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Risksissue no 98 - 22 March 2003 |
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Editor: Rory O'Neill of Hazards magazine. Comments to Owen Tudor Book now for TUC conferences on safety and smoking 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. ACTIONSo, you think you know about strain injuries…Managers, workers and consultancies are needed to help with a major new HSE study, looking at attitudes towards musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) at work. Researchers from Loughborough and Nottingham universities, who are carrying out the work, want to talk to managers and employees from small to medium sized companies in industries most at risk from MSDs, such as manufacturing, health services, construction, and delivery and communications. The project will also work with consultancies to develop and implement solutions to help prevent injuries. Loughborough University researcher Zara Whysall said: 'Many companies are now making attempts to reduce health and safety risks, be it due to concerns over litigation, reduced productivity or increased absence, but often these attempts are not as effective as they might be. This study will improve our understanding of organisational change, specifically on how to successfully implement changes to reduce the risk of work-related MSDs. The results will be used to draw up guidelines for employers, consultants, employees, trade unions, and health care practitioners.'
Review of welfare and protective equipment at workThe HSE is seeking the views of employers and workers on workplace health, safety and welfare and on personal protective equipment. The HSE review will evaluate the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 and the Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992 'to ensure that the regulations are cost effective, meet the needs of business whilst ensuring they protect the health and safety of employees, and fulfil our commitment to implement the EC Workplace Directive (89/654/EEC) and the EC Directive on Personal Protective Equipment (89/656/EEC).' HSE’s Dr William Gillan said: 'We are keen to hear views from people who have responsibilities for health and safety in the workplace (in both small and large firms) including safety representatives. An easy to complete questionnaire covering both sets of regulations has been produced. This will help us to find out, for example, how well the regulations are known and understood.' TUC’s Owen Tudor commented: 'Union reps should make sure they have their say. Our ‘gotta go’ campaign revealed how bad some workplace loos are.' Reps should respond through their union.
UNION NEWSEmployers are injuring workers on the cheapBritish employers are being allowed to injure their workers on the cheap, the TUC says. A TUC report reveals that although workplace injury and illness costs the UK economy £18 billion a year, the average British boss pays just £70 per employee in compensation insurance - less than one-tenth the average cost of insuring a car. Radical solutions are all we can afford, TUC’s submission to the government review of employer liability insurance, says employers should bear more of the cost. British employers pay just 0.25 per cent of payroll to cover compensation costs, compared with 1.5 per cent to 2 per cent in most developed countries. This means employers, who cause the health and safety risks, pick up just £3.3 billion to £6.5 billion of the £18 billion tab, with the rest falling on taxpayers and victims. TUC’s Owen Tudor told a meeting of MPs: 'We need a system where the perpetrator pays, so that they have an incentive to prevent injuries and ill health. We need to complete the creation of the welfare state with a national rehabilitation service, and fair compensation for injury victims. For all that, employers need to pay more, but they need to get more too - insurers should help them protect their workers and get them back to work fast if the worst happens.'
Shell job cuts risk another Piper AlphaUnion leaders have accused Shell of risking another Piper Alpha disaster after it announced plans to cut 350 workers from its North Sea rigs. The Anglo-Dutch oil company said the 20 per cent reduction in staff on the ageing rigs was essential to keep them viable - but Roger Lyons, joint general secretary of Amicus, said paring back the workforce would put lives at risk. 'This is an act of crass stupidity - a Piper Alpha in the making. It will jeopardise safety and may jeopardise Britain's supply of oil at a time of crisis.' The Piper Alpha rig caught fire in 1988, with the loss of 167 lives. Jim Moohan, of the GMB in Scotland, called Shell's decision short-sighted, and said he was 'extremely concerned about the safety implications.' He added: 'If having fewer people in the workplace results in increased danger to our members, then that is something we would want to take up immediately with the Health and Safety Executive.' ASLEF says deaths investigations plan still falls shortA new official protocol for investigating work-related deaths 'will do nothing to ensure that companies responsible for the deaths of their employees are properly investigated and brought to book,' train drivers’ union ASLEF has warned. ASLEF suggests the addition of the British Transport Police and the Local Government Association to the list of organisations covered by the protocol - originally limited to the HSE, the Association of Chief Police Officers and the Crown Prosecution Service - will result in better coordinated bad enforcement. A submission to HSE last year from the TUC called for every work-related death to be treated as a manslaughter investigation at the outset until proven otherwise. Mick Rix, ASLEF general secretary, said enforcement agencies are not properly considering the possibility of 'a failure by companies to protect the lives of workers and the public. Without that, adding another couple of names to the list of those responsible for the investigation will do nothing to save lives and make workplaces safer in the future.' Speaking at the launch of the new protocol, Sir David Calvert-Smith QC, Director of Public Prosecutions, said: 'Whilst the protocol may not prevent future work-related deaths, it does provide a degree of public assurance that such incidents will always be fully investigated and the resulting prosecution decisions are based upon the best evidence.'
RMT sets train crew safety strike datesRMT train crew members employed by 10 train operators will strike for 24 hours on Friday March 28, Monday March 31 and Thursday April 17 after talks failed to secure agreement on returning key elements of the guard's safety role to the railways' operational rulebook ( Risks 97 ). RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: 'These companies can avoid strike action simply by honouring the commitment they made to abide by the independent risk assessment undertaken in 2001, which recommended the restoration of the guard's safety role,' adding: 'Eight companies have already signed up to restore the guard's proper safety role to the rulebook, and there is no earthly reason why the others should not do so. We can only assume that they intend to diminish further the role of the guard and to extend driver-only operation, and that is completely unacceptable.' Mr Crow said: 'The fact that some operators intend to use hastily and inadequately trained managers to undertake guards’ duties on strike days underlines our concern at their increasingly cavalier attitude towards safety.' OTHER NEWSEmployers to cough up for hospital costsA new law will allow the NHS to recover treatment costs from employers whose actions cause workers to require health care for personal injuries. Included in The Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Bill, which had its first reading on 12 March, is a provision to 'enable the NHS to recover treatment and ambulance costs from organisations making compensation payments to people suffering personal injury,' in line with early government commitments (Risks 71) and TUC calls. TUC general secretary elect Brendan Barber said: 'It's good news that the government has resisted the hysteria about burdens on business and opted to make the perpetrators pay instead. Business needs to meet a more realistic share of the costs of their health and safety failures. But we would support employers who want the NHS to use this money wisely, effectively recycling the funds into getting people back to work faster by ring-fencing it for rehabilitation' (Risks 81). TUC estimates £30-40m in recovered work-related costs could be made available. Research project 'could help sick workers keep jobs'
Proper jobs are safer jobsResearch from the London School of Economics has confirmed that proper jobs are safer jobs - and temporary workers can face almost twice the workplace accident risk. The hidden costs of fixed term contracts: The impact on work accidents concludes:'For workers with short duration contracts the incentives of the employer and the worker to invest in specific human capital are lower than for identical workers with longer contract durations. These lower investments create a differential in human capital that may lead to systematically higher accident rates for those with temporary contracts.' Author Marie Guadalupe says her study results, based on figures from Spain, 'confirm there is a pure contractual effect that increases the accident probability by 4 per cent to 7 per cent' for temporary workers. The research confirms the findings of earlier studies from the UK and elsewhere on 'precarious' and temporary jobs that found higher rates of accidents and work-related health in workers without job security. A TUC report last year concluded the UK was near the bottom of the league on job security (Risks 60).
Evidence 'suppressed' on benefits of smoking banEvidence that thousands of lives could be saved each year by outlawing smoking at work has been suppressed by the government because it is listening too closely to hospitality industry lobbyists, who claim it would be too expensive. Yet an unpublished HSC study says up to 2,340 lives a year could be saved by outlawing workplace smoking. The total savings to government and business, including the National Health Service, could be £21bn, the study says. TUC, unions, medical, public health and campaign organisations have been urging HSC and the government to quit stalling on an Approved Code of Practice (ACoP) on passive smoking, which has already been under consultation for five years. They say hospitality industry claims of prohibitive costs are in fact unfounded (Risks 95) and based on a tobacco industry 'smoke screen' calculation (Risks 56). Marsha Williams, of Action on Smoking on Health, accused the government of 'putting the inflated concerns of the hospitality trade and small businesses ahead of the very real health impact of passive smoking.' Health minister Blears was quoted this week as saying the government did not support a legal ban on smoking at work.
Nurses at 'high risk' as equipment walksNurses at the new Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh have been at risk of serious back injuries after they were left to lift patients unaided because vital equipment was lost. Staff says they have been struggling to lift patients for months because a mechanical hoist went missing when they moved to the £184 million infirmary. Only when nursing staff complained to management were measures taken to find a replacement hoist, followed by a further delay of several weeks before a new permanent hoist was installed. The delay prompted HSE inspectors on a routine visit to serve an immediate prohibition notice on the hospital, banning staff from lifting patients until a new hoist was found. Health union UNISON said it was 'incredible' and 'unforgivable' that managers had not noticed the problem and resolved it more quickly. HSE served the immediate prohibition notice against the new infirmary last December, noting that the hospital - which had tried to lay the blame on staff - admitted the problem was 'high risk' but had not taken action. An HSE spokesperson said: 'We issued a prohibition notice because staff were not lifting patients safely. The hospital trust is the legal duty holder under the Health and Safety at Work Act.' HSE announces Euroweek national award winnersShops, councils, factories, and police forces were among 26 organisations to receive award for their efforts to combat workplace stress as part of the 2002 European Week for Safety and Health campaign. Thousands of businesses took part in the annual event, which happens every October. The HSE, which promotes Euroweek in the UK, says it is looking to develop management standards for handling stress in the workplace, and says it 'will be evaluating some of the winning entries in relation to their stress management policies which could be used in the future as examples of excellence in this field.' HSE says the national winners represent the best of the 166 regional winners who were presented with awards in February. Special categories include Best Small Business, which was won by Aberdeen Fluid System Technologies Ltd and Best of Last Year’s winners won by TXU Energy of Ipswich. HSE says its 2003 Euroweek action pack and newsletter - theme dangerous substances - is 'coming soon.' INTERNATIONALAustralia: Government wants safety equally bad nationwideAustralia’s federal government has launched an investigation into how occupational health, safety and compensation laws could be set nationally, because existing state systems 'add to business costs.' Unions and some state governments however say the new inquiry is an attempt to introduce a 'lowest common denominator for safety' with the states with the worst standards setting the benchmark nationwide. National workplace relations minister Tony Abbott said the existing arrangements 'impact on workplace safety, add cost to business and do not treat injured workers and their families consistently.' However, Rob Hulls, industrial relations minister in the state of Victoria, said the inquiry is a veiled attempt to reduce workplace standards operating across Australia to benefit employers. 'We have the world's best practice operating here and there is no way Victoria will play the government's game,' he said. Brian Boyd, a spokesperson for Victoria’s unions, said the government wanted to cut hard-won standards by 'picking and choosing' the worst aspects of each state system to trim employer costs. Tony Abbott is not new to controversy. He recently claimed industrial manslaughter laws are not needed because 'a bad boss is a little bit like a bad father or a bad husband - notwithstanding all his faults, you find he tends to do more good than harm.'
Australia: Oz campaigners wants the lungs of the Irish
New Zealand: Smoking ban good for hospitality workers' healthA smoking ban in bars, casinos and restaurants would protect hospitality industry workers from proven harm, according to a New Zealand union. The comment from the Service and Food Workers’ Union (SFWU) came as a parliamentary health select committee report admitted ventilation would not provide enough protection for employees from second-hand smoke, concluding a total ban was justified. SFWU national secretary Darien Fenton said: 'The reality is that many hospitality workers are in low paid and casual work, and they are also being exposed to second hand tobacco smoke; a known environmental danger.' She added: 'It is a brave staff member who says no to a direction to wait at a table in the smoking part of the restaurant. I believe workers have both a moral and a legal right to refuse to work in unsafe environments.' Hospitality Association chief executive Bruce Robertson, however, described the proposed smoking ban in bars, restaurants and clubs as 'unnecessary and draconian.' A series of recent reports have found that hospitality industry claims that bans will hit profits are unfounded (Risks 95). USA/India: US judge sides with Union CarbideA US federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit that sought damages for those living near the deadly 1984 gas leak that killed thousands in Bhopal, India, saying the company Union Carbide Corp. had done enough and that too much time had passed. The Indian government estimates the death toll from the 1984 disaster to have reached 14,400 as those sickened by the gas died, with thousands more suffering on-going health effects. US District Judge John F Keenan tossed out a civil claim against the company and Warren Anderson, its one-time chief executive officer, from Haseena Bi, who said she was injured by ground water contamination after she moved within a quarter of a mile of the plant's perimeter. Keenan wrote that the provision by Union Carbide of a hospital in the city 'goes far to satisfy any further obligation defendants have to citizens of Bhopal.' He added that the statute of limitations barred Haseena Bi’s case from proceeding, as she should have filed a lawsuit within three years of discovering her injuries.
RESOURCESCWU Workers’ Memorial Day webpagesThe Communication Workers Union has created a detailed Workers’ Memorial Day webpage, including posters, corporate crime postcards and details of union activities, nationally and locally.
Drawing up a workplace driving policyNew guidance has been published by Workplacelaw Network 'to help employers implement a driving-at-work policy and meet their legal obligations.' It says at work driving has emerged as a major area of risk for UK employers, since HSE decided to enforce driving related problems more rigorously. The Draft driving at work policy and management guide 'consists of a draft policy document, which employers can customise for their own needs, and comprehensive management guidance to help employers develop and enforce their own driving-at-work policy.' Union reps might want to persuade their managers to buy one.
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 that day. 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. Tobacco smoke pollution conference, 10 AprilA national tobacco smoke pollution conference will feature Professor Stanton Glanz who was instrumental in banning smoking in public places in California (Risks 52) and is the leading authority on this topic. The event at Haydock Park racecourse on Merseyside, will include a panel (involving trade unions) on introducing legislation for smoke free workplaces, followed by questions from the audience and debate. Further information: Brenda Fullard, regional tobacco policy manager, Directorate of Health and Social Care (North), Government Office for the North West, Sunley Tower, Piccadilly Plaza, Manchester, M1 4BE. Tel: 0161 952 4104. 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. There is also a list of events on the day - let Hilda Palmer know what you’re doing. 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 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. |
Newsletter (4,600 words) issued 22 Mar 2003
