HSE Chair Needs Reality Check Says Union

Construction Union UCATT is calling for Judith Hackitt the Chair of the Health and Safety Executive to undertake a “reality check”.

The union made the call following the publication of the HSE’s Delivery Plan for 2011/12, where she states: “Our role is to enable innovation that brings economic growth while ensuring that risks are managed properly and proportionately.”

Previous HSE documents have stated the organisations role was: “To secure the health and safety and welfare of people at work and protect others from risks to health and safety from work activity.” Ms Hackitt defended the HSE’s change of emphasis by saying: “Change is never easy, but standing still is not an option.”

George Guy, Acting General Secretary of UCATT, said: “Judith Hackitt needs to take a reality check if she believes that this is what the HSE should be doing. The HSE’s role is simple, it protects workers from being killed and injured. It is not the HSE’s role to be promoting economic growth, the Government has an entire department to undertake that task.”

Just days after the HSE published their delivery plan, the first construction fatality of the reporting year (2011/12) occurred on April 7 in Whitstable, Kent, when a 24 year old man was killed following a trench collapse on a housing development. A 36-year-old man was arrested and has been bailed on suspicion of corporate manslaughter.

The publication of the HSE’s new delivery plan comes after the organisation has been told that its budget will be cut by at least 35% by 2015. The number of unannounced inspections it will be able to perform has been slashed with many sectors no longer receiving inspections in future.

Mr Guy, added: “The HSE has been under sustained political attack by the Government and the cuts and policy changes forced on it will make all workplaces, especially industries with high accident rates such as construction, more dangerous. If the HSE moves away from its core functions it will make an already bad situation worse.”

Source:UCATT

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