"Cut Stress Not Jobs" - how to use H&S issues in workplaces to aid Organising and Recruiting #uNDC14

I went to the lunchtime fringe on health and safety. This was Chaired by Malcolm Harrington, from the National H&S committee. First speaker was Hilda Palmer from National Hazards campaign  & FACK (Families against Corporate Killers).

Hilda introduced herself as a "trouble maker and shit stirrer". She promoted the Hazards conference which takes place 29-31 August at Keele university (which UNISON is a strong supporter)

Health & Safety faces a perfect storm of attacks by this right wing government. As well as attacks on public services and the benefit safety net there is a  "Neo feudalism" race to the bottom.

The attack on H&S is not just about cuts but the government wants more power for employers and to get rid of minimum standards.

The Government say we should be competing with countries such as Turkey, where 200 miners were recently killed to due management negligence; Qatar, where it is estimated 1400 workers will die building the football stadiums for the next world cup and China were they have to fit suicide nets outside factories to stop workers killing themselves by throwing themselves off the roof.  Instead why don't they want us to complete with countries such as Norway which has a successful economy with high H&S standards.  

There has been neo liberals in Government since the 1970's but this one is on steroids, rowing back a century of progress. We didn't vote to die at work. It is worse now than we possibly thought. All the evidence is that regulation saves lives and money

We love red tape. Better than bloody bandages. Remember that its not 148 who die at work each year (HSE) but nearer 50,000 who die each year from work incidents and disease. Compare this is the 532 murders. Don't forget the impact of ill health on peoples lives.

While the Health and Safety Executive estimate it costs £8 billion per year due to cancer deaths, Hazards think it is nearer to £60 billion.

The damage by Con-Dems since they took power in 2010 is immense. They have had 4 "reviews". The requirement to report accidents (RiDDOR) has been reduced resulting 30,000 less reports per year. There has been a 44% cut in the HSE. While there has been a 90% reduction in pro active inspections by local authority inspectors.  The Lofstedt report said that there was no need for radical change in H&S but the self employed are being exempted from the law and if they hurt anyone they cannot be prosecuted under H&S.

Tracey Harding, the Head of UNISON H&S unit spoke next on the new campaign "Cut Stress Not Jobs". Stress is one of the top 5 hazards identified by members. Cutting jobs and increasing work load leads to stress on those workers who are left. There are 2 main aims. Campaign against cuts and support for those affected.

UNISON will relaunch stress guidance in time for European Health and Safety week (EH&SW) and provide leaflets and other information. EH&SW will focus on Stress.

Branches need to try and engage with employers and encourage them to have a stress management strategy, conduct a stress audit and carry out stress risk assessments

Stress audits help employers pin point issues rather use a scatter gun approach. Also look at staff turnover and exist interviews,

Engage with members as well and and urge then to report stress issues and provide them support mechanism.

My comment in the Q&A at the end was that one of the best way to improve all forms of health and safety is to increase union membership and organisation. The more people in the union the safer we all are at work.

Workers' Memorial Day (and stop the Slaughter in Qatar)

Every year on the 28 April it is International Workers' Memorial Day (WMD). A trade union led day of remembrance for those killed at work or who have died of industrial injuries or diseases. Some 50,000 British workers still die every year prematurely due to their work.

It is also a campaigning day for those currently in work and to try and ensure they are safe. I will be wearing my WMD purple 'forget-me-not' ribbon and hope to attend an event later today.

The WMD theme this year is 'Protecting workers around the world through strong regulation, enforcement and union rights'.   I would suggest that you ask all political candidates in the forthcoming Council and European elections - are they in favour of this theme? Then vote accordingly.

See Hazards website for details of UK events.

Last week marked the 1st anniversary of the disaster at Rana Plaza Factory in Bangladesh which killed over 1100 workers. Remember also the estimated 400 workers dead so far in Qatar building the football stadiums for the 2022 World Cup. At the present rate 4000 workers will be dead by then.

While construction deaths in this country are still at a unacceptable level, thanks to regulation and trade unions, not a single worker died in the UK during the building of the 2012 Olympics.

Union workplaces are safer workplaces - We love red tape

Hat tip Phil Lewis and Hazards.This argument is 100% in favour of union safety reps. If you don't support trade union reps at work then please note that you can be personally liable if things go wrong.  Not only imprisonment but your own home as well could be at risk. It is in everyone's interest that employers and trade unions work together to make safer workplaces.

Update: link for Hazards conference booking form

Workers Memorial Day: 28 April 2013

This collage of trade union posters on Workers Memorial Day (WMD) is from the collection on the Hazards Website.

Check out the TUC website to find out details of local events.

Also the UNISON website's health and safety page on WMD. It lists real people whose lives have been ruined by accidents or violence at work. 

UNISON NDC 12: Defend the attacks on health and safety standards

On Thursday lunchtime I went to this fringe. UNISON National Health and Safety Committee Chair Nick Green chaired, John Bamford, Health and Safety Adviser, Greater Manchester Hazards Campaign spoke first. Followed by Robert Baughan, National Officer for Health and Safety.  Who is deputising for Hope Daley who is on a secondment.

During the fringe I made comments on some key points on Twitter again which I have used on this post. It saves making notes.

John started by arguing that there is "no evidence that health and safety is a burden to to business. Evidence instead that it is a benefit to business". "Today it the Longest day. We now have had 3 longest days since Cameron became Prime Minister and 700 long days to come".

"The "Brown Book" which contains the 1977 Safety Representative & Safety Committee regulations is the most powerful piece of worker legislation in existence". Regarding the new "Fit notes" for people off sick. John said that the only decent one he had seen was the one from a GP that said an employee can return to work "if the employer sacks the manager that is bullying him".

There has been a "1/3 cut in proactive safety inspection" by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). Tories are now talking about "Getting rid of all safety protection for "low risk" self employed". The "Tories argue that work is not dangerous anymore! The TUC estimate 20,000 work related deaths per year. While Hazards believe that it may be as high as 50,000 deaths" 

Robert spoke about how we cannot rely on the HSE. Many of their officers are very good but it is fighting for its survival. In the Q&A I made the point that not only are cuts to the HSE making work more dangerous but that in my sector front line housing staff will take the blame for trying to deal with the cuts in Housing benefit as will other local authority staff dealing with the impact of government cuts. Check out the Inside Housing report here.

Grieving for a dead partner who never got to meet his son: Want to know about "Burdens"?

Mum of two Laurie Swift 27 lost her partner Alan Winters, crushed to death at work. The 28 year old crane driver was killed just 6 weeks before the birth of his son Alan Jr.   The Tory/Coalition want to slash and burn basic health & safety legislation and essential regulation. For further details check out Hazards

"Union buster" Tory minister of Health & Safety?

I came home tonight to find that the latest publication of Labour Research Department “Health and Safety Law 2010” had been delivered.

Every active trade union safety rep needs to have this guide to hand.

I note that it describes (p3) the appointment of Chris Grayling as Health & Safety minister as “not good news for trade unions or workers. The safety campaign group Hazards has reported that he was a former director at Burson-Marsteller” and says that this company is well known as one of the more prominent “union busting firms”.

No real surprise - typical Tory, but we will have to work with them somehow.

I suppose all of those who ranted that there is no difference between a Labour Government and the Tories are really proud of themselves now.

"We didn't Vote to Die at Work"

I've just joined this health and safety Facebook group set up by Hazards.

This is what it is about...'We didn't vote to die at work' is the Hazards Campaign's response to the Con-Dem government attacks on workplace safety and health. We need to fight against: deregulation; the misrepresentation of health and safety as silly red tape instead of our human right; the lie that health and safety is a burden on business; and cuts in enforcement that are proposed by the new coalition government.

The coalition is moving on many fronts, including Lord Young's review of health and safety, Vince Cable's deregulatory review of all regulation, Nick Clegg's requests to name a law to be cut, and the overall massive cuts in budgets which will reduce funding for the enforcement agencies - the HSE, local authorities, the rail regulator and others. The Health Protection Agency, which covers many occupation-related issues like radiation exposure and pandemics, has already gone. Health and safety is not a burden on business. Good health and safety pays for itself. When it comes to poor health and safety, business does not face so significant a burden - because business externalises the cost onto us all, paying less than 25 per cent of the costs arising from work-related deaths, diseases and injuries. Instead, it engages in cost shifting to the victims, their families, the public purse and the community as a whole".

Hazards Poster on Workers' Memorial Day

Check out further resources for Workers' Memorial Day at the Hazards site.

Dave Smith – “Blacklisting safety reps kills people. Full Stop”.

"It creates an atmosphere where workers are afraid to raise safety concerns because they're scared they will lose their jobs. So even when everyone on the site knows that the bosses are cutting corners to save money, people just keeps their head down. The result is the worst fatality rate of any industry in the UK”.

Building union UCATT safety rep Dave Smith telling us as it is about his victimisation as a trade union safety rep on building sites and how this kills people. Dave was blacklisted as a trade unionist by the now infamous “Consulting Association” who unlawfully held records on Dave and thousands of other union activists. The recent £5,000 fine on the owner of this site who earned hundreds of thousands over the years from selling this information to building companies is just plainly ridiculous.

Dave was sacked several times by building companies and also often refused work. There was a 36 page dossier on Dave alone (see picture). Over 3000 construction workers were on this totally illegal employment register/blacklist. This did not stop key construction companies such as Balfour Beatty, John Mowlem Ltd, Costain UK Ltd, Laing O’Rourke, Crown House Technologies, Kier Ltd, Bam Construction and Vinci plc paying for this information and therefore becoming criminal and gangster employers. (I need to check the shareholder register on my pension fund against these names then ask our fund maangers to ask the question why and who).

Why are "only" some of them facing improvement notices when clearly they should be all punished for this deliberate and premeditated crime? Someone in each firm must have signed off and approved "Consulting Associations" contracts and invoices?

Check out this completely shocking report in “Hazards” magazine here (for once such a hyperbole description is real).

By co-incidence I have met Dave a number of times over the years and as well as being a proper top trade unionist he is also a really nice and genuine bloke. I can remember him telling me how once he handed a safety rep report about serious potentially fatal safety issues to a building site manager who didn’t even look at it but simply crumpled it up in his hands and just threw it into the bin.

UK gripped by 'no compensation' culture

This is a straight lift from the excellent trade union health & safety E-Newsletter “Risks”. Published weekly for free by the TUC and editored by the well respected Rory O'Neill of Hazards magazine. If you are at all interested in health & safety at work then click on and sign up.

This “real news story” is something that you will not pick up from the shameful British tabloid press.

The number of workplace personal injury claims is low and falling fast, new research for the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has found.

The study by researchers from the University of Warwick's School of Law has undermined the popular view that UK citizens are engaging in a spiralling 'compensation culture' with ever increasing claims against allegedly negligent companies and organisations.

The researchers investigated whether there had been an increase in claims for damages arising from occupational injury or ill-health related to breaches of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.
They found the number of legal actions was consistently falling in both the High Court and the County Courts.

These conclusions were also supported by the observations of a wide range of legal practitioners, insurers, employers' associations and trade unions who participated in the Warwick research.

The report confirms TUC's 2005 finding that compensation culture is 'a myth' (Risks 217).webpages.

Number 10 Petition on making WMD "National Day of Remembrance"

Click on Number 10 to sign the e-petition and ask the Prime Minister to declare 28 April an official day of mourning. You just have to enter your name (which is published), email & home address (which is kept confidential). Number 10 send you a confirmation email back, which you just click on a link and your name is registered. Should take less than 5 minutes.

The petition was started by Dorothy Wright who is a founder member of FACK (Families Against Corporate Killers). The petition is being supported by Amicus and I am sure by all other unions.

Amicus Research Officer, Chris O’Leary, "every year more people are killed at work than die in wars, and that 28 April is the international commemoration day devoted to their memory. It was originally established as an international day in 1996, and has since been commemorated in thousands of activities around the world, as well as being officially recognised by a growing number of national governments. “Most workers don't die of mystery ailments, or in tragic "accidents,’ says O’Leary. “They die because an employer decided their safety just wasn't that important a priority. 1600 people die each year in UK while doing their job and 20000 die from work related diseases. The country should remember them on this day, as they do in other countries and by doing so reduce this slaughter.”

See also "Hazards" WMD news and the TUC Risks (free e-newsletter for safety reps)