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 Home Health and Safety Health and Safety News
TUC calls for action on health and safety 'crime wave'
24 November 2007
There must be tougher enforcement action to tackle a workplace health and safety 'crime wave', the TUC has said.
Speaking at a Centre for Corproate Accountability conference, TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said that there are at least 20,000 work-related deaths and 2.2 million injuries every year. The 241 fatalities reported in official HSE statistics in 2006/07 'only tells us part of the story. We have to remember the 5,000 people killed last year because of asbestos exposure, the thousand killed in work-related road accidents, the many thousands killed by workplace cancers every year, as well as those who suffer heart attacks as a result of overwork or stress.' He added, 'The HSE estimates that over 80 per cent of injuries are a direct result of management failures. This means that the vast majority of deaths are simply down to management breaking health and safety laws. The same is true of the 2.2 million people who are suffering from an illness they believed was caused or made worse by their work.'
Mr Barber concluded: 'To me this is a crime wave on a massive scale. A crime wave that screams out for action. Evidence shows the most effective way to change behaviour is strong enforcement action, supported by advice and guidance. And there is also evidence of a clear link between enforcement levels and injury rates. So if we know enforcement works, then why are we not doing more to enforce the law? Part of the answer lies in the government's attitude towards enforcement, with some ministers and agencies talking up the importance of enforcement, and others actively working against it. If one half of the government sees regulation as a dirty word, then it makes life very difficult for the other half who recognise the importance of protecting the vulnerable. Unfortunately, the government seems to have been taken in by employer lobbying about so-called 'red tape'.'
He called for statutory safety duties on company directors and stricter penalties for safety offences. 'But most of all, we want more inspections and enforcement activity,' he said. Mr Barber said cuts in the HSE budget had to be reversed to make this a possibility.
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