Politicians who deregulate are complicit in workplace deaths & diseases

#IWMD14 ‘Every year workers and their trade unions remember the many thousands world wide that die in workplace accidents each year. We remember those workers that die of occupational diseases. Many of these accidents and deaths because of diseases can be prevented by appropriate laws, controls and sanctions. And while we remember the workers that have died, we also recall those who are responsible for putting pressure on workers to work unsafely, our employers, and those politicians that support the employers such as Commission President Barroso. He is complicit in many of these deaths and diseases by not actively pursuing a European health and safety strategy’ says EPSU in a hard hitting statement to mark International Workers Memorial Day pointing out the stark truth that the European Commission is pursuing a deregulation agenda along the same lines of the UK’s so called red tape challenge:
http://www.epsu.org/a/10390

Rana Plaza - one year on but workers still face repression

Today marks the first anniversary of the Rana Plaza textile factory collapse when almost 1200 workers – mostly young women – were killed in the worst industrial disaster in Bangladesh’s history. In its aftermath the TUC and the international trade union movement mobilised to secure an Accord - which has now been signed by more than 150 companies that employ factory workers and ensures that 1619 factories in Bangladesh have safety inspections and work with unions to correct safety hazards. However the TUC points out that problems with Bangladesh labour law mean that workers are still facing significant repression:
http://www.tuc.org.uk/international-issues/labour-standards/tuc-tells-employers-%E2%80%98pay-now%E2%80%99-bangladesh-factory-collapse

The myth of a workplace compensation culture

In 2010 Tory Grandee Lord Young published a report ‘Common Sense, Common Safety’ following a Con Dem initiated review of health and safety laws. The Prime Minister responded to the report by saying “a damaging compensation culture has arisen, as if people can absolve themselves from any personal responsibility for their own actions, with the spectre of lawyers only too willing to pounce with a claim for damages on the slightest pretext. We simply cannot go on like this.” In 2011/12 the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) estimated that over 600,000 workers suffered a workplace injury or a new work-related illness. Yet the total number of civil compensation settlements for work-related injuries or diseases in 2011/12 was only 87,655 – so fewer than 1 in 7 injured workers received compensation according to a new Hazards report:
http://www.hazards.org/votetodie/robbed.htm

Drip-drip attacks on workers’ rights are Thatcher Redux

#TUC13 ‘A cursory glance through the 2013 TUC Agenda highlights the extent of the ever-growing employment rights problems facing workers in all sectors of our economy. Whether it's on health and safety, unfair dismissal, redundancy, maternity or equality issues, this government has ignored all the evidence and sidestepped opposition to force through changes that not only turn back the clock but are now destabilising the very bases of our industrial relations settlement,’ writes Carolyn Jones of the Institute of Employment Rights in a Congress preview:
http://www.ier.org.uk/blog/greater-union-presence-essential-heal-divided-britain#.UicHDAuDUlM.twitter

Support safer working conditions in Bangladesh factories

War on Want has launched a petition calling on Primark, Matalan, Mango and Bonmarche to sign the Bangladesh Fire and Building Safety Agreement to prevent the future deaths of garment workers. The death toll from the collapse of a Dhaka garment factory complex in April has now risen to a horrific 1129. These disasters must not be allowed to continue:
http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/primarkjobs-mango-matalan-ensure-safety-for-workers-compensate-victims-of-building-collapse

Carry On Regardless - Queen's Speech

Reading this year’s Queens Speech, its most remarkable trait is actually how banal it is and how little it has to offer in the real world.
  This speech has obvious gestation in recent events. After a collision with the shock troops of Little England in the local elections last week, Her Majesty's Government has clearly looked out the Dummies Guide to Reactionary policies (British edition).
   It then appears to have dictated bits at random from its collective position in the downstairs lavvy - a stance necessitated by the collective overflow of effluent.

Their Red Tape - Our Lost Lives

#iwmd13 Scenes last week from Bangladesh, where over 350 garment workers died in an unsafe working environment, bring into sharp relief why International Workers' Memorial Day is such an important event in our calendar. Yet the Dhaka tragedy is far from a one off. The TUC's Hugh Robertson writes that there are '2.34 million occupational fatalities every year, of which 321,000 are due to accidents. The remaining 2.02 million deaths are caused by various types of work-related diseases, which correspond to a daily average of more than 5,500 deaths.'

Horse-trading in school meals

A timely APSE briefing highlights the measures already taken by local authority caterers to ensure the food safety of school meals in light of the horsemeat scandal. It also references the fact that these measures have been put in place by local authority caterers who retain control over food procurement.

Con Dems' attack Criminal Injury Compensation Scheme

Tribune reports on Con Dem proposals to make massive cuts to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme. Tory Justice Secretary Chris Grayling MP is driving through the changes which will abolish or severely restrict compensation payments for victims of attacks at work ('including people with sprained wrists and those scarred by knife attacks'):
http://www.tribunemagazine.co.uk/2012/11/the-true-face-of-compassionate-conservatism/

Outrageous - 1 in 5 workers forced to pay for their own protective safety equipment

A TUC survey published yesterday reveals that although employers are required by law to provide employees with personal protective equipment free of charge, more than one in five workers are being forced to pay for it out of their own pocket: http://www.tuc.org.uk/workplace/tuc-21272-f0.cfm

Events across UK to mark International Workers Memorial Day

This year the TUC is calling on trade unionists and safety campaigners to take action today to defend health and safety from attacks on regulation, enforcement, cuts and refusal to tackle the massive toll that health and safety breaches take on workers. Health and safety is under attack like never before with the Con Dem’s budget announcement declaring that "the government will scrap or improve 84 per cent of health and safety regulation"  Details of events across the UK here: http://www.tuc.org.uk/workplace/tuc-20489-f0.cfm

Like oil and water, Tories & Unions don’t mix

Tory MP Robert Halfon is given a platform by New Statesman to continue his one man crusade for a rapprochement between the Conservative Party and the 6.5m members (but not the leadership) of Britain’s trade unions: http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/politics/2012/04/why-tories-should-embrace-trade-unions

Deregulation of Health & Safety will cost workers' lives

The budget day announcement that the UK Government will 'scrap or improve 84% of Health and Safety regulation' and legislate this year to weaken employer liability in civil law is a classic neo-liberal move to transfer the risks and costs of death, illness and injury from employers to workers.

The courage and tenacity of the emergency workers at the Fukushima nuclear plant

The heroism of workers at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has been honoured by the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC): http://www.psac-afpc.org/news/2011/messages/20110502-e.shtml

Workers memorial day

UNISON’s president, Angela Lynes, and NEC member Bob Oram, with staff from UNISON’s Scottish office commemorated International Workers Memorial Day with a minute’s silence at 12pm today. Other events around the country saw UNISON activists join with other unions and campaigning groups to say "Remember the Dead and Fight for the Living".
http://www.unison-edinburgh.org.uk/healthandsafety/wmd.html
http://www.aberdeenshireunison.com/healthandsafety/wmd11.html
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Workers Memorial Day 2011 - Remember the Dead, Fight for the Living

This year marks the first anniversary of the UK’s official recognition of Workers’ Memorial Day, which is held on 28 April each year. UNISON's message - 'cuts cost lives' is clear and timely. http://www.unison.org.uk/safety/pages_view.asp?did=4783

Con Dem deregulation mania will undermine our quality of life

De-regulate and burn! Snip that red tape to smithereens! ‘Efficiencies’ and privatisation will be all the easier without the annoyance of the law and statutory instruments’, writes Heather Wakefield UNISON National Secretary for Local Government, on the Public Finance website:
http://opinion.publicfinance.co.uk/2011/04/from-red-tape-to-mouldy-sausages-by-heather-wakefield/

Raison d'être of public service trade unions

The Economist is running yet another attack on public sector trade unionism.

TUC blasts Young health and safety review‏

The TUC has expressed its ‘grave disappointment’ at the recommendations of the health and safety review led by senior Tory Lord Young.

Findings of Health and Safety review to be published today‏

Lord Young will today publish the report of his commission on health and safety. The Tory Grandee commenced the review before the General Election as a Conservative Party policy exercise but within days of the General election it received a formal mandate from the Prime Minister:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11546919
The review is widely expected to have a business bias with a serious likelihood that the burden of proof in civil law will be amended to make it harder to claim compensation for injury.
http://www.tuc.org.uk/workplace/tuc-18584-f0.cfm