PDF version available for download (PDF help)
Risks Newsletter
Number 339 - 19 January 2008
|
|
|
Editor: Rory O'Neill of Hazards magazine. Comments to the TUC at healthandsafety@tuc.org.uk
Risks is the TUC's weekly online bulletin for safety reps and others, read each week by over 15,000 subscribers and 1,500 on the TUC website. To receive this bulletin every week, click here. Past issues are available. This edition contains Useful links TUC courses for safety reps Disclaimer and Privacy statement.
UNION NEWS- TUC wants a healthy approach to gender
- Train firm attacks attacked workers
- Union calls for emergency protection for all
- Sea union calls for war zone agreements
- Hand injury caused mental injuries
- Slip up costs bus firm £14,000
- Collapsing chair cost train driver his job
- Action call on 'corporate killing injustice'
- Unlawful killing verdict quashed
- Risky company fined after explosion
- Mesothelioma families want fairness
- Miners hit by compensation failures
- Charity warning on bullying at work
- Shiftwork linked early retirement in women
- Australia: Workers need access to union help
- Europe: Patchy progress on better Euro laws
- France: Safety reps improve safety
- USA: Work cancer protection inadequate
UNION NEWS
TUC wants a healthy approach to gender
The TUC is asking safety reps to make sure their workplaces have a gender sensitive approach to health and safety management. TUC's Gender and Occupational Safety and Health (G&OSH) working party has produced a checklist to help assess workplace health and safety policies and practices. TUC says everyone has an equal right to protection from harm at work but adds that doesn't mean treating everyone as if they were all the same. 'Recent research has shown that both sex (biological differences between women and men) and gender (socially determined differences) affect workers' health and safety in many ways,' TUC says. 'These differences are too often ignored or misunderstood, leading to failures in prevention.' It adds that 'gender stereotyping - for example, 'women's work is light work' or about the jobs women do - can also lead to false assumptions about who is or is not at risk in the workplace. TUC says important opportunities for prevention can be missed as a result. The checklist identifies policy gaps, highlight ways to improve investigation, risk assessment and training, improve data collection and address overlooked areas like workplace risks to the reproductive health of women and men. It also calls on unions to examine ways to increase women's participation in workplace safety structures.
- TUC summary document and checklist [also available as a pdf]. TUC women's health and safety webpages.
- Share your experiences of good practice - use the G&OSH discussion board or email details to the TUC safety department.
TUC calls for more from HSE
Rigorous enforcement of safety laws by a properly resourced safety watchdog must be a top priority, TUC has told MPs. The call comes in a TUC written submission to parliament's Work and Pensions Select Committee hearing on the work of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and Health and Safety Commission (HSC). The TUC says safety law is 'generally robust, but is undermined by a lack of enforcement.' It adds that staff cuts, a lack of funding and reorganisation have led to the watchdog's work being 'considerably curtailed.' Enforcement must be improved and must also address health issues, it says, 'with greater, more imaginative penalties'. TUC adds 'HSE/C needs to put worker involvement and safety representatives at the heart of its work.' TUC general secretary Brendan Barber commented: 'We are confident that the select committee will look at the real issues facing the HSE which relate to a lack of resources and a need for more priority to be given to enforcement.' He added: 'The recent occupational ill-health figures are a stark reminder that the HSE must concentrate on developing a strong regulatory regime and that silly notions of overregulation and risk aversion are nonsense' (Risks 330). HSE statistics released in November 2007 showed occupational ill-health was up 10 per cent on the preceding year, with the watchdog now set to miss targets on work-related ill-health and on a reduction in day's lost as a result of work-related illnesses and injuries.
Train firm attacks attacked workers
Northern Rail is docking the pay of staff who have been attacked at work, rail union RMT has said. The union is warning industrial action is an option in the row with the rail firm, which operates in the North East, Cumbria, Lancashire and Yorkshire. It says the company only gives staff time off with full pay if they suffer 'severe physical injury.' The problem came to light after a conductor who had been physically assaulted and threatened with a bottle was told that he would receive only his basic pay rather than average wages, because the latest in a string of attacks on him had not been serious enough. 'This is shocking and completely unacceptable, and the union will do whatever is necessary to get this shameful policy change reversed,' RMT general secretary Bob Crow said. 'It is nothing short of despicable when a loyal worker who has suffered a string of assaults is told that the latest attack wasn't serious enough to warrant paying his full wages while he recovered and is then told that he may lose his job if he is assaulted again. Only last April the company reassured our reps that staff who needed time off after serious verbal abuse would receive average pay - but they are now saying that staff will receive only their basic pay if an assault does not result in severe physical injury.' The union leader concluded: 'Northern say they have merely clarified the rules, but the reality is that they are clamping down on the victims of abuse rather than those who dish it out, and I have had calls from members who are absolutely furious about the company's hypocrisy.'
Union calls for emergency protection for all
Public service union UNISON has said this week's extension of Scotland's Emergency Workers Act does not go far enough. The union says the law, which was amended this week to cover doctors, nurses and midwives working in the community, should cover all staff delivering health care and other emergency services in Scotland's communities - not just doctors and nurses. In a briefing, the union asked Scotland's Justice Committee to request further legislation to cover other staff affected, such as GP receptionists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, social work staff and home carers. UNISON's Scottish organiser Dave Watson said: 'While it is welcome that a small number of extra people are now to be covered by this legislation, it is very disappointing that the government extension has not even followed the principles in the original law and included staff assisting the workers covered.' It plans to open up 'a two-tier system' where some staff working shoulder to shoulder with protected doctors and nurses had no legal protection themselves, he said. 'The Act is called the Emergency Workers Act - not the Emergency Health Workers Act - it was intended to cover all types of public service workers in emergency situations.' The Emergency Workers Act covers emergency workers such as police, firefighters, and ambulance staff and includes nursing, and other medical staff involved in responding to an emergency in hospitals. It can also include social work staff in very narrowly limited circumstances, and now includes doctors and nurses working in community settings.
Sea union calls for war zone agreements
The territorial waters of Nigeria and Somalia should be declared war zones, merchant fleet union Nautilus UK has said. The call came after fresh attacks on shipping. Some shipping companies have decided to keep their ships out of Nigerian ports after the rebel group MEND claimed to have detonated a remote-controlled bomb onboard the product tanker Golden Lucy in Port Harcourt. Nautilus UK assistant general secretary Mark Dickinson has written to the International Maritime Employers' Committee (IMEC) and the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) calling for urgent international action in response to 'the dangerous and worsening situation for merchant seafarers' in places like Nigeria and Somalia. 'Someone needs to take the initiative and I feel that this must come from the international sphere,' the letter said. Mark Dickinson has asked ITF and IMEC to consider the dangers facing seafarers and to bring forward practical guidance on what seafarers and shipowners should be doing. 'It is the view of my union that as a minimum the territorial waters of Somalia and Nigeria should be declared as areas of warlike activity without further delay,' he added.
Hand injury caused mental injuries
A Preston man who suffered severe physical and psychological injuries after his hand was trapped in a machine at work has secured a six-figure payout from his former employer. The unnamed Unite member, aged 47, trapped his hand in an unguarded slitting machine and sustained a serious 'degloving' injury, where the skin is stripped from the hand. He has since undergone five operations and has suffered serious psychological injuries. The man, who is married with two teenage children, received a £175,000 payout. He said 'during the first operation I stopped breathing and was seen by two doctors who did various checks on my heart. The anxiety of ongoing operations and skin grafts from my groin has really taken its toll on my personal life. I became aggressive and have also suffered from nightmares; I lost my confidence and started to have panic attacks. Sadly I've lost my motivation for even simple everyday tasks.' Unite regional secretary Laurence Faircloth said: 'His employer admitted liability for an accident which has put a tremendous emotional and financial strain on his life and that of his family.' Rebecca Clare, from Thompsons Solicitors, who acted for the injured worker, said: 'He has worked all of his life up until the accident and intended to do so until the age of 65. He is now unsure whether he will ever be able to go back to full time working, and doubts that he could find alternative employment due to his injuries if he were to lose his current job.'
Slip up costs bus firm £14,000
A bus driver from St Albans has been awarded £14,000 compensation after suffering a back injury in a workplace slip. Unite member Douglas Peacock was leaving the office at Metroline's Potters Bar bus garage when he slipped on a spillage on the garage floor. He twisted his back and sustained a serious back injury. 'All of a sudden, my feet shot out from underneath me. I twisted my back in an attempt to stay upright. I was in a lot of pain immediately after the accident. In the following weeks, I underwent physiotherapy, hydrotherapy and osteopathy. I continue to suffer pain and my sleep was also affected.' Caroline Phelan from Pattinson & Brewer solicitors, who represented Mr Peacock, said: 'Douglas Peacock was in considerable pain for some time after this accident. This accident should have been avoided.' Last year, the law firm won £6,000 for another Unite member, London bus driver Stephen Jacobs, who was injured after falling on a wet floor after leaving a toilet at a bus terminus (Risks 333).
Collapsing chair cost train driver his job
A train driver who was forced to give up work after falling off a chair at a station has been awarded nearly £80,000 compensation. ASLEF member Martin Syms, 51, from Porth, Rhondda, was sitting in a plastic chair in the mess room at Cardiff Central Station when it collapsed and he fell. Mr Syms' solicitors said the severe back injuries sustained resulted in the payout from Arriva Trains Wales. At the time of the incident Mr Syms was chatting with colleagues during a break and was sitting in a plastic moulded chair in the mess room. As he moved backwards in the chair, it collapsed underneath causing him to land heavily on his back. Mr Syms said: 'I thought that by resting my back for a few days it would be OK, but the pain just got worse. I could hardly move, I couldn't drive my car and the pain made me feel sick. Although I took painkillers, they didn't seem to offer much comfort and when I returned to work it was very difficult. The pain was intense and I began feeling numbness in my right leg.' Despite physiotherapy and injections, the pain intensified. He was eventually forced to retire from his job as a train driver with Arriva Trains Wales. ASLEF district secretary Stan Moran commented: 'Health and safety issues are not just about what happens on the track or within trains. If chairs in the mess room are defective, they have the potential to injure people as has happened in this case.'
Action call on 'corporate killing injustice'
The Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) and families of workers killed at work have told the country's politicians about their 'deep disappointment' with forthcoming corporate homicide legislation and the treatment of bereaved relatives. Speaking ahead of a 17 January lobby of the Scottish parliament, STUC general secretary, Grahame Smith said: 'Our position on corporate killing legislation has not changed. Our deep disappointment that the legislation introduced on 8 April will not hold individuals culpable who, through their management failures, cause the deaths of workers or members of the public, has not diminished.' He added: 'Motorists whose driving falls below an unacceptable standard and causes death on the roads can, and quite rightly often do, face imprisonment. However, when company bosses display similar standards of unacceptable behaviour they escape justice.' He said the lobby involving families from across the UK hoped to get the Scottish parliament 'to revisit our common law of culpable homicide and ensure that it applies across our society, irrespective of whether the crime is committed in the street, on a road or in a workplace and to demand changes in the Fatal Accident Inquiry procedure that makes them more effective and expedient in providing the answers the families deserve.' The lobby was attended by members of campaign group Families Against Corporate Killers (FACK). Spokesperson Hilda Palmer said: 'FACK calls on the Scottish administration, and on all parties, to honour their commitment to protect Scottish citizens by urgently implementing a more effective law than the Westminster Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act.' Dorothy Wright, Scottish founder member of FACK, said Scotland could 'shame' the Westminster government into action 'by leading the way on protecting our citizens lives from unscrupulous killer employers and stop pandering to the business lobby as they have done with this sell out Westminster Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act.'
OTHER NEWS
Unlawful killing verdict quashed
An inquest verdict of unlawful killing on two men who died after gas leaked into the confined space where they were working has been overturned by the High Court. Richard Clarkson, 29, and Stuart Jordan, 50, who worked for Bodycote HIP Ltd at a Hereford metal refining plant, died in June 2004 after an argon leak. A judge has now ruled the coroner's summing up was inadequate and there should be a fresh inquest. A jury at the 2006 inquest came to the unlawful killing verdict because they believed there had been 'gross negligence' in the way the company enforced safety standards, a decision the company appealed (Risks 244). High Court judge Mr Justice Blake has now ruled the verdict could not stand because Herefordshire county coroner David Halpern gave insufficient directions to the jury over the definition of corporate manslaughter. However, the judge said that even legal textbooks failed to provide the necessary guidance on the subject. The men who died were found lying unconscious by a colleague and were recovered by firefighters using breathing apparatus, but died later in hospital. The original inquest heard how the heavier than air inert gas could be deadly in confined spaces because it displaced air near the ground, creating a suffocation risk. This is a well-known hazard of work in confined spaces. HSE's naming-and-shaming database identifies several recent occasions when Bodycote has been the subject of HSE prosecutions, prohibition notices or improvement notices for safety breaches.
Risky company fined after explosion
Firms been warned to carry out proper risk assessments after a Suffolk company was heavily fined. Storeys Industrial Products, formerly known as Wardle Storeys, was fined £350,000 and ordered to pay £60,000 costs at Chelmsford Crown Court this week for safety offences. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecution followed an explosion on 29 November 2005 at the firm's Brantham Works, Brantham. The blast left 55-year-old employee John Balls with serious burns. Inappropriate handling and use of dried nitrocellulose prior to mixing caused the explosion and subsequent fire at the factory. HSE inspector John Hawkins commented: 'This was a breach of obligation to its staff, indicative of failure by the company to appreciate the risks from such work, which inevitably lead to an explosion and injury to an employee. Although the company is now in administration, the HSE believe that it was important to proceed with the prosecution in the public interest, due to the serious nature of the incident.' The inspector added: 'John Balls' injuries could and should have been avoided by straightforward safety precautions. The company should have re-assessed the risk following changes to their manufacturing procedures. This case illustrates how things can go badly wrong when risks are not properly controlled and HSE will not hesitate to take action against those who fall short of the law in such a way.' The company has received four HSE enforcement notices in the last five years.
Mesothelioma families want fairness
A group of mesothelioma sufferers and their families have released a short film with a hard-hitting message calling on the UK government to amend the law on asbestos compensation. The North East Mesothelioma Self Help Group wants the bereavement compensation paid to families of mesothelioma victims in England and Wales to be on a par with payments made in Scotland. Anne Craig, who lost her husband David to the asbestos cancer mesothelioma when he was just 54, comments in the film: 'How or why can my grief and the grief, pain and loss of widows and families in England and Wales be any less than that of widows and families in Scotland?' David Drew from Blyth, who is suffering from mesothelioma due to exposure to asbestos as an apprentice, adds: 'I feel passionately that we should all be the same regardless of what side of the border we live on. My wife should be compensated the same as a widow in Scotland following my death.' Members of the Mesothelioma Self Help Group, set up by Wallsend asbestos widow Chris Knighton, hope their film will encourage MPs - who are being sent the film on DVD - to put pressure on the government. Chris said: 'Our members feel very strongly about this injustice.' Ian McFall of Thompsons Solicitors, who are backing the campaign, said: '£10,000 is a derisory sum for the grief caused by the death of a close family member. Whole families suffer terribly when they lose a loved one to mesothelioma. They carry the emotional burden with them the rest of their lives.' Families in Scotland have received up to £30,000 in mesothelioma bereavement payments, where payments are not restricted just to the bereaved spouse.
- Northern Echo. Thompsons Solicitors news release, including link to the short film.
Miners hit by compensation failures
Sick miners and their families have lost out on compensation because of administrative failures, according to an official report. Legal Services Complaints Commissioner Zahida Manzoor said different awards were being made depending on a 'bewildering array' of circumstances, such as support from a local MP and conduct of solicitors involved in taking claims. The commissioner's second investigation into the British Coal compensation schemes for respiratory diseases and vibration white finger found that the Legal Complaints Service (LCS) had given 'poor service' to some miners and their families. Ms Mansoor said: 'The LCS side-stepped a recommendation from my first investigation in 2006 to revisit complaints that had not been investigated fully by insisting improvements had already been made. These new findings show that some of the same issues are still to be addressed.' The four key findings of the report focus on the two processes LCS caseworkers can use to resolve complaints - conciliation and adjudication. The report found that although the majority of miners were more likely to receive greater compensation through adjudication, some LCS caseworkers were recommending conciliation and this resulted in inappropriately low payouts. Ms Mansoor said: 'I highlight the case of six individual miners who, in 2007, have shown real persistence in their complaints. Despite being encouraged to conciliate by the LCS they refused, and insisted that their complaints should be investigated and adjudicated. Through their persistence, each of these miners has, on average, correctly received an additional £1,700 compensation from their solicitors.'
- OLSCC news release [pdf] and special report [pdf]. The Lawyer. The Express. Derbyshire Evening Telegraph.
Charity warning on bullying at work
Bullying in the workplace is 'endemic' in the UK, affecting 80 per cent of employees, the Samaritans has warned. The charity said a third of those it surveyed were so unhappy they had considered leaving their job. Its research identified young employees as the group most vulnerable to stress, and the least able to discuss concerns with managers or colleagues. The findings are published as part of the charity's campaign to highlight the importance of mental health at work. 'Job-related stress has a serious and unrecognised impact on the health of the nation and the economy, affecting concentration and efficiency,' said Samaritans spokesperson Joe Ferns. Half of those questioned admitted they were worried about the impact stress was having on their health - and the same proportion said they had seen a colleague reduced to tears at work. A third felt employers ignored the problem, while just under half felt their bosses were prepared to put them under pressure to get as much work out of them as possible, regardless of the consequences. The charity has designated 1 February as 'Stress Down Day', a celebrity backed initiative forming part of its efforts to encourage a greater awareness of the importance of good mental health at work. TUC has backed the findings. 'Workplace bullying can take many forms but it always causes stress and anxiety for victims,' said TUC general secretary Brendan Barber. 'If bullies are allowed to dominate a workplace, staff morale and productivity will suffer, so employers have a clear incentive to stop bullying.'
Shiftwork linked early retirement in women
Shiftwork may increase the risk of enforced early retirement among women, suggests new research. Researchers used information from just under 8,000 male and female employees, who were part of the Danish Work Environment Cohort Study, which began in 1990, and data from the national welfare register. Successive waves of participants in the cohort study were formally interviewed about their workplace, work patterns, health, and lifestyle. Participants were monitored until the age of 60, death, emigration, or the end of the study in June 2006, whichever came first. Of the 3,980 women included in the study, 253 had been forced to retire early on account of ill-health and had been granted a disability pension by June 2006. Of the 4,025 men, 173 had been granted a disability pension by this time. After adjusting for factors likely to influence the results, such as lifestyle, including smoking, the workplace environment, and socioeconomic status, women were more likely than men to require a disability pension. And they were 34 per cent more likely to do if they had been shiftworkers, whereas male shift workers were no more likely to have to retire early than other employees. This study did not look at the reasons for enforced early retirement. Shiftwork has been associated with an increased risk of heart disease, breast cancer, peptic ulcer, sleep disturbance, complications of pregnancy and accidents. But it is not clear why women should be more vulnerable, say the authors.
- Finn Tüchsen, Karl Bang Christensen, Thomas Lund, and Helene Feveile, A 15 year prospective study of shift work and disability pension, Occupational and Environmental Medicine. Published Online First: 15 January 2008. doi:10.1136/oem.2007.036525 [Abstract]
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Australia: Workers need access to union help
Australian unions have called for the elimination of 'artificial restrictions' on the right of union occupational health and safety experts and officials to represent workers at threat from workplace risks. Ben Swan, assistant national secretary of mining union AWU, said Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs) - a system individual contracts introduced by the previous government in a bid to curtail union power - were being used to deny unions access to dangerous workplaces. 'We are particularly angry that AWAs are being used as an artificial way to restrict the genuine concerns of miners to have an effective occupational health and safety voice in their workplace,' he said. The AWU leader was commenting after the workplace death of a newly married 26-year-old man, killed earlier this month at a Pilbara mine site in Western Australia. Union officials from recognised unions have a legal right of access to workplaces to represent their members on safety issues, including investigating complaints. Joe McDonald, the assistant state secretary with the construction and mining union CFMEU, said his union had been concerned about safety at the Pilbara site after workers raised 82 safety issues about two months ago. But AWAs signed by the workers prevented the union from entering the site to inspect it, Mr McDonald said. 'We couldn't get near the place,' he said. Since the fatality on 11 January, Mr McDonald said he had taken a number of calls from workers concerned about safety. 'There's been some horror stories coming out,' he said.
Europe: Patchy progress on better Euro laws
Leading Socialist Euro MPs have celebrated European Parliament approval this week of a report calling for new measures to protect the health and safety of Europe's workers. They expressed shock, however, after Conservatives and Liberals blocked inclusion of clauses calling for action on crystalline silica, a cancer-causing substance to which over 3 million workers in the European Union (EU) are routinely exposed, and on nanotechnology risks. British Labour MEP Glenis Willmott, who drafted the report considered by MEPs (Risks 338), told the European Parliament in Strasbourg that 'every three-and-a-half minutes somebody in the European Union dies from a work-related cause.' The parliament agreed a proposed target to reduce accidents at work by 25 per cent over the next five years but also emphasised that the far greater problem of occupational illnesses should not be ignored and urged for similar ambitious targets to be adopted. MEPs also supported Mrs Willmott's call for EU action against musculoskeletal disorders to deal with back pain and repetitive strain injuries. And the parliament agreed that in terms of health and safety at work, special attention should be paid to disabled workers and vulnerable groups, including temporary workers. The report also calls on governments to ensure that people who have experienced a physical or mental illness during their working lives retain their jobs, for example through training or reallocation of tasks. Although a call for a revision of EU law on carcinogens was approved, Euro MPs voted by 361 to 304 not to include crystalline silica, despite recognition that it is a top rated 'group 1' human carcinogen. A majority of Euro MPs, led by Conservatives and the Liberals, also rejected a call for nanotechnologies to be monitored and potential health risks assessed. 'This is a missed opportunity,' said Mrs Willmott. 'Everyone has the right to working conditions that respect his or her health and safety. It is a basic right that was included in the Charter of Fundamental Rights signed by this assembly just a month ago.'
- PES news release. European Parliament news release. European Parliament resolution of 15 January 2008 on the Community strategy 2007-2012 on health and safety at work (2007/2146(INI)).
France: Safety reps improve safety
Health and safety representatives clearly help to improve the quality of prevention policies in workplaces where they are present, according to an official French government report. Thomas Coutrot from the Dares, the research institute of the French labour ministry, reviewed recent studies and concluded safety reps clearly help build workers' awareness and improve the identification of workplace risks. He found they also substantially improve prevention of chemical and biological risks, but appear less effective with regard to physical and organisational risks. According to a summary from the European trade union safety thinktank REHS: 'Safety reps presumably have fewer difficulties in demanding the implementation of protection against specifically located risks than calling into question management and work organisation approaches.' The Dares paper concludes a combination of safety rep knowledge and the power to require changes are key to improvements delivered when safety reps and health and safety committees are present. The report notes 'self-perceived economic interest often leads employers to outsource the costs of work-related health damage to the general social protection system and employees themselves, rather than pay for what may be costly prevention programmes. Employees and their representatives can therefore significantly influence the prevention policies implemented, either through conflict, co-operation, or more likely, a combination of the two.'
- REHS news brief. Dares report [pdf].
USA: Work cancer protection inadequate
A damning official US report released last month could lead to new restrictions on the use of numerous chemicals in the workplace. The report, produced by the California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA), calls for tighter controls on chemicals including workplace carcinogens. The report found 109 chemicals recognised in California as cancer-causing are not regulated as occupational carcinogens, with 44 of these not even having a permissible exposure limit for the workplace. Political concerns meant the report of the Occupational Health Hazard Assessment Project has been gathering dust for over two years, critics say, and they are now demanding swift action. Fran Schreiberg, an attorney at Worksafe, a San Francisco based workplace safety advocacy organisation, said she had concerns about the risks posed by many commonly used chemicals, including the solvent tetrachloroethylene, which the report suggests could be responsible for hundreds of cancer deaths. 'This stuff is used in huge amounts,' Schreiberg said. 'Lots of people are exposed.' Suzanne Murphy, executive director at Worksafe, said she hopes the report will be used to develop new laws to protect workers. 'We have no surveillance systems in place to track these workplace cancers,' she said. 'So when these cancers show up 20 to 30 years later, they are not linked to the workplace and end up being paid for by society in general. With skyrocketing health care costs and limited resources, it would make sense to prevent these cancers in the first place by more effectively protecting workers from long-term exposure to the carcinogens and other toxic chemicals identified in this report.' Last year, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger began touting his Green Chemistry Initiative. Based on the European Union's REACH programme, its long-term goal is to create a database on known harmful chemicals, acceptable exposure levels and known alternatives.
- Capitol Weekly. Occupational Health Hazard Risk Assessment Project for California. Complete OEHHA technical report [pdf]. Executive summary [pdf]. HESIS website. Worksafe website.
EVENTS AND COURSES
Quality of working life conference, London, 6 February 2008
An Institute of Employment Rights (IER) conference, 'The quality of working life: promoting a healthy agenda', will examine whether the development of a Quality of Working Life Bill could clarify and streamline the duty of care still expected of employers. IER wants to examine the key health and safety issues, but adds a quality of working life focus could include work-life balance, flexibility, hours and holidays, benefits, the insurance industry, rehabilitation, discrimination, job security, intensification of work, supply chains and more. 'With all these issues to discuss it's crucial that trade unionists share information and discuss the way forward for health and safety,' it says. IER's 6 February event will include contributions from academics, trade unionists and legal practitioners and will 'provide a critical examination of key areas of current policy development. The aim of the conference will be to identify what more needs to be done to protect the health, safety and well-being of workers as they go about the task of earning a living.'
- Quality of working life conference, London, 6 February 2008, 9.30am to 4.30pm at the UCU Conference Centre, Britannia Street, London WC1. Cost: IER subscribers and members £75; trade unions £90; commercial £220. The cost of the conference does not include lunch. Further details, including online registration form.
TUC courses for safety reps
COURSES FOR JANUARY TO MARCH 2008
USEFUL LINKS
- Visit the TUC http://www.tuc.org.uk/h_and_s/ website pages on health and safety. See what's on offer from TUC Publications and What's On in health and safety.
- Subscribe to Hazards magazine, supported by the TUC as a key source of information for union safety reps.
- What's new in the HSC/E and the European Agency.
- HSE Books, PO Box 1999, Sudbury, Suffolk CO10 2WA. Tel: 01787 881165; fax: 01787 313995
Newsletter (5,500 words) issued 18 Jan 2008
