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Number 362 - 28 June 2008
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Risks is the TUC's weekly online bulletin for safety reps and others, read each week by over 16,000 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
Editor: Rory O'Neill of Hazards magazine. Comments to the TUC at healthandsafety@tuc.org.uk
TUC Safety Reps Survey
One last chance to have your say!
All you safety reps out there have until Tuesday next week to tell TUC what bugs you about health and safety at work. The deadline for responses to TUC's 2008 safety reps' survey is 1 July. 'We need this information so that the TUC and unions can do more to help safety reps, and so that safety reps' views and experiences are better reflected in public policy debates and the work of the Health and Safety Executive,' said TUC head of safety Hugh Robertson. He added that not only will the survey findings inform union campaigns for improved health and safety, they will also provide the ammunition TUC needs to push for improved safety reps' rights. The survey can be completed online and is quick and easy. Just answer as many questions as you can - but where they seem irrelevant to your experiences, ignore them. And make sure you tell TUC about any successes you have had in improving health and safety standards.
- TUC survey briefing. Complete the survey now!
- Got Risks? Due to gremlins in the TUC's computer widgetry, many of you will have received last week's Risks a couple of days late. Apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused.
Union News
Seasoned safety reps get online training
Safety reps who already have basic training under their belt, now have the option to take the next stage of their union safety education online. From October, TUC's 'Next steps for safety reps' course will be available web- as well as college-based. According to TUC: 'This course is designed for health and safety reps that have already completed the TUC health and safety stage 1 course, or its equivalent.' It says the 'Next steps for safety reps' course builds on the introductory course 'by further developing confidence, experience, knowledge and skills. The course helps reps identify, prevent and control risks, helping to build a safer and healthier workplace. It encourages reps to involve members in safety issues by developing a collective approach to health and safety. It helps reps keep up to date on health and safety law and information enabling them to use it more effectively.' TUC adds: 'The course help reps build health and safety organisation and effect real change in the workplace.' The course takes 60 hours to complete over six months. TUC says union representatives who wish to attend TUC courses in working time should first ask their employer for time off with pay. The Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 and the Safety Representatives and Safety Committee Regulations 1977 give accredited union and safety representatives a legal right to reasonable time off with pay to attend courses approved by the TUC or their union - and this includes time to complete online as well as college-based courses.
- Further information. Online course application form. TUC's full range of safety rep courses, explained in the latest issue of Hazards magazine.
Fire crews lack basic flood safety gear
Fire crews are working without basic flood safety equipment like lifejackets, waterproofs and boots, one year on from the deluge of summer 2007, firefighters' union FBU has warned. A report from the union says firefighters without 'vital' safety kit rescued 7,000 people in last year's floods, but adds they 'still lack even basic safety equipment such as waterproof clothing, boots and life jackets.' FBU says its report, 'Lessons of the 2007 floods - the perspective of fire crews', charts how ministers performed a u-turn only three months before last summer's downpours when they decided not to include response to major flooding in the Fire and Rescue Services (Emergencies) Order for England. The lack of a legal duty means fire and rescue authorities in England are prevented from applying for new funding for the extra equipment, training and personnel needed to deal with floods. As well as making flood response a formal part of job undertaken by fire services, the report calls on the government to issue safety critical national guidance for fire crews working in major floods. It says this should cover equipment, protective clothing, inoculations, and accredited training to ensure crews can carry out flood rescues without needlessly endangering themselves. Matt Wrack, FBU general secretary, said: 'The only thing standing in the way of a properly funded, equipped and trained professional response in the future is government. There is no excuse for the lack of safety critical guidance about equipment and training which is still putting the lives of fire crews at risk.' He added: 'If firefighters are to be sent to such incidents they have an unarguable right to do so with a reasonable degree of safety.'
Family receives asbestos payout
The family of a former UNISON member has received more than £140,000 in compensation following his death from the asbestos cancer mesothelioma. Jim Crowe died aged 79 in June 2007 after developing the incurable disease. He was exposed to asbestos while working for Greater London Council (GLC) and Haringey Council. He worked as a general foreman for GLC between 1968 and 1971, responsible for supervising 120 men who worked with asbestos materials. He was employed as a clerk of works and senior clerk of works for Haringey Council between 1972 and 1988 where he was responsible for supervising employees stripping out boilers lagged with asbestos. However, he was never given any protection from asbestos by his employers despite regularly questioning them about health and safety at work. UNISON regional secretary for Greater London, Linda Perks, said: 'Mr Crowe was exposed to asbestos when doing a hard day's work. The employers put his health and safety in jeopardy by exposing him to asbestos at a time when they knew or ought to have known about the dangers.' His daughter Anita Crowe, 42, said it was important for her dad to claim compensation. The family decided to pursue compensation after one of Jim's former colleagues received assistance from UNISON to make personal injury claims. She said: 'Throughout his career he fought for better working conditions. He questioned why the employers were allowing workers to strip out asbestos from schools but were not given any protection from the dust. He felt it was only right that his former employers should be made to accept responsibility for his illness. He also wanted to ensure my mum was provided for financially following his death.'
Stations are more safe with more staff
The removal of staff from railway stations by 'profit-hungry' privatised rail firms is undermining safety for passengers and rail workers and must be reversed, rail union RMT has said. Launching a 'Safer journey' campaign at its annual general meeting this week in Nottingham, RMT said just 10p in every £1 from the £300 million made each year by private train operators would fund the return of 1,000 staff to Britain's unstaffed or understaffed stations. The union is calling for a ban on any further de-staffing while a comprehensive review of station staffing levels is undertaken. Delegates also demanded that transport employers take seriously their duty of care towards staff - including ending lone working, ensuring that station staff are directly employed and properly trained and offering proper support to those who are assaulted at work. 'It is astonishing, but the ministers responsible for setting rail franchises and handing over £2 billion in subsidy have no idea how many stations have been left unstaffed or understaffed since the industry was privatised,' RMT general secretary Bob Crow said. 'As things stand the government is handing over public money to private franchisees and telling them that it is OK to put their profits before our members' and the public's safety. The people who work and travel on the railways want to see more staff on stations, not fewer, and a ban on any further de-staffing is now urgent as a first step towards ensuring that all stations are adequately staffed.'
Stagecoach 'puts profits ahead of safety'
Private transport giant Stagecoach is putting its profits ahead of service and safety, rail union RMT has charged. It said as the rail, bus and tram firm posted a leap in profits to £59.1 million - a 7.6 per cent return - it is also aiming to slash ticket office opening times and up to 140 jobs on South West Trains. 'Passenger numbers on South West Trains are up by nearly six per cent but they want to slash ticket office opening times on well over 100 stations,' general secretary Bob Crow said at the union's annual conference in Nottingham. 'That puts up to 140 jobs under threat and undermines service and safety for staff and passengers alike and it is unacceptable. People want to see more staff on stations, not fewer, and it is time for the government to stop rail privateers milking ever-bigger profits out of what should be a public service and not a cash cow.' RMT says its analysis of official figures shows that the 114 SWT stations threatened with cuts and closures have between them had more than 18 million more 'entries and exits' by passengers in the last year - up from just over 68 million to well over 86 million. The union said CCTV 'is no substitute for the presence of trained uniformed staff.'
Other news
Scaffold boss jailed for ignored HSE notice
A Rotherham scaffold boss has been jailed for three months after a worker was seriously injured just months after the firm received a formal Health and Safety Executive (HSE) stop-the-job notice for the same safety failings. Philip Wolstenholme, the boss of A1 Access Scaffolding, was charged after one of his workers fell six metres on 12 January 2007. The employee and a colleague, neither of whom had been trained, were dismantling a scaffold when a badly supported scaffold board gave way. The worker who fell suffered significant injuries to his foot and spine. Wolstenholme pleaded guilty to a safety breach and to contravening the requirements of a prohibition notice. The stop work notice issued in March 2006 specifically prohibited him from allowing staff who had not been given proper training to erect or dismantle scaffolding. Due to the serious nature of the offences, magistrates referred the case to the Crown Court for sentencing. On 23 June, Sheffield Crown Court handed down a sentence of three months' imprisonment. HSE inspector Robert Cooper commented: 'Philip Wolstenholme wilfully disregarded advice given to him by HSE and the requirements of a prohibition notice served on him. In doing so he put the safety of his workers at great risk.' He added: 'In the time between the notice being served in March 2006 and the incident in January 2007, he had ample opportunity to train his employees. As a consequence they were not aware of the vital safe working practices that are necessary when doing scaffolding work. It is regrettable that an employee has suffered because the business owner ignored HSE's advice and enforcement and wasn't prepared to invest in proper training.' A Families Against Corporate Killers (FACK) spokesperson welcomed the sentence, but said HSE's decision to issue just a local but no national news release on the case 'casts doubt on its commitment to name and shame the most egregious safety offenders.' The case, a rare example of an employer being jailed for a safety offence, attracted little press coverage.
Construction giant fined over driver's death
A construction company has been fined £120,000 after a worker fell to his death at one of its yards. Lorry driver Nigel Sargeant, 45, plunged 15ft (4.6m) to the ground at Calders and Grandidge Limited in Boston as he was trying to reduce the height of his trailer-load of steel poles. He suffered head injuries and died the day after the incident in August 2005, Lincoln Crown Court heard. Parent company Saint-Gobain Building Distribution Ltd was found guilty of two health and safety charges by a jury in May and was sentenced on 23 June. In addition to the fine, the company was also ordered to pay £51,000 in costs. The firm, part of the multinational Saint-Gobain, a former asbestos giant which is now a global leader in the construction products sector, was found guilty of having failed to undertake a suitable risk assessment on loading steel poles and working at height. It was also convicted of failing to have effective planning and protective measures for the introduction of new products. Jurors were unable to reach a verdict on a charge that the firm failed to ensure a safe system of work in relation to the loading of steel poles. The poles were traditionally made of timber, but in early 2005 the firm switched to steel - which Mr Sargeant had never before delivered in a full load. The equipment provided was only suitable for the timber poles. Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspector Jo Anderson said 'the workers had been left to their own devices to work out a method to load the poles.' She added: 'Mr Sargeant became concerned about the clearance beneath bridges of a load. He cut the bands around one of the pole packs and the load shifted causing him to fall. The height of the load exceeded the height of the pins fitted to the trailer to hold the load in place... Had the correct measures been in place Mr Sargeant may not have died.'
Fruit packer fined over work injury
A Sittingbourne company has been fined £3,000 after its failure to train workers and assess work risks led to a worker sustaining serious injuries. Fruit packing company Cross and Wells Ltd was also ordered to pay full costs of £3,422 at Sittingbourne Magistrates' Court after pleading guilty to safety offences. On 17 October 2006, Magdalena Osuchowska fell from a work platform, that in turn fell from the forks of a forklift truck, as it was being manoeuvred. The lift truck was driven by an unauthorised driver. Other employees had been put at risk as staff had not been formally instructed to on how to use the equipment safely; the platform had not been adequately risk assessed, and the working platform Ms Osuchowska was standing on was not suitable for daily use. She sustained several injuries including broken ribs. HSE inspector David Fussell commented: 'Falls from height remains the biggest cause of fatal injuries in Great Britain; 45 workers were killed and 3,409 suffered major injuries as a result of falls from height whilst at work in 2006/2007 alone.' He added: 'The HSE will not tolerate employers exposing their employees to unacceptable risks at work. The HSE has always been available to give advice in relation to health and safety at work. There is simply no excuse for employers to plead ignorance of good health and safety practice.'
Dangerous plan to ditch insurance records
Workers who develop 'long-tail' diseases could miss out on compensation as a result of government plans to axe the requirement on firms to hold onto their insurance records for 40 years. The draft regulations also seek to remove the requirement on businesses to display a current employers' liability insurance certificate. The move is the latest in a series of measures by the government designed to reduce administrative burdens on business. Critics argue that many occupational diseases, for example occupational cancers, may only develop decades after a worker was exposed to risks. The current requirement on firms to retain their Employers' Liability Compulsory Insurance details for 40 years was designed to ensure the insurer responsible for a payout for one of these 'long-tail' diseases - the insurer covering the firm at the time the negligent exposures occurred - could be identified. But the government has said the current legal requirement, which is unenforced and which does not carry a penalty for a breach anyway, is not working so should be axed. Two early day motions submitted last week by Labour MPs oppose the draft regulations. And a TUC briefing for unions notes: 'When the DWP consulted on the proposals there was opposition from lawyers, insurers, trade unions and victim support groups.' Responding last week in the Commons to criticism of the proposals, Commons leader Harriet Harman said: 'We want to make sure there is as high as possible levels of health and safety at work but with the most effective regulation.' The government's claims that the measure would lead to millions in savings for business have been widely disputed, with TUC's briefing noting: 'In fact the very small administrative 'burden' which is imposed on employers is greatly offset by the benefit to those who may be injured or made ill as a result of employer negligence. Regulations such as this undermine genuine attempts to remove unnecessary burdens, simplify regulation and ensure that regulation is more effective.'
- DWP employers' liability insurance proposals [pdf]. Employers' liability insurance, EDM 1839, David Taylor MP. Retention of workplace insurance policies, EDM 1829, Andrew Dismore MP.
- Has your MP signed the EDMs? If not, ask them why not: you can find out how to contact your MP here - all you need is your postcode.
Scotland acts on asbestos payouts
A bill to help those affected by past exposure to asbestos has been published by the Scottish government. The legislation would overturn a House of Lords ruling which said damages could not be claimed for benign scarring of the lungs. These pleural plaques are an indicator that a victim may later develop a more serious illness like cancer. Campaigners have welcomed the bill. Harry McCluskey, secretary of Clydeside Action on Asbestos, commented: 'This bill will protect the rights of those with pleural plaques to be able to continue to pursue an action for civil compensation. This will certainly reduce the distress for those who know that their condition is permanent, and can develop into the more sinister asbestos-related disease mesothelioma.' Joe O'Neill, treasurer of Clydebank Asbestos Group, added: Clydebank Asbestos Group welcome the actions of the Scottish government in their decision to introduce the bill prior to summer recess.' Harry Frew, Scotland regional secretary of the construction union UCATT said: 'Workers diagnosed with pleural plaques suffer the mental anguish of knowing that they have been given a potential death sentence. We can only hope that the UK government implements similar legislation to rewrite the disgraceful decision of the Law Lords.' The Scottish legislation is being opposed by the business lobby and the insurance industry. Nick Starling of the Association of British Insurers (ABI) said: 'Instead of legislation the government should be leading an education campaign to reassure those with plaques.' Iain Ferguson of the Confederation of British Industry in Scotland said it was'fundamentally opposed' to the bill.
- Scottish government news release and Damages (Asbestos-related Conditions) (Scotland) Bill. UCATT news release. ABI news release. The Herald. BBC News Online.
Asbestos lorry smash shuts road
A major road in Essex was closed for seven hours while the emergency services removed two heavy goods lorries involved in a crash, one laden with 14 tonnes of asbestos. The Southend-bound carriageway of the A127 near Laindon was closed from 6.30am until 1.30pm on 23 June. One of the lorries' cabs was badly crushed, when it hit the back end of another lorry and knocked the giant metal container holding the asbestos off its trailer. Sub officer Marc Diggory, from Basildon Fire Station, said: 'The road had to be closed for a long time, because it was always going to take hours to lift two huge heavy goods vehicles and their cargo off the road.' Although asbestos has been banned in the UK since 1999, millions of tonnes are still present in workplaces and other buildings, creating a deadly health and safety headache in renovation and disposal work. The asbestos toll is still rising. Figures for 2005, the latest available, showed that that year the number of deaths from just one asbestos cancer, mesothelioma, topped 2,000 for the first time. Campaigners say other asbestos related cancers are likely to push the annual asbestos toll to in excess of 5,000 deaths a year.
PM urged to act on breast cancers
The prime minister is being asked to take action to prevent breast cancers caused by occupational and environmental exposures. Breast cancer campaigner Helen Lynn has launched an e-petition on the 10 Downing Street website. She commented: 'It is vital that we get recognition and acknowledgement of the environmental and occupational risk factors for breast cancer if we are ever to make progress on stopping this disease before it starts.' She told Risks: 'This acknowledgement from the cancer establishment, including the cancer charities, government and the medical establishment, is vital to push us to the forefront of eradicating this largely preventable disease.' She said early detection and treatment and the exhortation to women to improve their 'lifestyle' have failed to reduce the burden. 'We need an inclusive strategy on breast cancer which encompasses environmental and occupational exposures,' she said: 'And at its heart must be primary prevention with a view to decreasing or, where possible, eliminating exposure to chemicals and substances already found to be linked to this disease.' The e-petition says a woman's lifetime risk of breast cancer in the UK is 1 in 9. It adds: 'The UK could lead the way in Europe by recognising environmental and occupational risk factors, taking inspiration from progressive initiatives by the US and New Zealand governments and the Canadian Cancer Society.' The prime minister's office is obliged to respond to e-petitions attracting more than 200 signatories.
- Sign the prevent breast cancer petition - it takes less than a minute. For more information on environmental and occupational risk factors, see the No more breast cancer campaign and the Hazards websites.
Workers make a stink over loo breaks
A meat company supplying Tesco has been accused of 'Dickensian employment practices' by making workers clock off when they go the toilet. The union Unite is now calling on Tesco to intervene to stamp out the practise at Dumfriesshire-based Brown Brothers. The firm's toilet break policy was highlighted in 2003 by the trade union health and safety magazine Hazards, which reported the staff motto of 'Have a break - have a quick c**p.' In the latest reports, an unnamed worker told the BBC: 'We have to clock out, take off our wellies, overalls and hairnets, we have to run up stairs, have to come back in get dressed again.' Brown Brothers' managing director Martin Godfrey agreed that staff were not paid for toilet breaks, but said unscheduled toilet breaks could cause significant disruption, especially as staff wore protective clothes. 'Is it not better to come up with a deal to discourage that from happening?', he said. A spokesperson for Unite said Tesco should take responsibility for the working practise. 'They pick their suppliers, and sign up to ethical codes, we think they should intervene and stop it,' the spokesperson said. A Tesco spokesperson said they took issues of labour standards very seriously and require suppliers to meet those standards. He told the BBC the supermarket does not plan to intervene, but 'the position might change.' TUC has called for a change in the rest breaks law to give workers an explicit right to loo breaks with pay when they need them, in all but exceptional circumstances.
MP calls for end to young worker deaths
An MP is calling for a course on basic health and safety awareness to be built into the National Curriculum. Labour MP Michael Clapham, the chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Occupational Safety and Health, raised his concerns at a House of Commons seminar this week to highlight the perils facing young workers. His related early day motion calls for safety courses in school, safety vetting of work placements and adequate supervision of young workers. The MP commented: 'In the last decade, 64 young lives have been lost in needless workplace accidents. Over 15,000 other young people have suffered serious injury. These figures are a shocking indictment of some employer's attitudes to their workers - an attitude that isn't acceptable in the 21st century.' He backed the Workplace Hazards Awareness (WHAC) course developed by safety professionals' body IOSH. 'I want to see what we can do to help prevent further loss of young lives when they enter the workplace in the future. In the Workplace Hazard Awareness Course (WHAC), we have a tool which is capable of helping us achieve this and I want to see how we can help get this invaluable course made compulsory for all students on the National Curriculum before they leave school and go to work for the first time.' Ray Hurst, the president of IOSH, said: 'WHAC is about encouraging young people to ask the right questions about health and safety in workplaces, enabling them to protect themselves and others. It will also help them to be better employees.'
International News
Bangladesh: Zara forces Dhaka factory closure
Fashion firm Zara has forced the closure of a supplier's factory in Bangladesh after workers reported harsh treatment, including physical and verbal abuse. The supplier has agreed to close the factory, redeploy its workers, and recognise trade unions at its other factories. An inspection of the premises in Dhaka, prompted by revelations to the BBC, found 'really poor conditions.' The factory did not make clothes for Zara, its Spanish multinational owner Inditex said, but was part of a firm that supplied the chain. Inditex told the supplier it must close the factory and redeploy its workers. Inditex's head of corporate social responsibility, Javier Chercoles, told the BBC World Service 'Global Business' programme that Zara had not knowingly bought clothes from that particular plant in the past five years. As a result of the allegations, he visited the factory in Dhaka and witnessed 'very poor' conditions. He also discovered the workplace was a sister factory to one producing clothes for Zara, a factory which he said has been monitored and where conditions are much better. He told the owner of the company that if Inditex was to remain a customer he had to 'clean up the situation', close the factory and move the staff to another plant. The supplier's owner agreed to close the unsatisfactory factory and redeploy its staff within the group by 25 September. He also signed an agreement that the workers would be protected, the process would be overseen by independent monitors and trade unions would be recognised and introduced at the other plants in the group.
Philippines: Union says deadly shipyard must close
A Philippines shipyard with a horrendous safety record should close, a union has said. Instead of bringing economic development to the Central Luzon area, the shipbuilding facility in Subic Bay operated by Hanjin Heavy Industries Cooperation Philippines (HHIC) has become a 'graveyard' for workers, construction union NUBCW said. It added that 12 workers had been killed at Subic since Hanjin began its operation since 2006. NUBCW president Ernesto Arellano said the union had called in March this year for an independent body to investigate safety violations at Subic. 'Unfortunately none of our demands were met and tragically another three workers have died in the past two weeks,' he said. 'This is unacceptable.' According to Arellano: 'The NUBCW has been monitoring the situation at the Hanjin ship building facility in Subic for the past year when it came to our attention that workers were being killed due to negligence and failure of the Hanjin management to implement safety measures in line with international standards. We have met workers who are clearly concerned about going to work, fearing that they will not return. The HHIC must ensure that workers' safety comes first. The economic development Hanjin promised should not come at the price of workers lives.'
Turkey: Union protests win safety concessions
More than 5,000 supporters joined 300 striking shipyard workers in a 16 June protest in Turkey's Tuzla shipyards. The high profile action, which was in response to horrific rates of work-related deaths and injuries, led within days to safety commitments from the Turkish prime minister. The action was organised by Limter ??, the union representing shipbuilding workers in the yards, and had wide support from members of parliament, trade unions, artists, academics and international observers. Cem Dinç, head of Limter ??, told protesters 'we have been fighting against irregularity, injustice and exploitation for 16 years. Employers say that workers are illiterate and unconscious. We must ask them: If we are illiterate and unconscious, how are we making these ships? Actually employers of shipyards are illiterate and unconscious. Actually employers of shipyards must be educated.' The sub-contracting system and non-compliance with safety regulations are seen as the major causes of the deaths in Tuzla, which has seen 99 workers killed since 1992. High level meetings after the action led to a commitment from prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdo?an that there would be an urgent action plan to improve safety in Tuzla's shipyards. Worker training would be improved and the number of workplace safety inspectors would be increased, he said. Despite prompting the measures, unions were excluded from the meetings, however.
USA: Watchdog complicit as firms bury victims
The US system for measuring workplace safety is flawed and misses up to half of all workplace injuries, according to a report presented last week at a hearing on OSHA, the federal agency charged with protecting workers' safety and health. 'Without accurate injury and illness statistics, employers and workers are unable to identify and address safety and health hazards, and policy makers are unable to assess the state of workplace safety in this country,' said George Miller, chair of the House Education and Labor Committee. He added: 'We simply must not allow a lack of information to permit hazardous working conditions to go unaddressed, putting workers' limbs and lives at risk.' The committee report said both employers and OSHA have incentives to report and use faulty data. The fewer injuries and illnesses an employer reports, the less likely the employer will be inspected by OSHA and the more likely it will pay lower premiums for workers' compensation. Bob Whitmore, former chief of the OSHA recordkeeping division, is highly critical of the safety watchdog. 'I contend that the current OSHA injury and illness information is inaccurate, due in part to the wide scale underreporting by employers and OSHA's willingness to accept these falsified numbers,' he said. 'There are many reasons why OSHA would accept these numbers, but one important institutional factor has dramatically affected the agency: steady annual declines in the number of workplace injuries and illnesses make it appear that OSHA is fulfilling its mission.' OSHA has dramatically reduced its enforcement programme, instead promoting a series of voluntary approaches, including industry 'alliances' and 'voluntary protection programmes'.
Resources
Health, safety and migrant workers
TUC has issued new online guidance for migrant workers. And a new webpage from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) provides advice for their employers. A TUC safety leaflet, published with HSE and translated into 19 different languages, is an attempt to improve safety awareness for this growing segment of the UK workforce. The leaflets are in Albanian, Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Czech, Greek, Gujarati, Pashto, Portuguese, Polish, Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Tamil, Turkish, Ukrainian and Welsh, as well as English. HSE's online guidance targets employers, employment agencies, employment businesses, gangmasters and other labour providers and spells out their responsibilities under health and safety law towards migrant workers.
- TUC guide for migrant workers. TUC guide for union safety reps on supporting migrant workers [pdf].
- HSE guide for employers of migrant workers.
Events and Courses
TUC courses for safety reps
COURSES FOR APRIL TO JULY 2008
Useful Links
- Visit the TUC 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.
Newsletter (5,500 words) issued 27 Jun 2008
