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Risksissue no 96 - 8 March 2003 |
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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 6,500 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. The TUC website lists future health and safety events in What’s On - new events are covered below. ACTIONBuilding good practiceThe European Agency for Safety and Health at Work wants to produce a case studies report on factors contributing to the successful management of occupational safety and health risks in construction activities. It is already starting to work up proposals for European Week in 2004, and wants case studies of health and safety arrangements in all construction activities, not just those in the construction sector - which could, for example, include good practice in theatre and exhibit set design or building maintenance work.
Dangerous substances? Just the job in EuropeTUTB, the European Trade Union Confederation’s Brussels based safety research arm, wants to recruit an expert in toxic substances. As well as an extensive knowledge of toxic substances, the post requires someone with good written and spoken English and a good working knowledge of French.
FEATURE: Women at workThe menopause is a workplace issueThe menopause raises health and welfare issues for hundreds of thousands of working women, but is a workplace issue ignored by most employers, the TUC has found. A new TUC study reveals many women have jobs that could be making menopause-related symptoms worse. Working through the change, a TUC report released on the eve of International Women’s Day, 8 March, says 70 per cent of women aged 45-59 across the UK are in work. However the report, based on a survey of 500 workplace health and safety reps, found that only one out of five employers provided information about the menopause. Only 2 per cent said health and safety policies covered menopause-related issues and 45 per cent said their managers didn’t recognise problems associated with the menopause. TUC general secretary elect Brendan Barber said: 'There is no excuse for the silence, embarrassment, confusion and inaction around the menopause - something which all women go through. The health of women in later years depends very much on their health when they are working through the menopause and employers are not doing enough to protect them.' The report, which included detailed case studies, recommends employers provide better welfare facilities, rest breaks and a lot more forethought and understanding.
TGWU helps women to stay safe at work
Unions denounce exploitation of migrant womenEurope’s union umbrella group is calling for action to end exploitation of female migrant workers. ETUC says the rising levels of female migration into Europe is 'putting migrant women into the front line of discrimination, exploitation, and as often as not a life outside the law.' The union body adds that most migrant women 'can be found in unskilled, low-paid and unsafe jobs, mainly in domestic service, clothing manufacture, catering and hotel work, and farming. Many have been forced into prostitution.' It says the marginalisation of migrant women 'needs to be fought on several fronts, by encouraging them to join unions, bringing them into the legal mainstream, and getting agreements in sectors most susceptible to discrimination.' UNION NEWSBT criticised by coroner, police and union after worker’s deathA telephone engineer was killed when she was thrown from the top of a telegraph pole, an inquest has heard. British Telecom employee Tara Whelan, 30, died in hospital on 2 June 2001, a week after the incident. The inquest, which reached an 'accidental death' verdict, heard that a high-sided lorry snagged a telephone cable hanging low across a road, snapping the pole in two. Despite Ms Whelan wearing a safety belt and helmet, she suffered serious head injuries as the pole was dragged along the road. The original September 2002 inquest was scrapped after the coroner objected to the absence of a senior BT representative at the hearing or any details of BT's safety rules on low-hanging cables. BT has now issued new safety rules but was criticised by the police for only making the changes 17 months after the accident. The company will not face corporate manslaughter charges, however after considering a police report the inquest jury requested unanimously that an investigation be undertaken into BT procedures. Tara’s union, CWU, said: 'It is the firm view of the CWU that there has been a clear breach' of health and safety law, adding 'the union will be asking the HSE to prosecute.' The CWU statement added: 'Tara's Branch, the CWU South West Engineering Branch, carried out a thorough accident investigation and this plus the photographs taken by the safety rep proved absolutely vital in ensuring that the coroner reached the conclusions and recommendations that he did. Without their thoroughness, there can be no doubt that the outcome could have been entirely different.' Rail guards to strike over safetyRMT train crew members have voted two to one for industrial action in their campaign to defend the safety role of train guards. 'RMT members in a dozen companies have voted decisively for industrial action to defend the role of the guard,' RMT general secretary Bob Crow said, adding: 'Eight operators, including GNER and the whole First Group, have already honoured their agreement with us and signed up to restore fully the safety role of the guard in the operational rule book. Like us, they see that this agreement will strengthen safety for all who work in the rail industry and who travel by train.' The dispute first surfaced at the end of the 1990s when most train companies switched the responsibility for safety from guards to drivers. RMT said this reduced the role of guards to onboard 'KitKat sellers.' Mr Crow said the companies facing industrial action 'must surely now recognise the widespread anger among our members that costs and profits are being put before safety. It is time for all of them to honour the agreement reached in 2001 to respect the recommendations of an independent risk assessment to restore key aspects of the guard’s safety role to the rulebook.' Equity puts the boot in for Noddy and friendsAn actress injured playing the part of Noddy has been awarded 'substantial compensation' after suffering strained ligaments caused by the unsuitable Toyland footwear that came with the job. Equity member Sarah-Jane Honeywell was injured while working on the touring children’s show because of the badly fitting boots she was given. She had told her employer, Children’s Showtime Productions, that the boots made it difficult for her to do the skipping, jumping and knee bends the part required. Ms Honeywell, who was fired by the company’s solicitors, received the compensation after the union took up the case. Equity has also won undisclosed damages for a member injured while filming a television advertisement for Reebok trainers. Paul Trussell was told he had to jump an estimated seven feet from a scaffold tower. He asked for crash mats but was told that they could not be used as they would appear in the shot. After reiterating his concerns, he jumped on cue but broke his leg on landing. The injury meant his part in a TV series was reduced, and stopped him working properly for nearly 18 months. OTHER NEWSCBI hits out at 'unsustainable' insurance billBusiness lobby the CBI is calling for 'urgent new curbs on the compensation culture' as part of a bid to contain 'unsustainable' rises in business insurance costs (Risks 94). In its submission to a government review of employers’ liability compulsory insurance (Risks 84), CBI says the insurance industry has had to raise premium prices to cover a dramatic rise in costs, paying out £1.30 for every pound of premium income in 2001. It claims a more litigious society is partly to blame for the problem 'with claims increasing 100 per cent over the past five years,' and says it wants 'urgent action' to discourage the 'have-a-go' mentality by making claimants bear a greater share of the costs if they lose. Digby Jones, CBI director-general, said: 'One of the biggest issues is that people are more aware of their rights and more willing to take legal action. That is not in itself a bad thing, but it makes it even more important to stop abuses of the system.' CBI says that factors, including bigger court payouts and 'the increasing range of industrial diseases' have also played a part. It adds that any long-term reforms will need to relate insurance premiums more closely to health and safety performance, echoing a call last month from safety organisations (Risks 94). TUC points out the number of compensation claims is in reality falling (Risks 88), and that better prevention is the best way to reduce compensation costs (Risks 85).
Public sector workers are very loyal and very stressedPublic sector workers are increasingly stressed and dissatisfied with their work but are still loyal employees, a new survey has found. The latest annual survey of employee attitudes from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), shows 38 per cent of NHS workers and 30 per cent of local government workers find their work very stressful, with nurses, doctors and teachers among those most likely to suffer stress. Employees say that the main causes of stress are high workload and long hours, which have contributed to the long-term decline in satisfaction among public sector workers. CIPD says higher levels of organisational change in the public sector were a problem for managers. The CIPD survey, Pressure at work and the psychological contract shows the mutual expectations of employer and employees to be worse in the public than in the private sector.
Second British Sugar death in one monthA worker has been killed in a boiler room explosion at a British Sugar factory just a month after a worker died at another of the company’s plants (Risks 92). Robert Howe, 52, suffered extensive burns after being showered with hot coals in the 3 March blast at British Sugar's Allscott, Shropshire, sugar beet factory. Another man was released from hospital after treatment. Police are to carry out a detailed forensic examination of the area where the explosion happened. Work at the factory has been halted while the HSE carries out an investigation. Mr Howe had worked at the factory for 20 years. Last month, 40-year-old Lorraine Waspe died after being hit by a mechanical shovel at a British Sugar plant in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. Record £4m asbestos death payoutThe widow of a Derbyshire entrepreneur who built up the world's biggest tyre retread firm from scratch, is to be paid a record £4.37m compensation after her husband’s death from the asbestos cancer mesothelioma. Lucia Farmer, the widow of Anthony Farmer, was awarded the compensation at Leeds high court after four former employers, Rolls-Royce Industrial Power (India), NEI Clarke Chapman, and members of the Babcock and Mitsui Babcock engineering groups, admitted liability for the death of her husband. Mr Farmer, a former millwright and power station worker who worked with asbestos in the 1960s and 1970s, developed symptoms of mesothelioma just days after he and his partner sold their tyre company, Tyre Technics, for £30m in 1998. He died in August 1999, aged 47. Mrs Farmer's solicitor, Adrian Budgen, of Irwin Mitchell, said: 'This claim was unique because Mr Farmer’s income, and potential income, was very substantial indeed.' The award, a record for industrial disease, was made on the basis that Mr Farmer, who had previously taken over another failing business, successfully run it, then sold it, would have then set up a further successful business. 'Swindon Disease' victim awarded asbestos compensationA former British Rail employee has been awarded £182,844 compensation after developing cancer caused by exposure to asbestos. David Hill, 58, suffers from the asbestos cancer mesothelioma. Mr Hill's solicitors, Thring Townsend, said this was a result of his exposure to asbestos during the 1960s at British Rail in Swindon. He was exposed to asbestos while working as an apprentice coach finisher. Brigitte Chandler, Mr Hill's solicitor, said Mr Hill was not given protective masks or clothing, or warned of the risk to his health of inhaling asbestos. Mr Hill, who has sought treatment in the United States and has had major surgery, has been told that he has only a short time to live. The money covers the cost of nursing as well as some compensation for the pain and suffering he has suffered. The condition mesothelioma is so common in the Wiltshire rail town it is nicknamed 'Swindon Disease' and victims are commemorated in an asbestos memorial garden, funded by the local newspaper, businesses and groups. Investigation uncovers dirty business on site
HSE uses website to reduce asthmaA new website with advice on how to reduce occupational asthma, has been launched by the HSE. HSE says the new resource is aimed at employers, safety representatives and health professionals and 'is part of the HSC’s campaign to reduce occupational asthma by 30 per cent by 2010.' It covers the main causes and effects of occupational asthma, what employers have to do to protect their employees, and what HSE and others are doing to tackle the problem. There are also video clips, case studies, and official policy and guidance. Occupational asthma is the most frequently diagnosed respiratory disease in Great Britain, with HSE figures estimating between 1,500 and 3,000 people develop it every year. HSE says the costs to society of new cases of occupational asthma over the next 10 years 'are estimated to be between £579 million and £1,159 million.' Working in partnership with HSE and HSC, the TUC is running courses for trade union safety reps 'that will help to ensure compliance with existing laws and the new Approved Code of Practice on the control of asthma caused by substances at work.'
INTERNATIONALCanada: Regulations needed to prevent strain injuriesCanada’s public sector union CUPE is urging activists to press politicians for a strain injury prevention law. CUPE says: 'While not always visible, repetitive strain injuries are very painful. Whether from keyboarding at poorly-designed work stations, from the vibrations in power tools, from lifting patients in hospitals or any number of repetitive motions, workers are suffering from an epidemic of repetitive strain injuries.' The union adds: 'Workers need ergonomic regulations that require tools, equipment and work processes be redesigned to prevent repetitive strain injuries. And they need to be enforced.' It is calling on members to 'write a letter to your provincial labour minister urging her or him to act to stem the tide of RSI.' Last year, TUC has called for a European Union-wide law on strains prevention (Risks 73). India: Ban asbestos movement gaining momentumPressure is growing for an asbestos ban in India, one of the major remaining markets for Canadian asbestos. Occupational health experts last month called for a ban at a meeting of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) called by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs. This follows a resolution last year from the Indian Association of Occupational Health (IAOH) seeking a ban on the use of all forms of asbestos. A report in The Hindu says India currently imports 100,000 tonnes of chrysotile (white) asbestos, mostly from Canada. It says: 'The current demand for asbestos in India is to the tune of 100,000 metric tonnes, a fifth of which is mined domestically.' A spokesperson for the Ban Asbestos Network of India (BANI) commented: 'A succession of governments from 1947 to 2002 bear the greatest responsibility for failing to adopt and enforce measures that could have protected workers from the dangers of asbestos.'
Japan: No jail as six are sentenced for nuclear deathsSix executives who allowed workers to use buckets to fill a tank with uranium, resulting in two deaths and widespread radiation contamination in Japan's worst nuclear accident, have escaped jail. All six received suspended prison terms, with one, the former head of the plant where the accident occurred, also fined. The six admitted negligence in the 1999 incident, which killed two workers and caused hundreds of people living near the uranium processing plant at Tokaimura to be exposed to radiation. The court also imposed a fine of one million yen (£5,300) on plant operator JCO Co. The former head of the plant, Kenzo Koshijima, 56, received a five-year prison term suspended for three years and was fined 500,000 yen (£2,650). The other five executives were given suspended prison terms of up to three years. The company, which was stripped of its licence to run the plant in March 2000, has agreed to pay £71 million in compensation to settle 6,875 complaints over the accident. Japan’s nuclear industry has been dogged by safety scandals. In the latest blow to its reputation, Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), Japan's largest power utility, has been found to have falsified nuclear safety records, revelations that have led to the temporary shutdown of 14 of its 17 reactors. Trinidad and Tobago: Union exposes safety crisis at steel plantA union has warned that with no budget or other provisions for health and safety, it is little wonder that workplace accidents and job-related health problems are increasing at a steel multinational’s Trinidad and Tobago plant. Steelworkers’ union SWUTT says conditions in the steel plant of Caribbean Ispat Ltd, part of multinational metals giant Ispat International, have 'reached crisis level.' Last year there were over 80 serious workplace accidents, says the union, which adds that when accidents occur, little or no investigations are made which could lead to corrective action to prevent a recurrence. It says contract workers are being allowed in the plant without proper safety orientation. The union’s international federation, IMF, has written to all its affiliates requesting strong protest letters be written to the company. A letter from IMF to the company and to the country's minister of labour 'has urged that the company respond positively to union demands on health and safety and called on the government to ensure international rules on health and safety are respected in Trinidad and Tobago.' IMF says it 'is informing the ILO of the situation in the Ispat plant.' Unions in Trinidad and Tobago have raised concerns before about multinationals operating a safety double standard (Risks 81). RESOURCESNew online guide to health care hazardsThe European Agency for Safety and Health at Work has launched a new online guide to occupational health and safety advice for the health care sector as part of a major redesign of its network of information websites. It says the most recent European research shows the work-related accident rate in the health care sector is 34 per cent higher than the EU average. The sector also has the second highest incidence of work-related musculoskeletal disorders, after construction. Agency director, Hans-Horst Konkolewsky, commented: 'The Agency’s web feature will enable anyone who’s involved in risk prevention in the healthcare sector to get access to safety and health information, which is up-to-date and practical… Prevention of work-related injuries and health problems cuts costs and contributes to improving organisational performance, which in turn will lead to better patient care.' The online resource has more than 500 links on issues ranging from avoiding needle injuries to managing shiftwork more effectively.
New resources for Workers’ Memorial Day 2003US national union federation AFL-CIO has made its materials for Workers' Memorial Day 2003 available online. The very useful resources for the worldwide 28 April event include a factsheet, flyer, poster and clip art.
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! Risks 100th edition special conference, 4 AprilRegistration is now open for a special TUC health and safety conference to mark the 100th edition of Risks on Friday 4 April at Congress House. Headline speakers include editor Rory O’Neill, the TUC’s new deputy general secretary Frances O’Grady, and Labour MP Lawrie Quinn who is piloting the Health and Safety (Offences) Bill through the Commons. After the conference, which takes place from 1pm to 5.30pm, delegates are invited to a reception to mark the 100th edition. ‘Don’t choke on the smoke’ conference, 9 AprilThe TUC, anti-smoking campaigners Action on Smoking and Health and the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health are holding a national conference at Congress House to call for the implementation of the long overdue Approved Code of Practice on passive smoking. Registration costs £30 for trade unionists. TUC deputy general secretary Frances O’Grady, National Asthma Campaign chief Donna Covey, former BMA chair Sir Alexander Macara will join MP Barry Sheerman, Baroness Gibson of Market Rasen and Lord Faulkner of Worcester. There will be examples of good practice and a review of the civil, criminal and disability law. More news on union approaches to workplace smoking. International Workers Memorial Day, 28 AprilThis year the theme will be corporate accountability for workers’ health and safety. The TUC will be co-ordinating a series of events around the country. A background briefing on the 2003 theme is available on the page of the TUC website devoted to Workers’ Memorial Day. Order a poster from the TUC (single copies free) or bulk copies at a good price from Hazards. TUC general secretary elect Brendan Barber has issued a personal message. Hazards Conference, 5-7 SeptemberThe Hazards Conference will be in London. Margaret Sharkey at the London Hazards Centre is the co-ordinator of the London end of the organisation. You can contact her via e-mail at margaret@lhc.org.uk or on 020 7794 5999. European Work Hazards Conference, 18-20 SeptemberThe next European Work Hazards Conference, where union health and safety reps and union safety officers, specialists and advisers come together to discuss approaches and strategies, will be held in Copenhagen, Denmark, from 18-20 September 2003. European Work Hazards Network European Week for Health and Safety at Work, 13-19 OctoberThe theme for the Week in 2003 will be ‘dangerous substances’ (EU Agency press release). The TUC will be stressing the hierarchy of control, and especially the need for substitutes and general toxic use reduction strategies. Key hazards dealt with will include asbestos, asthmagens and solvents. Future years’ themes have also now been decided. USEFUL LINKSVisit 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.TUC courses for safety repsCOURSES FOR APRIL TO JULY 2003:Midlands, North, Scotland, South East and East Anglia, Yorkshire and HumbersideSubscribe 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. |
The Transport and General Workers’ Union says its new union guide will help women to stay safe at work. Launched on 8 March, International Women’s Day, the new health and safety guide, which will be provided free to women members, identifies workplace hazards and provides advice on how employers and employees can overcome them. TGWU national organiser Diana Holland said: 'Health and safety problems are often associated with heavy industry, and jobs mainly done by men, yet accidents occur in all types of workplace and many women face hazards at work. Often it is the least obvious environments that can be most dangerous as risks go undetected and can develop into health and safety problems.' The TGWU guide 'identifies the health and safety issues in environments women work in, alongside concerns that are specific to women workers, such as pregnancy hazards,' adds Diana Holland. Union organisations worldwide, including international transport workers’ federation ITF (poster, above) and Australian union body VTHC, are urging action on women’s workplace safety as part of their International Women’s Day programmes.
Newsletter (4,800 words) issued 9 Mar 2003
