Union Safety Reps work is more a vocation than a job, which explains why so many are active within their communities, and where they experience a new found respect and value for their expertise and experience, that is so often missing within their normal working environments and Trade Union Branches.
One such ex-Branch Health & Safety Officer and Safety Rep, is Derek Maylor, who having retired from BT, but remains a retired CWU member; is now a Trustee with the Merseyside Asbestos Victims Support Group. Derek was also, the secretary of the NW BT Unions Heralth & Safety Co-ord for many years until his retirement.
Asbestos in the workplace has always been a major workplace hazard of concern for Derek, as well as being able to attend on behalf of his union, the CWU, the National Hazards Conference. Unfortunately, very few CWU H&S reps attend the Hazards conferences, which is probably the most important yearly conference that any TU safety rep can attend. But sadly, funding is seldom there for them to attend.
Now Derek, has finally been able to attend this year's Hazards Conference with funding from the charity, rather than his Trade Union. Ironically, it should be the Trade Union supporting the charity, rather than the other way around!
Here, Derek reports from the year's Hazards Conference which ended on Sunday, on behalf of the Merseyside Victims Support Group:
“Hazards” is the largest health and safety conference aimed at Union Safety Representatives (USRs) and activists in the UK, it is formatted with plenary sessions and workshops themed (this year) on the climate crisis and workers’ health. The MAVSG stall was set up before delegates arrived.
The opening session on Friday evening considered the Health & Safety at Work Act (which is now 50 years old) and was chaired by Doug Russell from Greater Manchester Hazards with Shelly Asquith from the TUC (a friend of MAVSG), Rob Miguel the national H&S Officer at UNITE and Phil Liptrott Head of Personal Injury at Thompsons Solicitors.
Shelly opened saying health workers and aid workers are dying in the middle east due to war and we need a cease fire now – safety is international. Fifty years on and health & safety figures are better, but what can we expect from a new Labour Government?
We are at a low for inspectors and inspections. Union workplaces are demonstrably safety places, but we still want more like work related suicides adding to those figures and not hidden, driving for work etc. Enforcing authorities need resources to do their job and save lives of workers, it is not just right thing to do it is cheaper for the country in the long run. USRs need the legal right to stop the job if the tasks being undertaken are not being done in a safe manner or in breach of regulations; this would require training but USRs could do it now in their own skill set up/down their particular industry.
Labour will not give out legislation like presents and strong unions will get the changes our members deserve. It is worth noting the USRs age profile is high across most industries, we need recruitment and more so of women and ethnic minorities who are underrepresented.
Rob said we are improving on representation but a long way to go before unions safety reps reflect their industries and after the fifty years we are much safer, but little gain work has made on health.
We are falling behind some of the progress in the EU, for example in asbestos exposure where the measured level is ten times less than in the UK; then there is pesticides, mental welfare, AI etc.
Another concern is in electric vehicles where fire risk and information is being withheld by manufacturers on “commercial grounds”. The pressure on SRs is immense and they need recognition that their work is respected, necessary and helps the workplace not hinders it.
The right to stop the job is important but should be alongside serving improvement notices and roving USRs. The HSE itself needs addressing at Board level where union representation and the tripartite approach has been whittled down by successive government ministers.
Before we consider the future we have to remind ourselves of the Act and its purpose(s). It was to secure the health, safety and welfare of workers; to protect others against risks from work being undertaken; to control keeping and usage of dangerous substances; to control emissions and so on.
Before the Act there were some protections such as various Factory’s Acts, however one of them reduced the maximum working week to forty nine hours which sounded reasonable, but that was for nine year olds. Even though we can dispute the HSE/Government statistics of workplace incidents, the Act did improve workplace safety significantly.
This gain has been watered down however by repeated cuts to the HSE and there are half the number of union members as when the Act was introduced, meaning less USRs. We have to prioritise the HSE, challenge the accountability of Company Directors and Senior managers. The New Deal Green Paper is promising but we will have to ensure delivery not just sit back and wait and see what happens.
The challenges of extreme weather events and the impact of work activity on the climate were addressed in a session Chaired by Graham Petersen from GJA/TUCAN and Kathy Jenkins Scottish Hazards, speakers included Sanjiv Pandita Senior advisor Asia Solidarity Centre US, Prof. Dave Whyte Director of the Centre for Climate Crime and Climate Justice QMUL, Riccardo LaTorres FBU National Health and Safety Officer.
Dave was first saying we haven’t done enough as a trade union movement and Lake Windermere is not an isolated incident. There is a vast amount of money that goes out of the system from water companies in dividends to shareholders that should be fixing leaky pipes (or replacing ACM ones).
Trade unions should be at the forefront of environmental issues, and it is not good enough to have agreements, we must make sure they are enacted. The H&SW Act was good, but it didn’t put H&S on the same footing as industrial relations, and environmental issues are treated the same. We need to mainstream environment into bargaining with employers, workers are at the beginning of every workplace issue.
When workers are asked to intensify production Health, Safety & Environmental concerns goes out of the window; we need to de-intensify production i.e. a shorter working week, more holidays etc. This cannot be done with a casualised work force and precarious contracts.
Finaly, we need facility time for Green/Environmental Reps with bargaining rights in law, able to enter dispute with employers over environmental issues, even if that is when the issue is affecting local community. The largest polluters should be paying the price not the workers paying it.
Sanjiv described the Occupational Health and Safety in the nickel mines of Indonesia, backed up by many remarkable pictures. Solidarity Centre is representing members in over sixty countries, but the main supply chain is dominated by China. Ironically considering the nickel is wanted for batteries in the name of the environment, much of the ore is smelted by coal fired procedures.
Many of the workers are kept in dormitories like prisoners and despite the hazards or many incidents, the nearest hospital is three hours away though money was found to build a new runway for their company executives to fly in/out. Critical minerals include lithium, nickel, cobalt copper are required to produce solar panels, wind turbines, electric vehicles and battery storage.
The majority of these are located in a small number of countries, usually in the global south. Indonesia leads in nickel producing over 30% of all the world’s stock. Mrowali Industrial Park is the largest nickel processing facility and the worlds epicentre for nickel production. It is predominately invested in by China (Tsingshan Holding) and has over 100,000 workers including 20,000 from China.
In reading out a long list of names, Riccardo highlighted the many fire fighters who have died on duty in the last twelve months around the world. All in action on wild fires and flooding issues, all caused by environmental changes. It is a workplace issue; they were all at work, in Arizona nineteen died attending one wild fire.
The National Risk Register covers civil contingencies and preparedness, it doesn’t show that one-in five firefighter numbers were reduced by the last government cuts, this when severe incidents are increasing, fifteen major incidents in last twelve months.
We are approaching a perfect storm. We cannot separate this from a class war, its an industrial struggle and we have the worst anti-trade union legislation in Europe. Capitalism created the climate crisis; it will not stop it and companies putting up a sticker next to a light switch is mere greenwashing.
Conference separated into different workshops – such as The Circular Economy led by Cathy Jenkins and Ian Tailer both from Scottish Hazards, introducing the issue with evidence from the World Economic Forum.
There was a wide range of unions and voluntary sector organisations in the room to get a decent debate.
It was quickly noted that crops can be destroyed in the UK by bad weather caused by climate change, then we need to import further crops exacerbating that climate change. Car batteries, all batteries, have a limited life cycle and are going at pace to get everyone into electric cars pushing a bow wave of old spent batteries into the future to be disposed of, making it our children’s problem.
We need sustainable design build into production and services, this could be part of Government and LA procurement contracts, end-of-life cycle provision built in as a polluter pays principle.
We need research into who funds the research – much university work is commissioned by companies who have a vested interest in getting the right result to further their profit.
How many deliveries a day can be seen on the average UK housing estate?
Royal Mail, DPD, DHR, Amazon etc. and this is not sustainable. There is too much greenwashing by companies saying their fleet is 99% green electric etc – but not saying that most of their final mile delivery is from the back of someone’s private car.
We need to look at food waste, textile recycling, design to repair (not replace), take back deposit schemes, no single use items and so on. The way forward – improve and adapt health and safety in the circular economy; provide adequate capacity to inspectorates like the HSE; greater cooperation with environmental agencies; legislate to mitigate adverse impacts on H&S throughout the life cycle of products; regulate for companies to reduce, minimise and preferably eliminate hazardous materials from products and production processes.
Making the case for mentally healthy work session was about workers being exposed to increasing workloads, health impacting work related stress, violence and bullying and we need to resist not be more resilient Chair Dan Shears Director of Health, Safety and Environment GMB, speakers included Sarah Lyons Lead officer for Health, Safety and Environment at NEU, Prof. Sarah Waters Suicide and its Prevention Leeds University, Alex Lancaster in personal capacity.
Alex noted that stress is still not treated with due regard and USRs should be doing their own Risk Assessments, collective proof, stress investigations and evidence on treatment of workers, changes to work, targets and so on.
Once this is known and presented to the company they do have foreseeability, you will have provided that. They have to do something or will be liable as they knew. HSE have improved much of their stress advise but not yet produced a Code of Practice. Even if HSE does not act there can be severe reputational damage when a company is not meeting its legal duties.
Sarah Lyons went to the rostrum to talk about the NEU and changing the workplace, not making staff more resilient and binning phrases like “rising from the ashes”. We must stop breaking workers and not just fix them after they’re broken, like Ofsted has done to teachers including a suicide following an inspection.
Resilience training is nonsense. The system must be changed.
Ofsted cause the harm, but it is not the employer.
The risk of suicides amongst female primary and nursery school teachers is 42% higher than the national average. It does not need a history of mental problems, but a sudden crisis can be dangerous.
Ofsted is a Hazard therefore has to be Risk Assessed. We should remove references to Ofsted from banners outside schools and letterheads, do not mention it on open days. We must stop any of the awful “mocksteds”, a pre inspection review that puts unnecessary pressure on staff.
Sarah Walters homed in (she was online) on work-related suicide, a Hazards campaign.
The HSE opened the door but then shut it. Over 70,000 workers die in such a manner around the world every year, and this is rising.
The HSE explicitly excludes suicides in deaths that must be reported to them, therefore there is no formal investigation and subsequent learning for prevention measures to be taken and prevent recurrence. Employers are not required to act following a suicide, there are some excellent employers who do act with goodwill.
It is contradictory of HSE to recognise stress related deaths but not work-related suicides, the HSE position is that “it’s too complicated”, “it’s too difficult to identify work connections” and “it’s a job for coroners”. Contradictory and unacceptable.
The conference again broke into fringe meetings, ours being Asbestos & Silicosis with the star speaker being a close friend, on a personal level as well as on a professional level, of MAVSG - Harminder Bains.
Clients are getting younger, one only aged twenty, and increasingly female.
More people die annually from mesothelioma than from RTCs yet look how much media coverage is given to road safety and how much money is prioritised and spent by governments on both. Yet sufferers do not want compensation they do not want an asbestos disease to end their life years too early.
Harminder shared an emotive story from Tom Dulwich, an ex-carpenter and mesothelioma sufferer and implored everyone to sign the letter to Altrad/Cape.
Satinder Bains from Irwin Mitchell in Brimingham discussed silicosis and recently highlighted issues that have been in the media, largely because of her efforts and work though she didn’t claim that.
There may be an under reporting of silica cases, and it would be surprising if that wasn’t the case. Industries like coal mining, stone dressing, new kitchen worktops, glass workers, those who have worked with sandstone, granite, slate, limestone, brick, marble and other minerals are all vulnerable workers. They all may have a lower life expectancy.
However, because of the future risks of disease progression and subsequent conditions including lung cancer - there is an opportunity to settle for provisional damages with an open option to return to court should there be a future worsening of health conditions such as lung cancer. Artificial stone is banned in Australia and all such workers are being screened, but there is no response in the UK; even official UK industrial bodies are openly against a ban, advocating work to be undertaken by water suppression.
There is a call for the UK Government to ban artificial stone worktops follow the first cases of silicosis linked to its manufacturing, medical experts have called for the UK to follow Australia in banning artificial stone worktops. The kitchen piece is made by crushing rocks together with resins and pigments, far cheaper to real stone such as marble, but with higher concentrations of silica in its dust, which workers are at risk of breathing in.
Dave Smith, a TUC tutor, returned to asbestos concerns opening with evidence was supressed historically even when companies, managers, directors and government knew there was a serious issues with it.
Coming many years later, Cape knew there was a problem but wanted to make money regardless of damage to workers lungs and subsequent early deaths. Multi-million pound companies have no morals or empathy; they just want profit and will lobby to prevent such things getting banned.
Workers are a dispensable commodity. Asbestos was only banned in the UK because of unions, their work campaigning, striking (like at the Barbican) and lobbying.
Sunday morning started with an in camera presentation of a construction safety shield, The Robert Tressel award, following a short background statement. This was to colleagues who stood up and fought for justice over a lengthy battle, note “Police Lies Out of Our Lives” who are a campaigning support group working to end sexual and psychological abuse perpetrated by undercover police officers.
The Spycops film showed the undercover political policing which went on for over forty years.
The Theresa May commissioned enquiry into such policing, found that over 140 officers and files on 1000’s people going back to 1968. Nearly all victims were on the left, only three were on the right of UK politics, the BNP, Combat 18 and United British Alliance.
There was moments silence whilst light music was played and the names of some of the workers who died because of work in in the past year were put on screen, also included Mavis Nyes the asbestos campaigner who passed away last year.
Mavis was a tireless campaigner who developed mesothelioma in 2009, when she was informed that there was no cure and no treatment. Fourteen years from her original prognosis she campaigned passionately and was one of the first people to galvanise people from all over the country to get behind the debate. She has been, and continue to be, a touchstone for mesothelioma victims around the world.
Jawad Qasrawi opened the main session describing the Hazards magazine he sub edits and it’s campaigning work, it is published quarterly and essential to any safety representative. Completely independent and the latest issue has a Labour manifesto thirteen point plan to improves H&S in the workplace – we have a new Labour Government, now we want new labour rights.
Vicky Basset (left in pic) National Health and Safety Representative BFAWU described the current state of play in her union where they are campaigning to get new SRs, most of the workplaces covered by them are not unionised and they are addressing this with a big push. They need to change the culture and make workers feel valued with education and good engagement.
Freezer Mucor (right) Chair UNITE Young Workers Committee described how young workers are five times more likely than the average worker to be on zero hours contracts, in precarious work, on low pay which all can be devastating for mental health.
Moving on to another job is not the answer when a young person has workplace issues, they must collectivise and address the issue with other colleagues, get them all to join the relevant union and act not run away from a problem, sort it. The abuse of zero hours contracts is widespread, and some workers are being isolated, they need support. New sectors of industry are fragmented and by definition they do not have a history of unions in them, no previous industrial collectivism and united action.
The Secretary of the Blacklist Support Group Dave Smith was the last speaker.
Too many people are patting themselves on the back for the fiftieth birthday of the HSW Act – but it wasn’t the Act that made the workplaces safer it was the unions in those places making sure the Act was used and adhered to. It was, and still is SRs who challenge employers, putting their heads above the parapet.
Raising awareness and concerns over an asbestos issue could get you sacked and blacklisted from other sites and by other employers.
The HSE is now nearly wedded to big business, and they take too much advice from them instead of instructing them.
Grenfell Tower and the cladding were a prime example. Staff from Celotex, which made the majority of the insulation, say they behaved unethically, dishonestly and the company lied for commercial gain while getting their product approved for use on high-rise buildings. We don’t want fresh fruit on the table or free yoga sessions (in your own time at lunch hour) but we want better condition, a safe workplace and a better world for everyone, climate justice alongside social justice.
Janet Newsham brought the conference together with awards to many of those who had helped others over the past twelve months. Union Safety Representatives do not seek awards, they do not do any of the work for a trophy – but they, all of them, do deserve the recognition.
Derek Maylor FRSPH MIIRSM MIIAI
Trustee - Merseyside Asbestos Victim Support Group - (Reg. Charity No: 1178374) 108 Century Building Tower Street Brunswick Business Park Liverpool L3 4BJ 0151 236 1895 - www.mavsg.org
