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The most influential Health & Safety campaigning group in the UK, has today, published it's 'manifesto' aimed at dealing with the appalling loss of life and illness caused by work.
Whilst many will argue that further erosion of worker's rights, including health and safety legislation, will occur if and when Brexit goes ahead and the Tories remain in government; Hazards avoids these political arguments and gives us instead, clear and unambiguous evidence as to why the current situation has to change if the UK is going to do anything about the wasted lives caused by work and the subsequent illness and deaths that it can cause. That said, there is no doubt that nothing will change if we do not address our politicians and take personal responsibility by lobbying them in every manner possible, both as individuals and co9llectively through our Trade Unions. In the press release issued today by Hazards Campaign, Janet Newsham makes clear the reasons for the launch of this much needed document that ALL Trade Unions are urged to support, promote and ensure their policies on health & safety include the manifesto aims:
“The Manifesto is a clear guide to action that must be taken to protect all workers by restoring good regulation and enforcement, revamping the independence, funding and action of the HSE and Local Authority enforcement agencies, empowering trade unions and safety reps who have the biggest impact on making work safer and healthier, and ensuring links between health and safety and employment inspections to deal with the exploitation of workers in the low paid, precarious economy. “The Manifesto sets out in detail what must be done to achieve this. After Grenfell no-one can be in any doubt as to the deadly dangers of deregulation and it must be halted and reversed. Developing a health and safety system based on prevention, precaution and participation of strong active unions includes the organising demands of the updated Hazards Campaign charter and extends it. The link between precarious low paid work and poor health and safety must be acknowledged as a huge risk for workers’ lives and health must be addressed through enforcement of health and safety and employment issues.”
“We call for increased enforcement with more resources, and more, more accessible inspectors, employment rights with collective representation from day one on the job, and an end to zero hours, precarious work. An end to all the lying, dishonest, unevidenced rhetoric used to justify the deregulation of health and safety. “We want the purpose and mission of HSE to be one sole aim – to prevent injury, ill-health and death caused by work, no constraints of having to consider business interests, and to use its teeth to enforce that strictly and be effective and active in the new precarious 21st Century workplace. The HSE must be made a real champion of workers’ lives and health and the whole health and safety system a proactive, preventive, precautionary, workers’ participatory project with ambitious aims to make work safer and healthier.” “We want workers to be given much greater control over the circumstances under which they work and rights from day one. Give workers and union safety reps more power to take action in the workplace by abolishing all anti-trade union legislation, enforcing the Safety Representatives and Safety Committee Regulations and extending and enhancing them with, for example, the right to stop the job.” Janet added: “We want the current government to take heed of where they have gone wrong, how deadly deregulation must end now, and to use our Manifesto to fix the broken system. If they won’t do this, they must explain why. We want other political parties to adopt the Manifesto and set out their plans to make this happen ready for the next General Election. We want trade unions to adopt it, support it and campaign with us to make a health and safety system fit for all workers, for decent jobs and decent lives for all.” See the Hazard Campaign articles mentioned above: After Grenfell no-one can be in any doubt as to the deadly dangers of deregulation includes the organising demands of the updated Hazards Campaign charter Source: Hazards Campaign press release Download the Hazards Campaign Manifesto from the E-Library Database using key words 'Hazards Manifesto'
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“We are launching our Manifesto for health and safety fit for workers, decent jobs and decent lives for all with three clear demands on the current and future governments. To ensure decent jobs and lives for all, and to fix the broken health and safety system, government must by do three key things: 