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Rita Donaghy Construction Industry Deaths Report Published

Rita DonaghyThree months after being appointed, Rita Donaghy, The chair of an inquiry into construction-related deaths described occupational health issues in the industry as “horrendous” and says the levels of underreporting of safety incidents “is nothing short of a scandal”.

Now her final report meets eager eyes within the construction industry and all those involved in health and safety in general.

Ms Donaghy said she also wanted to address health issues in her report, even though they do not fall under the remit of her inquiry.

She said: “My brief is accidents, but it has become clearer and clearer that the vast number of fatalities are caused by occupational health." Her reports shows she has stayed true to her word.

The key recommendations in her report are:

* The positive role that trade unions can play in health and safety is not fully appreciated by the construction industry and I recommend that more should be done, particularly by the larger companies, to encourage joint working with the unions.

* extending the Building Regulations so that health and safety processes should be included when considering building control applications or building warrants.

* that there should be positive duties on directors to ensure good health and safety management through a framework of planning, delivering, monitoring and reviewing.

* there should be an investigation into the built-in delays in the system leading to prosecution and conviction or other outcomes on construction fatal accidents.

* that the industry should renew its efforts to establish genuine consultative frameworks to encourage greater worker participation.

* While this was outside the scope of this Inquiry, Occupational Health remains a serious problem in the construction industry with thousands of workers dying every year. I recommend that renewed efforts should be made to tackle this issue.

Derek Maylor, Chair of the NW BTU H&S Co-ord says in his review of the report:

"The report whilst targeting construction fatalities raises many valid points for workplace safety in general. It notes early on that everyone in the UK is touched by construction work from domestic to hospitals and schools and even national prestige building projects."

He adds: " The Co-ord welcomed the HSE/IoD "Leading on Safety" guidance when it was first published but were critical that it was not mandatory and with specific directors’ duties, Rita Donaghy's report is yet another that again recommends this.

Download the report from the E-Library DatabaseMembers of FACK (Families Against Corporate Killing) welcomed the clear recommendations made by Rita Donaghy in her report on construction deaths, and urges the government to implement them without delay.

Founder member Linzi Herbertson says:  ‘While this report is very promising and supports one of our major campaign demands, the need for statutory legal duties on directors, it is essential that the government takes on board this and all Rita’s other recommendations, and starts work  on implementing them as soon as possible to stop more needless deaths. 

“FACK along with trade unions and the Hazards Campaign have argued very strongly that voluntary guidance for directors does not work and that there is a clear moral case for positive legal duties,  and this is now also endorsed by the latest report from the Work and Pensions Select Committee. The government is now being given the same message form several directions. And must act upon it.

Linzi added “ Both Rita Donaghy’s and the Select Committee have also made clear the need for stricter enforcement.  As the recession bites the tendency for employers to cut corners and put workers lives and health at risk increases.  We urgently need more funding for enforcement by the HSE and local authority inspectors to prevent workers being hurt.  It is now up to the government to show how much it cares for us all by implementing directors’ duties and funding effective enforcement, frankly the wait is killing us.”

On the back of the publication of the report, the CBI issued this statement:

Commenting on Rita Donaghy’s report to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, One Death is Too Many, John McDonough, Chairman of the CBI Construction Council, said:

“Construction firms have worked hard to cut accident rates in recent years, and much progress has been made, but the number of deaths is still unacceptably high. These proposals by Rita Donaghy contain some worthwhile recommendations to improve health and safety across the industry.

“However, we do not believe licensing would be an effective way to reduce fatalities. The government should target resources on cracking down on firms that flout health and safety rules, rather than imposing an additional burden on law-abiding firms.

“Leadership in health and safety is already enshrined in the law. Therefore imposing further duties on directors would be a retrograde step and simply duplicate existing law.

“A full-time, dedicated minister for construction would help raise the profile of the industry, although our preference would be for an independent Chief Construction Officer, operating in a similar way to the Chief Scientific Adviser.”

Once again this shows that the CBI's main concern is to argue against any form of regulation rather than support any action which will reduce deaths and injury of people at work.

Download both the report and derek's review from the E-Library Database using search category 'government reports.'

Source: DWP / CBI / FACK / D Maylor



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