Risksissue no 47 - 30 March 2002 |
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Editor: Rory O'Neill of Hazards magazine. Comments to Owen Tudor. CONTENTS
Risks is the TUC’s weekly online bulletin for safety reps and others, read each week by over 3,500 subscribers and 1,000 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 Privacy The TUC website lists future health and safety events in What’s On - new events are covered below. FEATURE: VIOLENCE AT WORKGovernment supports call for an end to classroom violenceThe Secretary of State for Education has given her support to the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) in their call for better support for teachers facing violence in the classroom. Speaking to ATL's annual conference Estelle Morris said: "There is never any excuse for a parent to physically abuse a teacher or anyone else in schools. …Every member of the school community has a right to a safe environment in which to teach and to learn." ATL president Julie Grant said: "This response from government will be welcomed in schools across the country where the behaviour of a small number of parents and pupils threatens to undermine everything we are trying to achieve for Britain's children." Responding to a drop in prosecutions for acts of violence against teachers, ATL has said it wants parents and children who attack staff to be privately prosecuted. Nigel de Gruchy, general secretary of NASUWT, commented: 'My only regret is that it has taken politicians some 25 years to appreciate the kinds of problems teachers have to deal with. However, better late than never.' Teacher attacked by dangerous pupil wins £190,000A teacher attacked by a dangerous teenager at a special school has won £190,000 High Court damages. NASUWT member Judith Waugh, 53, head of the lower school at John F Kennedy special school in Stratford, east London, had received glowing assessments of her work before the June 1998 incident. Since the assault by the 14-year-old boy, who can be identified only as D, she has suffered severe psychiatric problems and taken early retirement. Mr Justice Cooke ruled that the London Borough of Newham, which denied liability, was negligent in that it did not tell D's escort of the need for a fuller form of restraint. Nigel de Gruchy, general secretary of NASUWT said: 'I welcome the verdict and hope it serves as a lesson to LEAs [local education authorities], who have a duty to protect their staff, that they must wise up and wake up to their responsibilities or else it may prove very expensive for them.' Jobcentre staff urged to vote to end safety disputeSixty-five thousand Jobcentre and benefits staff, members of the union PCS, are being balloted on a settlement to resolve the long-running dispute over the safety of open-plan Jobcentre Plus offices. PCS says it is confident that the settlement contains proposals that deal with staff fears about the risks of violent attacks at work. Mark Serwotka, PCS general secretary elect, said: "It is highly regrettable that staff had to take more than 300,000 days strike action to secure these written guarantees that their safety will be paramount in the open-plan Jobcentre Plus offices. I'm now firmly backing this settlement and hope that we can quickly establish a proper industrial relations climate to avoid such problems in the future." The union says it has recruited 6,000 new members as a result of the action (Risks 46). Lords want action on bullying at workThe House of Lords is urging the government to improve the rights of victims of workplace bullying. The Dignity at Work Bill has received an unopposed second reading from peers. It is calling for improved rights for employees to take employers to employment tribunals. Labour's Baroness Gibson of Market Rasen, previously a TUC member of the HSC, said present laws on racial and sexual discrimination and health and safety were not wide enough to protect workers. Baroness Gibson said: "This Bill attempts to be fair to both employees and employers. In an ideal world (the Bill) would not be necessary, all employers would be good ones but this is not an ideal world and employers are not all good ones."
Gun attack on bus driverA South Yorkshire bus company has called for public support after the latest in a string of attacks on passengers and staff. A driver with First Mainline in Sheffield is awaiting surgery after being shot in the face with an airgun while at the wheel on 25 March. Less than 24 hours later shots were fired on another bus. No-one was hurt. Over recent months a driver has been stabbed, another attacked with a baseball bat and a passenger has lost an eye in separate violent incidents. First Mainline managing director Gary Nolan said: "We will do all we can to make sure our staff are not vulnerable. We'll do what we can to support them." Drivers’ union TGWU said it wants risk assessments, stiffer sentences for offenders, and better police resources. UNION NEWSRailworkers worldwide call for safety before profitRailworkers’ unions in the UK joined unions across the world to highlight rail safety on International Railway Workers' Day, 26 March. The International Transport Workers' Federation-coordinated campaign day called for governments and private companies to put rail safety before profit. "The campaign is growing, and more and more trade unionists are taking part, including new participant unions in Burkina Faso, Morocco and the Democratic Republic of Congo," said Mac Urata, secretary of the ITF railway workers' section. "Our message, 'safety first, not profit' was well-received by the unions and there are were some good responses from government and management. It's good to see the unions taking the lead in highlighting the safety issue." In additional to events around the UK, union members from transport unions Aslef, RMT, TSSA and TGWU rallied at Euston station to remember those killed in railway accidents. Union demands 35-hour week for train driversLegislation is urgently needed to limit the hours worked by train drivers, according to their union Aslef. General secretary Mick Rix told journalists on 26 March: "This is a major safety issue, since a tired driver can suffer from lapses of concentration. We have recently had a case of a driver passing a signal at danger outside a London terminus and the incident being attributed by the panel of inquiry to 'length of duty worked'." Aslef would like to see a maximum 44-hour working week, with the annual average not exceeding 35 hours. It adds hours of work should not exceed 10 during any one day, or eight when worked at night. 95 MPs have already expressed support for a proposal that would offer train drivers the same legal protection as bus and lorry drivers. Print union calls for vigilance after work deathPrint union GPMU has called on union reps in paper mills to ensure agreed safety procedures are observed after a print worker was killed. An HSE briefing said the death occurred after an incident on 2 March, when a 43-year-old engineering craftsman, employed by James Cropper plc of Kendal was engulfed in hot water while changing a seal on a pump. He was taken to hospital where he died on 18 March. After the incident Martin Oldman, acting director general of the industry association the Paper Federation, urged chief executives in the paper industry to personally check out, with their managers, safety advisers and safety reps, that safety procedures were working properly. GPMU has said workplace union reps should 'ensure that the advice issued by the HSE, and by the Paper Federation to Chief Executives, is carried out to the full in their mills.' OTHER NEWSPlastics firm fined £250,000 after fatalityKlargester Environmental has been fined £250,000 for three breaches of health and safety legislation following the death of a machine operator. The HSE prosecution followed the death of Ronald Leslie Glue, 61, whose head was crushed while he was setting a vacuum-forming machine. Passing sentence, Judge Morton Jack said "that there were multiple failings, some of which must have been present for a long period, some for many years." He added "the defendant was unable to demonstrate a proper system for inspection and maintenance, necessary to prevent accidents' and that the situation at the factory was "serious and horrifying." HSE investigating inspector Robert Meardon said: "The level of fines demonstrate that the court intends to send a very strong message that employers face severe penalties if they fail to adequately control the risks to their employees." Stress-busting campaign welcomedA new initiative to combat stress in the workplace has been hailed as "long overdue" by unions. The Work Positive campaign is being launched by health bodies in Scotland and Ireland and is targeted at small and medium-sized firms. It includes advice packs highlighting the legal obligation on companies to protect the health, safety and welfare of their employees. Ian Tasker of the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) said the move was "long overdue". He added: "We've got to the stage where employers don't recognise that stress at work is an illness and they've got to act on this issue. We'll be sending the packs on to our opposite numbers in England and Wales." The scheme is a joint project between the Health Education Board for Scotland (HEBS) and the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) Ireland, who will start to distribute the packs next month. The initiative was successfully piloted last year at 10 firms in Scotland and Northern Ireland. INTERNATIONALAustralia: Gallery illegally fired whistleblowerAustralia’s National Gallery broke the law by effectively sacking whistleblower Brian Cropp after he complained about health and safety dangers, an investigation has concluded. But the gallery has escaped prosecution because it is a Commonwealth authority. The 40-year-old fitter, who had worked at the gallery since 1993, said he felt vindicated by the report, the result of a two-year investigation by the government work safety authority Comcare. Opposition workplace relations spokesperson Robert McClelland, who released the report, said it was disappointing that a government institution had broken the law. "The finding confirms that workers everywhere are entitled to raise issues of health and safety without losing their jobs," he said. The gallery has two weeks to either challenge the report or reinstate Mr Cropp. New Zealand: Some employers need the 'big stick'New Zealand Council of Trade Unions president Ross Wilson has said the increased fine levels in the occupational safety and health Bill before parliament will provide the "big stick" necessary to bring cowboy employers into line. He was speaking after Christchurch company Peter Baker Transport Limited was fined $23,000 (£7,000) following an accident in which a worker was killed when a 1,200 kg mezzanine floor fell onto him while he was helping to unload the Semi Curtainsider of a truck. "Paying $20,000 of the fine to grieving families is little comfort in cases like this one… We must act to stop these completely preventable deaths in New Zealand workplaces," Ross said. South Africa: Union calls for railway safety auditSouth Africa’s Transport and Allied Workers' Union has called for an audit of the country's railway safety before the establishment of a rail regulator. The union's general secretary Randall Howard said issues that needed to be probed included the status of safety training, the level of rail safety investigative expertise, the experience of the labour department in investigating occupational accidents in the rail industry and a full report on rail accident statistics detailing causes. "On the basis of this audit, we need to identify priorities for developing a safety culture that is aimed at prevention," Howard said. 'Railway workers must be at the centre of this and should be listened to. Their combined knowledge and expertise on the railway network is enormous and should be taken seriously." Howard said rail safety was not negotiable and could not be compromised "for the sake of profit". UAE: Hunt for Dubai dockersRescuers in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, are searching for seven workers still missing after sea water flooded one of the world's biggest dry docks. At least 22 workers were killed when dock gates ruptured and a 12-metre-high tidal wave crashed in, submerging several large vessels under repair. Paint polluting the water is hampering recovery work by divers. Many of the docks' 4,000 employees are expatriate workers from South Asia and the Philippines. USA: Cuts raise fears of job risks in prisonsBudget cuts and staff reductions are making state prisons a riskier place to work in, says Iowa Corrections Director WL "Kip" Kautzky. "We're taking a very high risk," Kautzky told reporters after learning lawmakers are considering taking another slice out of the corrections budget. He said belt-tightening over the past two years has squeezed 284 jobs out of the corrections system, and more positions may have to be eliminated. Chris Tripp, a corrections officer at the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison, said he also is concerned about safety. "They've cut staff, and that's what watches your back. That's who you depend upon every day," said Tripp, executive vice president of the union AFSCME in Iowa. USA: Experts see no end to US asbestos lawsuitsIndustry leaders across America have assured investors they're prepared to handle a surge in asbestos-related lawsuits, but experts say the number of claims filed could quadruple from the current level of more than 600,000, pushing costs past $200 billion (£140 billion). Preliminary results of the latest study from the RAND Institute for Civil Justice put the number of US lawsuits related to asbestos injury or exposure filed to date at 600,000. But 500,000 to 2.4 million similar claims could still be filed, costing companies an extra $145 billion to $210 billion, RAND study author Stephen Carroll said. He added that at least five major corporate defendants have spent more than $1 billion on asbestos-related claims, and asbestos litigation has infiltrated about 85 per cent of the nation's business sectors. Over 6,000 US firms, along with many of their subsidiaries, are included on RAND's preliminary list of asbestos defendants. Various studies estimate the insurance industry, now struggling under the weight of asbestos-related claims resolution, could pay out $65 billion or more.
USA: Deaths of Hispanic workers soar 53 per centThe US Labor Department says it will intensify efforts to stem an alarming rise in workplace deaths among Hispanics, up 53 per cent in 2000 from 1992. Meanwhile, deaths dropped 10 per cent for non-Hispanics, the latest data show. At least 815 Hispanics died on the job in 2000, often because of language gaps between supervisors and immigrant workers and because they are taking jobs in dangerous industries like construction, experts say. The National Council of La Raza, a civil rights group, says many don't complain about unsafe work because they fear deportation. "Employers are able to take advantage of them," says Michele Waslin, an analyst for the group.
USA: 1.8m hurt since Bush repealed ergonomics ruleOn 20 March 2001, President George W Bush granted one of the corporate community’s biggest wishes when he signed legislation repealing the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s standard for preventing workplace strain injuries. In the year since, almost 1.8 million workers across the country have suffered ergonomics-related injuries, many of which could have been prevented if OSHA’s strong, enforceable and comprehensive ergonomic standard had been in force. 'These workers include a tremendous scope of employees from nurses, manufacturing employees and office workers,' said AFL-CIO president John Sweeney. During the past year, US workers suffered a workplace ergonomic injury every 18 seconds. Bush and Labor Secretary Elaine Chao made repeated promises that the administration, working with business and workers, would develop a new ergonomic strategy. 'It’s time for President Bush to stop fighting a safety standard that will end crippling workplace injuries,' Sweeney said. Post-traumatic stress high after September 11In the early aftermath of September 11, New Yorkers were suffering from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at about twice the typical US rate, according to a new study. Researchers say their findings are "not surprising," and that studies should continue to follow the psychological consequences of the attacks. Among the more than 1,000 adults interviewed for the study, 7.5 per cent reported symptoms of PTSD and nearly 10 per cent had symptoms of depression, according to findings published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Levels of PTSD and current depression were twice that in the general population. Those who lost friends, relatives or their jobs were at increased risk of depression.
EVENTSOnly newly announced events, events next week and very important events will be listed here in future. But there is a comprehensive listing of health and safety events on the TUC website - bookmark it for easy reference! Employment agencies action, 24 AprilThe Simon Jones Memorial Campaign is calling a national day of action 'against profiteering employment agencies' on Wednesday 24 April 2002, the fourth anniversary of Simon's death. The campaign says: 'We are asking supporters of our campaign across the country and internationally to mark the anniversary of Simon's death by demonstrating, in whatever way they see fit, at an employment agency in their area that profits from the casualisation that killed Simon.'
Workers' Memorial Day 2002, 28 AprilTUC is planning to highlight occupational health, including access to occupational health services, and rehabilitation. Ask your union for details of Workers’ Memorial Day events (a TUC list is available) or organise your own. See the Hazards magazine round up of Workers’ Memorial Day resources and the new section of the TUC website. If you are organising an event, let the TUC know by email. Hazards 2002, National Hazards Conference, 6-8 SeptemberThe National Hazards Conference will be held in Manchester for the second year running. Further details from Greater Manchester Hazards Centre. There is a financial appeal to keep registration costs down, backed by the TUC. European Week of Health and Safety 2002, 14-21 OctoberNext year’s week will take place in Britain from 14 October, on the theme of stress. USEFUL LINKSVisit the TUC health and safety website or the main TUC website pages on health and safety. See what’s on offer from TUC Publications and What’s On in health and safety.TUC courses for safety reps, April to JulyWales (also as pdf) Scotland North West Midlands South East and East Anglia (also as pdf) South West (also as pdf)For details of courses in the Northern, Yorkshire and Humberside regions, contact the TUC Regional Education OfficerSubscribe 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.DisclaimerAlthough the web links were all checked at the time of posting this bulletin, we are not responsible for most of the websites you will be taken to. Sometimes they are temporarily offline (so try again!) or change so that the links no longer work. Privacy statementInformation provided by you will be used by the TUC for the effective administration of this site and to record user patterns. We will not disclose any details to any third party, except to any service provider managing or administering the site on the TUC’s behalf. We may contact you with details of TUC initiatives, services and products but will never pass your e-mail address or other details to another organisation, other than our service providers for management and administration purposes. |
Newsletter (3,600 words) issued 30 Mar 2002
