Hazards 121, January- March 2013

The next election may be up to two years off, but we have to start thinking now about what we want from a future government. Over the past three years we have seen a never-ending assault on workers’ protection. Every month there has been some new attempt to reduce regulation or a senior minister has decried the “health and safety culture” that they claim is strangling business.

While it is easy to see this as an attempt to deflect attention away from the failures of the government’s economic policies, it is also part of a wider move to reduce workers’ rights and conditions and turn the UK into a low-wage economy.

At the same time we have seen huge attacks on our public services and massive spending cuts. These have impacted on both the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and local authorities and we are seeing a dramatic fall in official workplace inspections (Hazards 120).

We have seen a series of moves to reduce the level of legal protection afforded to workers. Even more worrying, the fall in safety inspections has been accompanied by a similarly dramatic drop in expenditure on guidance and support for employers and employees.

It is pretty obvious that a major campaign for a change in direction must be wider than health and safety. We cannot argue for increasing funding for HSE without making the wider case against the cuts in the public sector, including areas like health, social care and education. The case for better regulation and enforcement is not limited to health and safety. It covers consumer and food safety, road safety and environmental protection (See: Work rules: The high cost of neutering watchdogs).

Rights to compensation and employment protection are also being eroded. The introduction of fees just to have your case heard at an employment tribunal affects all workers, not just victimised safety representatives. Whistleblowing and blacklisting are both much wider than health and safety.

GETTING SHIRTY  TUC head of safety Hugh Robertson wants a major union push for an end to austerity. There should be a safer, healthier, fairer society, inside and outside the workplace, he says.

Over the next couple of years trade unions will be at the forefront of the campaign for a fairer society and an end to austerity. However there is, in addition to the wider political agenda, a number of very specific health and safety measures that would make a massive difference to our health and the ability of union health and safety representatives to protect their members.

That is why trade unions have developed a list of 10 simple measures we want to see from a future government.

TUC’s new ‘Time for change’ manifesto calls for regular safety inspections, more safety reps with more rights and legal safety duties on company directors. It also demands far greater control of carcinogens, a tighter dust exposure standard, a maximum temperature in the workplace and extended protection for vulnerable workers. The manifesto calls for only those firms with a good safety record to be eligible for public contracts. And a core demand is that much greater importance is given to prevention of work-related ill-health.

These measures are simple and practical and 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. We will be seeking support for these improvements from politicians and political parties.

Many unions will be raising these issues over the coming months. You can play your part. Raise the issues with your MP and, once political parties start announcing their candidates for the next election, write to them. You can also ensure that you use the local press to promote the issues raised whenever the opportunity arises.

• Time for change: A trade union manifesto for reclaiming health and safety at work, TUC, February 2013.
• Time for change manifesto webpage and inspections briefing, Health and safety inspections: Why all workplaces have to be inspected regularly.

WHAT DO WE WANT?

TUC’s ‘Time for change’ workplace safety manifesto spells it out

1. All workplaces inspected regularly by the enforcing authority.  Trade unions want HSE and local authorities to concentrate their inspection activities on those businesses where inspections will be most effective but for no business to be exempt from unannounced inspections. We want to see more inspections of all businesses. It is the most effective way of ensuring compliance with the law and also giving businesses, and workers, the support they need.

2. Revised regulations on safety representatives and safety committees to increase coverage and effectiveness.  Trade unions believe that there is a need for stronger regulations that require all employers to have safety representatives if they employ more than 10 workers. Larger employers should also have to set up safety committees. Where there are lots of different employers working in one workplace, or if the employer has lots of different small sites, unions should be able to appoint roving health and safety representatives to cover all the workers. There should also be a legal right for health and safety representatives to call in the enforcement authorities if an employer fails to act on their concerns.

3. Occupational health to have the same priority as injury prevention.  Trade unions want strong regulation aimed at preventing stress, musculoskeletal disorders, bullying and violence, with more emphasis by enforcers on occupational illnesses. Unions also believe that all workers should have free access to both health surveillance and comprehensive occupational health provision, either through a public body set up for that purpose or from services provided through the NHS. The savings to the economy would greatly exceed the cost as it would both reduce sickness absence as well as help prevent people becoming dependent on benefits.

4. A new legally binding dust standard.  Some European countries have already started reducing their workplace dust limits and trade unions want the UK to follow. The TUC believes that there should be a precautionary standard of 2.5 mg/m³ for inhalable dust (compared to the current 10 mg/m³ standard) and 1 mg/m³ for respirable dust (compared to the current 4 mg/m³ standard) for all general dust and dusts where there is not a lower Workplace Exposure Limit (WEL). We also need more enforcement of the standards.

5. Removal of exposure to workplace carcinogens.  Trade unions want strong regulation and enforcement action to ensure that there should be no exposure to anything that causes cancer. Where possible that should mean removing carcinogens from the workplace completely by changing the process or substituting the carcinogen with another material. Sometimes this is not practical, but in these cases the worker should be fully protected from exposure. Examples of where – at least while we stick with current technology - a cancer causing agent cannot be removed but a workplace exposure can be, are radiographers and radiation, many quarry workers and silica and bus mechanics and diesel exhaust. Demands for improvements can drive innovation and the introduction of safer, cleaner technology.

6. A maximum temperature in the workplace.  Trade unions want a legal maximum temperature for indoor work of 30oC (27oC for those doing strenuous work), so that employers and workers know when action must be taken. This is intended as an absolute maximum, rather than an indication that regular indoor work at just below 30oC would be acceptable. There should also be a legal duty on employers to protect outside workers by providing sun protection, water, and to organise work so that employees are not outside during the hottest part of the day.

7. Increased protection for vulnerable and atypical workers.  Trade unions want a strengthening of the Gangmasters Licensing Authority, with its role extended to provide protection to more workers. However we also need greater resources to be given to enforcing employment rights for vulnerable groups. This requires a joined up approach, so that those who enforce the minimum wage, working time and health and safety regulations are working together to ensure that all workers have a safe and healthy workplace.

8. A legal duty on directors.  Trade unions want a new general duty on directors, under the Health and Safety at Work Act, backed up with an Approved Code of Practice which spells out exactly what directors should do. This new duty would be the biggest driver yet in changing boardroom attitudes towards health and safety.

9. Health and safety to be a significant factor in all public sector procurement.  Trade unions want new regulations ensuring that all public contracts, not only in construction, have high health and safety standards built into them and that the client should be required to monitor performance throughout the life of the contract. Those contractors who fail consistently to meet the standards should not be allowed to compete for any public sector work until such time as they have satisfactory safety systems in place.

10. The UK to adopt, and comply with, all health and safety conventions from the ILO.  Trade unions believe the UK government should show their commitment to health and safety by ratifying all International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions on health and safety. Once it has done so, it should review UK law to make sure it complies with these international standards.

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Manifesto!

A new 10-point safety manifesto from the TUC spells out how to turn around the UK’s poor health and safety record and prevent thousands of work-related deaths each year. TUC’s Hugh Robertson says it is time to end a national tragedy that is also a huge drain on the economy.

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