CWU condemns health and safety cuts

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.cwu.org/news/archive/cwu-con ... -cuts.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

10th September 2012


Reacting to the government's announcement today (Monday) that it will abolish health and safety inspections as part of its 'Red Tape Challenge', the Communication Workers Union says lives will be put at risk by this regressive step.

Billy Hayes, CWU general secretary, said: "The government will have blood on its hands if these dangerous cuts go through.


"Health and safety is not an unnecessary piece of bureaucracy; it helps to save lives and improve the health and wellbeing of workers in all workplaces. Accidents in the workplace can be life-destroying so we want to prevent them, not make them more likely.


"Cutting pro-active inspections could be disastrous. Moving to a reactive system would mean that people would have to be injured, become ill or die before any inspection took place, rather than preventing these incidents happening in the first place.


"This is yet another attack on working people. The government is showing its contempt for ordinary working people by making this move. It's a regressive step which takes workplace wellbeing backwards. We urge the government to rethink quickly before any damage is done."


The TUC says over 20,000 people die every year as a result of a disease they got through their work and a further 1.9 million people are living with an illness caused by their work.

[Billy Ray]

What a backward step. :ncfo

[ganda]

I'm sure the powers that be want to return to victorian times. Health and safety gets in the way of productivity, it must go. Just as the laws about being able to get rid of undesirable workers more easily. We must live in fear of keeping our jobs, making sure we doff our caps to the management at any available opportunity.