16-07-10 10:18

Government "not taking health and safety seriously"

The health and safety of Britain’s workforce is not being taken seriously by the coalition government, according to the union Unite.

Unite joint general secretary, Tony Woodley, accused Lord Young, who is heading a review of health and safety for the coalition government, of being “offensive” after he  was recently quoted in The Times as saying “people occasionally get killed, it’s unfortunate but it’s part of life” and “do you know anything dangerous in offices?”

Unite also believes that the views of interested parties were undermined due to the fact that the consultation period for the review lasted only three weeks, compared to the normal 8-12 weeks.

Tony Woodley said: “I welcome a genuine review of the impact of health and safety legislation in the workplace, and particularly a review that considers the widespread failure of employers to conduct workplace risk assessments.

“Any review should also look at the lack of effective investigation of workplace accidents, incidents and causes of ill-health and the widespread failure by employers to report injuries and diseases and dangerous occurrences.

”Regrettably the remarks reported in the press from Lord Young are deeply hurtful and offensive, particularly to the families of those killed at work.

”This has sent out completely the wrong message from the government. Regrettably this suggests to us that the government is not giving this review the weight that is urgently required.”

Unite is calling for action including: 

• improve the enforcement of existing health and safety duties on employers
• ensure that the Health and Safety Executive and local authorities are given adequate funding to enforce health and safety law
• re-affirm that health and safety laws apply to all workplaces and to all workers and are enforced accordingly 
• ensure that official health and safety statistics fully reflect the incidence of occupational injuries and ill-health  
• concentrate more on internal health and safety improvements at workplaces, rather than issues relating to external consultants
• legislate to place explicit health and safety duties on company directors and their equivalents
• introduce new laws to require the early release of basic health and safety information after a death at work
• put a stop to the “trivialisation” by the tabloid press and others of health and safety law and its enforcement and the so-called “compensation culture”