‘Think again on health and safety cuts’ urges CWU
29th November 2011
CWU national health, safety and environment officer Dave Joyce
has sharply criticised the Government for its announcement of major
cut backs in health and safety regulations.
Following the publication of a Government-commissioned Review by
risk management academic Professor Ragnar Lofstedt from King's
College of London, Employment Minister Chris Grayling set out plans
for an attack on what it calls "health and safety red
tape."
January will see a consultation opening on the abolition of large
numbers of health and safety regulations, with the intention of
removed rules from the statute book "within a few
months."
And from the New Year, a new "challenge panel" will be
introduced, which will allow businesses to get the decisions of
health and safety inspectors "overturned immediately if they
have got it wrong."
In a statement marking the publication of the report -
Reclaiming health and safety for all: An independent review of
health and safety legislation - Mr Grayling said: "By
accepting the recommendations of Professor Lofstedt we are putting
common sense back at the heart of health and safety. Our reforms
will root out needless bureaucracy.
"We will also ensure our reforms put an emphasis on personal
responsibility and it cannot be right that employers are
responsible for damages when they have done all they can to manage
the risk," he added.
But Dave Joyce expressed "deep and
serious misgivings" at the planned changes, which, he warned:
"Contain not a single proposal that will reduce the
unacceptably high levels of workplace deaths, injuries and work
related illnesses.
Dave attended the central London event held to mark the launch of
the report and took the opportunity to quiz Mr Grayling on his
plans. "I asked him why he's setting up this
'Challenge Panel' facility for employers while making it
harder for concerned workers to contact the Health and Safety
Executive by removing the HSE Helpline and accident reporting
process phone numbers from the Website," Dave said.
"And I told him: 'Surely you need to be making it easier
for workers to get help and advice on health and safety not just
small and medium-sized businesses'? But he didn't answer
the point."
Undeterred, our national safety officer persevered and put the
Minister on the spot again, disputing his designation of Royal Mail
and BT - businesses that the majority of CWU members work for - as
"low risk."
The CWU - in line with most other unions - is particularly opposed
to this new method of categorising occupational risk factors by
business, rather than by occupational function, or activity.
"I pointed this out and highlighted that this decision was
made without consulting the trade unions or workplace safety reps
and, in the case of Royal Mail and BT, the 'low risk'
designation was made in spite of fatalities and high accident
numbers. 'How will you redress and rebalance that'? I asked
him.
"The Lofstedt Report comes at the end of a bad week - we had a
Thetford Delivery Office mail van driver killed in an incident
while on duty, there's been a death in Manchester Mail Centre
and a postman has been seriously injured after being hit with a
hammer in a robbery. All this, plus the increasing numbers of dog
attacks on members too.
"The industries our members work in are certainly not 'low
risk," he insisted, "and the CWU and other unions must do
all we can to persuade the Government to think again."
