Cuts endanger workers' health

Cuts endanger workers' health

The government decision to slash workplace safety regulation and to skew the system away from employer responsibility and towards 'personal responsibility' is attracting continued criticism. The official response to the government-commissioned Löfstedt report, which concluded Britain's workplace safety laws 'are broadly right', was to press ahead with a deregulatory programme the report considered unwarranted. The government has also said it will pursue some of the more contentious conclusions of the Löfstedt report, including exempting many self-employed workers from health and safety legislation (Risks 534). The government response was last week condemned by unions as a ruse to 'smuggle in' changes it had planned anyway, regardless of the report's findings. Calling for a 'rethink' of the of the decision to dramatically cut the Health and Safety Executive's funding, Paula Brown, PCS vice president and chair of the union's HSE branch said: 'The changes being made come within the context of a 35 per cent funding cut to our budget. We fear that HSE is close to breaking point with the scale of the organisational change it is being forced to make as a result of the cut.' She added: 'The government's obsession with deregulation is worrying.' Dave Joyce of the communication workers' union CWU expressed 'deep and serious misgivings' at the planned changes, which he warned 'contain not a single proposal that will reduce the unacceptably high levels of workplace deaths, injuries and work related illnesses.' The union safety specialist said he was 'particularly opposed' to the designation of many firms, including Royal Mail and BT, as 'low risk.' He said: 'The industries our members work in are certainly not 'low risk,' and the CWU and other unions must do all we can to persuade the government to think again.'

PCS news release. CWU news release.