A Trade Union Manifesto for Reclaiming Health and Safety

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Letter to Branches




No. 097 /13
Ref EX10
Date: 18 February 2013

To: All Branches
 
Dear Colleagues,

TUC - Health and Safety Time for Change - A Trade Union Manifesto for Reclaiming Health and Safety at Work

The TUC's Union Health and Safety Specialists Committee which includes the CWU's National Health and Safety Officer along with National Health and Safety Officers from other major Trade unions have developed a list of 10 simple measures which we want to see from a future government. If implemented they would have a huge impact in reducing the toll of death, injury and illness which is still an everyday part of working life for so many people.

In recent years the political consensus on health and safety across all parties that has existed almost unbroken since the 1937 Factories Act has in recent years begun to break down. Rather than seeing health and safety legislation as a necessary protection for workers, the present Tory led Coalition Government politicians now claim that it is a “burden on business” and have since the General Election launched an all out attack on health and safety standards, regulations and safety law enforcement.

Over the past few years there has been a number of attempts to reduce the level of legal protection afforded to workers. Even more worrying, the levels of Inspections by the enforcing authorities Inspectors both HSE and Local Authority EHOs have been cut dramatically, as has expenditure on guidance and support for employers
and employees. Number 1 priority in the Manifesto is the need for regular HSE and LA Safety Inspections which help keep employers on their toes and much more likely to give workplace safety standards and compliance a high priority if they think a visit from a Health and Safety Executive or Local Authority EHO Inspector is a distinct possibility.

This is at a time when health and safety protection is as crucial as ever. Every year over 20,000 people die because of their work causing industrial illness. Most die from cancers, lung diseases and heart problems rather than being killed at work, but their deaths are just as tragic, and preventable.

It is not just the number of deaths that is an issue, but the huge number of people made ill or injured through work. Last year 1,800,000 were living with an illness caused by their work. About three quarters of these were injuries to the back, neck, arms and wrists, or depression or anxiety caused by stress at work. Another 115,000
workers were injured while at work to the extent that they needed to take more than three days off work.

The Manifesto document states that a future government should set new standards on controlling exposure to dust at work and substituting carcinogenic materials. Unions through the Manifesto also call for a restoration of HSE and LA Health and Safety Inspections to all industrial sectors, including those such as Postal, Telecommunications,
transport and light engineering, classified as low-risk by the current administration and having all HSE and LA Inspections reduced and completely withdrawn.

The H&S Time for Change Manifesto, sets out 10 points that would help alter a climate in which spending cuts and changes in regulations are making it more difficult to police employers who play fast and loose with their workers safety.

To reduce the worst industrial diseases the Manifesto calls for the UK to set a new precautionary standard for respirable dust of 2.5mg per cubic metre of air, and 1 mg/m3 for inhalable dust, down from the current limits of 10 mg/m3 and 4 mg/m3. The Institute of Medicine supports the call for these lower limits.

Tighter controls on exposure to carcinogens such as radiation and diesel exhaust could help reduce a death toll from workplace cancer which the HSE estimates at 8000 a year.

Other changes called for in the Manifesto for implementation by a more sympathetic government include increased protection for migrant workers and lone workers, a statutory maximum workplace temperature of 30°C  for employees working indoors or 27oC for those involved in strenuous work.

Another important Safety change called for in the Manifesto would be a requirement for all workplaces employing more than ten people to have a Trade Union Safety Rep and for that person to be able to call in the appropriate safety enforcing authorities if they believe that their employer is ignoring safety concerns. The UK's 150,000 Union Safety Reps have already proved their worth. As well as helping to save the economy as much as
£578m a year they prevent up to 13,000 accidents and 8,000 work-related illnesses a year.

Time for a change also says that all workers should be given access to occupational health services which could help prevent the occurrence of around 450,000 cases a year of conditions like stress, back pain and repetitive strain injury. Very few employees currently have access to such a service - if they did, huge savings could be made. Workers injured or made ill would need much less time off work and would have a greater chance of being able to return to their jobs, rather than becoming dependent on benefits.

The Manifesto document also calls for a legal duty on company directors to safeguard employees’ health and safety.

Unfortunately the current Prime Minister and Coalition Government Ministers seem convinced that despite the high number of deaths and injuries at work, safety regulations are too onerous on businesses and rather than being tightened, need to be watered down or removed entirely. This is completely the wrong approach, when
what is needed is tougher enforcement and new safety laws. The TUC Health and Safety Manifesto sets out how to do just that.

All Trade Union's National Health and Safety Officers have signed up to the new Manifesto and believe that there must be a sea-change in future government attitude to health and safety if we are going to stop this massive health problem that costs the state billions of pounds but which claims the lives of far too many workers.

The 10 points covered in the Manifesto (Copy Attached) are:-

01ALL WORKPLACES SHOULD BE INSPECTED REGULARLY BY THE ENFORCING AUTHORITY
02THE REGULATIONS ON SAFETY REPRESENTATIVES AND SAFETY COMMITTEES SHOULD BE REVISED TO INCREASE COVERAGE AND EFFECTIVENESS
03 OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH SHOULD HAVE THE SAME PRIORITY AS INJURY PREVENTION
04 THERE SHOULD BE A NEW, LEGALLY BINDING DUST STANDARD
05 WORKERS SHOULD NOT BE EXPOSED TO CARCINOGENS IN THE WORKPLACE
06 THERE SHOULD BE A LEGAL MAXIMUM TEMPERATURE IN THE WORKPLACE
07 THERE SHOULD BE INCREASED PROTECTION FOR VULNERABLE AND ATYPICAL WORKERS
08 THERE SHOULD BE A LEGAL DUTY ON DIRECTORS
09 HEALTH AND SAFETY SHOULD BE A SIGNIFICANT FACTOR IN ALL PUBLIC SECTOR PROCUREMENT
10 THE UK GOVERNMENT SHOULD ADOPT, AND COMPLY WITH, ALL HEALTH AND SAFETY CONVENTIONS OF THE ILO



Yours Sincerely

Dave Joyce
National Health, Safety & Environment Officer