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Government Hatred Of Worker Representation Exposed In HSE Board Appointment Decision Throughout its 40-year existence The HSE Board, the watchdog for workers’ safety and health in Great Britain, has always had three Trade Union representatives and traditionally confirmed the appointments to the board of the TUC’s nominated candidate. However, last month, in an unprecedented move, the Tory-led ConDem(ned) coalition government treated the TUC with total contempt and unilaterally imposed their own candidate to fill the worker’s representative vacancy on the HSE’s board.
The TUC General Council nominated Matt Wrack, General Secretary of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU). Instead of accepting the nomination, the government, for the first time ever, broke with established traditional arrangements and appointed someone else without any meaningful consultation with the TUC or any Union bodies; and appointed their own hand-picked retired Union general secretary Jonathan Baume. Until recently Baume was the General Secretary and Chief Executive of the FDA (First Division Association) and had not been nominated by a single Trade Union, not even his own previous union. He was clearly seen by the government as a safer, less troublesome candidate than Matt Wrack. Given that the FDA is an affiliate of the Trades Union Congress, the Scottish Trades Union Congress, the Wales TUC and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, it must be an embarrassment for them to see their ex-general secretary parachuted into the HSE Board by this Tory government. The move by the Anti-Health and Safety, Anti-Trade Union Coalition Government has exploded the myth so often spouted out by their business secretary Vince Cable, of wanting to work with the Trade Unions by ensuring the DWP Minister broke with tradition and broke the old "Robens - Tri-partite" approach and appointed Baume, so ignoring the TUC General Council nomination. Matt Wrack has been re-elected as the FBU General Secretary since 2005 and also re-elected to the TUC general council since 2006. He has a wealth of experience in safety issues. He also has strong links with the world of work. Matt's work in an industry which deals with safety issues every day could have brought that experience to the HSE for the benefit of all workers in every industry. Dave Joyce, the CWU’s National Health, Safety & Environment Officer commenting upon the situation via letter to branches LTB308/13 wrote: “The Government's decision not to appoint him suggests the continuation of their concerted attack on Health and Safety standards and Trade Union input and is yet a further demonstration of a serious weakening of any commitment to health and safety. ‘Gerrymandering’ is a practice that attempts to establish a political advantage for a particular party or group by manipulation - that's clearly what's going on here. The decision not to appoint Matt Wrack shows exactly what the Government wants, which is a compliant board there to administer the organisation and make sure it delivers what the government wants and so eliminating any independence and any challenges to their policies.”
"The credibility of the government’s claim to have an independent HSE are now in tatters, exposed for all to see as nothing more than an extension of their policies to weaken and water down safety law and enforcement. Ultimately workers lives, health and wellbeing will be put at risk. The CWU, our Safety Reps and Branches know very well that health and safety is not a matter for silly "elf-an-safety-gorn-mad" Daily Mail type press stories – it is frequently a matter of life and death and serious injury and disablement. The government’s decision further threatens the future of health and safety provision for workers in the UK.” The history behind all of this of course is no doubt steeped in political dogma and disdain for Labour government’s that have acted in the interests of the workers of this country, and this fact is clear when you consider the origins of the birth of the HSE – an act of a Labour Government as Dave Joyce points out: “In 1969, Lord Robens was selected by the then Labour Government Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity Barbara Castle to chair a committee on workplace health and safety. This led to the 1972 Robens Report which led to the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 introduced by the subsequent Labour Government Secretary of State for Employment Michael Foot and the creation of the Health and Safety Commission and the Health and Safety Executive. When the Health and Safety Executive was set up, almost forty years ago, it was considered important that it had the confidence of both employers and employees and rightly so. For that reason the Health and Safety Commission was set up to agree any new regulations. There were three worker representatives (proposed by the TUC), three employers representatives (proposed by employers’ groups) and up to three others representing public interests. No decision could be made without the support of both employers and employee representatives. This meant that any changes to health and safety law were seen to have come about by consensus, achieved through a common purpose of improving health and safety in the workplace.” Dave explains further: “This system has survived almost intact, although there have been some changes. When the Commission was replaced with a Board the membership was expanded from a maximum of 9 to 11, although the three worker and three employer representatives remained. Also in recent years decisions have been made which did not have the support of both sides of industry, such as the decision to exempt some self-employed people from health and safety laws.” In discussing the approach to health and safety at work adopted by the Labour Government at the time, Dave writes in LTB308/13: “When Lord Robens produced his report on health and safety in the workplace, one of the principles that underpinned the report was the belief that the involvement of the workforce is crucial to achieving good standards of health and safety, and that health and safety systems work best when trade unions and employers work together. That philosophy also underpinned the Health and Safety at Work Act, with its legal backing of Trade Union Safety Representatives and the establishment of an equal voice for Unions and Employers on the Health and Safety Commission which became the present day HSE Executive Board . The tri-partite principle remained and, as a result, unions at least felt they had a voice after all the law still required the Secretary of State to consult with “bodies representing employee interests” before appointing the three employee board members, and each of these three were active trade unionists supported by the TUC. The appointment of Baume was done without any meaningful consultation with the TUC, or any union bodies.
Dave Joyce concludes his LTB by pointing out that this of course is not about individuals, but is about who can decide who represents workers. If the government can decide this without any discussion with Trade Unions then it His LTB concludes: “And so, after 40 years, over half of which was under Tory Government's; this is now under attack in 2013 by this present Tory/LibDem coalition government. We care about the HSE, and more importantly we care about health and safety. It was recognised 40 years ago that the most effective regime was one which involved collaboration and tri-partism. Ditching that model means that the HSE will lose all its independence and become simply a blunt instrument for politicians to use to push through their own short-term agendas, as we are seeing at the moment on issues such as Safety regulations, inspections and enforcement. The Government obviously see Matt Wrack as a potential member of the "Awkward Squad of Trade Unionists" taking a hard line against the government on these and other issues of concerns for workers. The two remaining HSE Board Workers Representatives TUC candidates are; Paul Kenny General Secretary of the GMB, appointed 2010 and Sarah Veale CBE, TUC Head, Equality and Employment Rights Department 2012 HSE Board.” Source: CWU |
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The CWU and other TUC affiliated Trade Unions in response supported the TUC in it’s criticism of the government’s failure to appoint the TUC Union nominated candidate to the post.
Dave’s LTB goes further in its criticism of the government’s motivation:
The TUC has always nominated people who still have a strong and current link with the world of work. If you look at the present board, with the exception of the TUC
nominees, all the other ordinary members of the board of the HSE are either retired or semi-retired consultants. I somehow doubt that this is what Robens intended when he recommended a tri-partite HSE.”