium business in the UK has for all health and safety legislation, the government have now launched this new website: Red Tape Challenge! The public, big and small business are invited to identity legislation that it thinks is red tape and suggest its abolition or merging with other forms of legislation. Under the heading of General Regulations, health and safety is highlighted in particular: “Some regulations affect all sectors, from rules on health and safety to those on employment.” And the invites comment. Clicking on the link to the relevant page then gives you a list of workplace environments in which health and safety legislation can be abolished:
It then identifies and lists all 131 items of health and safety legislation that it suggests can be abolished completely or merged into one another. Chris Ingram, web editor of Unionsafety commented: "No doubt the next few months will find a media salivating over the idea of being able to fill their news columns with total misrepresentation of health and safety and whip up the public and business clammer for deregulation and abolition of health and safety rules and regulation. We can expect the great institutions such as the BBC and ITV to do the same in their news reports." He continued: " All those concerned with health and safety need to respond immediately to the website and the public debate in order to balance out the debate and educate the majority who will be the first to complain when they find that they are being blamed by their employers for their own injury and deaths at work and loss of lively hood without compensation. For that is the true aim of this Tory led coalition government!" The interesting and perhaps worrying thing is that you can also read the responses from people, who clearly have not read any of the legislation, and merely have the uneducated opinion that all health and safety legislation is a waste of space and is indeed red tape! Given that the website has only just been launched today, it is worryign that so many people have already access it to criticise health and safety in the workplace, and to attack the basic right of everyone to have a health and safe working environment. Most people have forgotten the reason why trade unions first started: to combat the appalling injury and death brought on by the industrial revolution. It seems the tories are intent on taking workers right back to those dark days. Here are just some of the examples of comments on the website on its first day: On Ladder Safety: Phil East said on April 7, 2011 at 10:06 am On Office Environments: Craig said on April 7, 2011 at 12:31 pm On Risk Assessments: p johns said on April 7, 2011 at 1:13 pm On Health And safety Law: Mike Anderson said on April 7, 2011 at 1:13 pm Feedback: Look the logic should be simple: if you do something dangerous or negiligent that causes someone else injury you should pay compensation. That should include an employer that asks an employee to do something dangerous, but it should apply equally to two strangers on the street. There should be *no difference* in liability for a business and a private individual. Ultimately, it should be up to individuals to look after their own health and safety. If they are unhappy with the health and safety risks in a particular workplace (e.g. inherently dangerous activities such as coal mining or construction) then they should find a different career. On PAT testing: Colin Bell said on April 7, 2011 at 12:54 pm Sadly, there was only one comment worth of any mention in response to those above: Gwyneth Deakins said on April 7, 2011 at 10:41 am As suggested in the previous news item on this subject of red tape and the governments attempts to justify slashing and abolition of health and safety regulation, it is imperative that the government website is monitored and responses are posted to every single stupid and ignorant comment in support of abolishing legislation such as Ladder Safety and Asbestos management; to mention just two! Please visit frequently and add your comments to the governments Red Tape Challenge website and send them in to Unionsafety to publish source: NDA Contact Unionsafety using: Website form or Via Twitter using @unionsafety You can also set up Twitter Alerts to your mobile phone whenever the website is updated. See also: Government Needs Your Help Doing Its Dirty Work
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