With a general election pending, the Hazards Campaign wants union safety reps to promote a 13-point plan of action.
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The great deregulation lie
David Cameron’s frantic rush to ‘boost business’ by removing safety regulations has come at a cost. And while you pay with your health already as a result of his government’s deregulation obsession, the effect is about to be amplified by European and international moves on the same remove-the-protection theme.
The government announced in January 2015 that “84 per cent of health and safety rules will have been scrapped or improved in this parliament, freeing employers from unnecessary red tape.” It said under its ‘One in Two Out’ approach, regulations covering health and safety had been halved “without compromising or diluting health and protection for workers.”
New safety minister Lord Freud said by simplifying regulations and removing unnecessary requirements, “businesses have been boosted and workers have never been safer. By making it easier for businesses to understand what they need to do on health and safety, they can protect their staff and concentrate on prospering rather than pointless box-ticking.”
Health and Safety Executive (HSE) chair Judith Hackitt obligingly backed up the minister, saying HSE had “delivered a substantial package of reforms and reduced the regulatory burden – all without compromising or diluting protection for workers.”
It would be good if it was true. But telling business that regulation is a burden and that any chance of enforcement is unlikely sends out an unhealthy message. While workplace fatalities recorded by HSE – a small fraction of the total - have fallen, work-related health problems kill at least 100 times as many people each year as work-related injuries. And these conditions are on the rise.
Europe’s role in developing protective workplace safety legislation has stalled and could be set to be reversed, with the appointment in December 2014 of the deregulation-obsessed German right wing politician Edmund Stoiber as a European Commission special adviser on ‘better regulation.’
The appointment came two months after the European Commission’s Stoiber-chaired High Level Group on Administrative Burdens published a deregulatory template described by TUC’s Hugh Robertson as “pretty dangerous” and “totally absurd and will make it virtually impossible to get any new regulation on health and safety” (Hazards 128).
A trade agreement being negotiated behind closed doors between the US and EU could make matters worse still. Health advocates believe the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership’s (TTIP) emphasis on “regulatory cooperation” amounts to a “power grab” that will undermine Europe’s chemical, safety, food and other laws.
Hey!
Whatcha gonna do?
There will be a new government on 7 May 2015. With work getting more unhealthy, the workforce and the country are paying a heavy price. Hilda Palmer of the national Hazards Campaign spells out what it wants you and that new government to do about it.
Cartoons: Andy Vine
The great deregulation lie
David Cameron’s frantic rush to ‘boost business’ by removing safety regulations has come at a cost. And while you pay with your health already as a result of his government’s deregulation obsession, the effect is about to be amplified by European and international moves on the same remove-the-protection theme more.
Hazards webpages
Deady business • We didn't vote to die at work