There are many trade unions, activists, and Union Safety Reps; along with members of the public whose family members have been killed or injured at work who will challenge HSE’s Chairperson, Judith Hackitt over her statement which claims, “Forty years on the Health and Safety at Work Act has demonstrated it can be applied to new responsibilities and new demands, creating the framework for people to come home safe and well from a day’s work in any sector of the economy.”
Even more people still will challenge the HSE’s press release as false and complacent in its statement that "Workplace Major Injuries Hit An All Time Low For 2012/13"!
The reality of course is that the Government has moved the goalpost to such a degree that this was always going to be the inevitable headline. Indeed, many commentators are of the view that the changes made by the Tory-led Con-Demned coalition Government; were indeed wholly designed to create the environment in which this headline was the only outcome possible.
The fact is of course that deaths, injuries, and illness caused by work has NOT actually DECREASED, and indeed in some workplace categories; continues to rise.
As Dave Joyce, CWU’s National Health, Safety & Environment Officer states in his letter to the Union’s Branches via LTB012/14:
“…..their [HSE] latest workplace injury and fatality statistics claiming that there had been an 11 per cent drop in major injuries compared to 2011/12, …….. was very foreseeable and predictable, after government pressure and recommendations from government initiated Health and Safety reviews led to the HSE changing the way that injuries are reported and recorded through the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences”
The letter to branches continues by discussing some of the facts around RIDDOR, pointing out that it has been “changed on no less than three occasions since the openly anti-health and safety Coalition Government came to power.”
The brief history details these changes:
“It all started in September 2011 when the RIDDOR notification system used by employers changed, with telephone and paper reports scrapped and reporting now being predominantly online. Employer's information provision was reduced and therefore less detailed information is available compared to the previous reporting arrangements.
Then April 2012 there was a legislative change to RIDDOR, which extended the injury reporting threshold. The requirement for duty-holders to report all accidents causing a worker being incapacitated for more than 3 days was watered down and extended to over-7-days.
Finally, from 1 October 2013, a further legislative change was made with RIDDOR 2013 coming into force, which introduced significant changes to the existing reporting requirements. The changes reduce and simplify the reporting requirements further in a number of areas; with industry coding, reclassifications, materials and substances information requirements involved in accidents deleted, the 'specified injuries' list was shortened, the 47 types of industrial disease was reduced to just eight categories of reportable work-related illness, and fewer types of 'dangerous occurrence' are now required to be reported.”
Whilst the CWU’s view is clearly defined by this news article’s and that of the LTB’s headline title, the LTB goes further and reports on the TUC’s attitude toward the HSE’s claim:
“The TUC has warned that conflicting evidence in the Health and Safety Executive's new workplace injury statistics raise worrying questions about the safety watchdog's claim that injuries are now at "an all time low."
The figures for 2012/13 published by HSE show an 11 per cent drop in major injuries compared to 2011/12.
According to HSE figures, between April 2012 and March 2013 there were 19,707 reported major injuries such as amputations, fractures and burns to employees, a rate of 78.5 injuries per 100,000 employees - compared with 22,094 in 2011/12 (a rate of 88.5 per 100,000 employees).
The fatality figure of 148 deaths was the second lowest figure on record. The lost time accident figures however, cast doubt on HSE's best ever claims because the statistics show that the number of days lost through workplace injury has in fact significantly increased by a million from 4.3 million to 5.2 million, which implies that the number of people injured is actually going up. So what are the correct figures?”
The letter to Branches goes on to answer this question whilst examining the situation of RIDDOR legislative changes enforced by this current coalition government.
LTB012/14 can be downloaded in its entirety, here
Source: CWU / Unionsafety
