Kevin Rowan
May 2 2005 By Kevin Rowan, The Journal
Last week events throughout the region commemorated Workers Memorial Day, a day when trade unions and other campaign groups seek to remember those who have been killed as a result of their employment, and to remind those who can affect change that we need to do much more to end these preventable deaths.
In the UK, the latest figures from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) show that workplace fatalities are up, major injuries at work are increasing and there have been more reportable (over-three-day injuries) than in the previous year. Workplaces are becoming more and more dangerous.
Asbestos cancers alone kill more people each year than road traffic accidents. Meanwhile enforcement by the HSE dropped off dramatically as that organisation is increasingly overstretched, starved of government cash. The HSE investigated nearly 28,000 incidents and complaints in 2003/04, but prosecuted employers in fewer than 1,000 cases. The average fine per offence was a mere £9,858. While a total of 235 workers died at work only 11 directors or managers were convicted of safety offences. It is often the employers who are seeking to cut costs to undermine competitors that are guilty of breaches of the law in this area. A much tougher legislative framework, backed up by much more consistent and effectively resourced enforcement agencies would not only save lives, it would prevent the rogue employer from undercutting the decent employer by taking risks with health and safety.
The most effective method of reducing injuries and death at work is to develop a relationship with an independent trade union. Research shows this cuts the number of accidents and injuries in the workplace by a half. But there will be many employers who continue to ignore this message, and for those we need a strong legal framework. Just before Parliament was dissolved the Labour government introduced consultative legislation on corporate killing.
The legislation as it stands could be improved, but would have a positive impact on the management of health and safety in the workplace, and stakeholders like trade unions and business groups will be involved in shaping the final detail of that law.
The Conservative Party would abandon that legislation if they were returned to power, eroding any chance of improving health and safety standards at work, maintaining or even increasing the likelihood of people dying at work. Workplace death is, therefore, a political as well as an economic and moral issue.
