PDF version available for download (PDF help)

Risks Newsletter

Number 315 - 21 July 2007

Hazards magazine advertisement

HSE advertisement

Hazards logo - warning sign Editor: Rory O'Neill of Hazards magazine. Comments to the TUC at healthandsafety@tuc.org.uk

Risks is the TUC's weekly online bulletin for safety reps and others, read each week by over 14,500 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 .

UNION NEWS OTHER NEWS INTERNATIONAL NEWS EVENTS AND COURSES USEFUL LINKS
UNION NEWS
HSE move will 'haemorrhage key expertise'

Plans to relocate the Health and Safety Executive's (HSE) policy division will damage its ability to advise Whitehall, fail to produce promised savings and risks haemorrhaging key expertise within the safety organisation, HSE unions have warned. Prospect and PCS members protested outside HSE's London HQ on 17 July. Prospect negotiations officer Mike MacDonald said the proposals were 'poorly thought out', adding: 'Many experienced staff faced with the option of uprooting families and leaving their homes will view redundancy as a preferable option, draining HSE of its body of expertise.' He said: 'HSE is unique in that it has its own policy section, staffed by a workforce with a detailed knowledge of what the Executive does - many are former field inspectors - rather than relying on generic advice from its parent government department. Isolating the policy division from ministers and Whitehall will also marginalise its influence and risks creating a parochial service.' The unions argue that HSE has already admitted that the move will not realise all the benefits it is seeking but have yet to develop a 'benefits realisation strategy' to say how this can be achieved. Neil Hope-Collins, Prospect's HSE branch chair, said: 'The Executive is pushing forward with a radical relocation before it has fully assessed the impact of government funding cutbacks which have already led to the loss of up to 350 jobs or the further drive to find 15 per cent cost savings over the next three years. Prospect is calling for HSE to rethink the proposals and discuss other means to make the HSE more efficient.'

Bogus self-employment a threat to Olympic safety

A drive to cut the London Olympic construction costs is threatening to suck in large numbers of 'bogus self-employed' migrant workers, leading to widespread tax avoidance, heightened safety risks and blocked work opportunities for local people, ministers have been told. Alan Ritchie, general secretary of construction union UCATT, has written to Jane Kennedy, financial secretary to the treasury, and Paul Gray, chairman of Revenue & Customs, warning that a decision by the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) to allow contractors to recruit self-employed workers would encourage tax abuses and reduce site safety. He said: 'My union is doing everything it can to ensure that workers are properly employed at the Olympics. The Olympics should be built in a safe environment by workers in receipt of good pay and good conditions. It is entirely unacceptable to allow a situation where the ODA allows extensive tax avoidance to take place on such a prestigious public project.' The union says because of a lack of employment rights, sites using bogus self-employment are usually unorganised. This means that they lack independent safety reps, UCATT said, adding: 'They have a far higher rate of accidents, injuries and deaths than organised sites with independent safety reps.' UCATT said the industry's self-employment tax scheme is habitually abused, with companies registering workers as self-employed when they really should be classed as directly employed. As a result, contractors did not have to pay national insurance, holiday and sick pay, and pension contributions.

'One' rail workers to ballot over safety

Some I00 guards, revenue protection inspectors and retail staff at 'One' railway in north Essex are to vote on strike action on a safety issue. The RMT members are angry at the dismissal of a guard and the company's failure to support other members involved in an incident with a fare evader. RMT is demanding the immediate reinstatement of Paul Yarwood, who was sacked after the 7 June incident involving the violent and abusive passenger. The union also wants an assurance there will be no further disciplinary action in connection with the incident and a guarantee that the company will in the future fulfil its duty of care towards employees. 'It is breathtaking that after our members were left to deal with a violent and abusive fare evader who refused to stop smoking on a train, assaulted a platform supervisor and threatened a passenger and other staff the company has chosen to turn on its workforce,' RMT general secretary Bob Crow said. 'Rather than support its employees the company has re-defined a fare-dodger who boasted that he has never travelled with a ticket in his adult life as a 'customer', sacked one loyal member of staff and suspended two others. Our members are shocked at the vindictiveness of a management that has preferred to blame its own staff and has completely failed to take steps to ensure the safety of its workforce or passengers.' He said the company had 'totally failed' the workforce. 'We have told 'One' that we expect our member to be reinstated, that we expect no further disciplinary action arising from this incident and that we expect guarantees that the company will in future honour its duty of care to its workforce," Bob Crow said.

Proper enforcement needed on danger trucks

Spot checks on trucks by an official agency that found widespread, serious safety problems only 'touched the tip of the iceberg', a union has warned. Ron Webb, national secretary for transport with the TGWU section of Unite, said the checks by vehicle licensing agency VOSA were welcome but added that spot checks on there own were no substitute for consistent enforcement by properly resourced teams of inspectors. Over an 18 hour period on 3-4 July 2007 at a checksite off the M20 in Kent VOSA examiners examined 56 vehicles and issued 22 immediate and 11 delayed prohibitions. The traffic examiners also checked 49 vehicles for working hours infringements and issued a total of 16 prohibitions. 'Tired drivers kill and defective vehicles are like lethal weapons,' Ron Webb said. 'VOSA have only touched the tip of the iceberg.' VOSA senior vehicle examiner Kevin Jury said: 'The results of these checks speak for themselves and highlight the importance of VOSA's enforcement work, since we encountered a number of vehicles with multiple offences. The checks included a lorry with three severely defective tyres, a leaking fuel tank, a missing shock absorber and on top of that the driver failed to produce the required number of tachograph charts too. The few charts the driver produced showed insufficient rest period.' The inspector added: 'Another driver's record showed that he was driving for 19 consecutive days without any sufficient rest. These vehicles must be removed from the roads if we are to improve road safety.'

Security guard no-go on no-go areas

Security officers' union GMB has warned Glasgow city council and Strathclyde Police to act swiftly to change bylaws so security vans can have safe access to a city centre street. The Group 4 Securicor (G4S) vans are barred from the Argyle Street pedestrian precinct, leaving workers vulnerable to attack when delivering and collecting cash. The union is warning GMB members could introduce their own van ban if the access problem is not resolved. GMB wants security vans to be allowed to access the pedestrian area to protect the guards from attack as they deliver and collect money. It says security workers in their vans and working as guards are threatened, attacked and injured by criminals every day. GMB national secretary Gary Smith said: 'Unless the council amends the bylaws to allow GMB members to do their jobs in safety then GMB will tell them not to service the Argyle Street area with cash. Every employer has a duty to safeguard their workers and G4S cannot be expected to run the risk of their workers being attacked because of council bureaucracy. Worker safety is too important.'

Union rep bullied, harassed then sacked

A GMB shop steward who complained she was bullied and harassed at work as a result of her trade union activities has now been fired. Wendy Ford was sacked last week from the Gateshead Remploy factory. GMB says it believes her sacking is linked directly to the victimisation issue. Wendy first complained of being bullied and harassed over four years ago. However, GMB says the company has never dealt seriously with her complaints. Val Scott, the GMB organiser representing Wendy, said the union will fight 'every way we can' for the shop steward's reinstatement, adding: 'GMB believes that Wendy Ford has been systematically bullied and harassed for the last four year by Remploy management and some individual employees for carrying out her trade union duties.' She said: 'The company, instead of sorting this out, has decided to eliminate the problem by dismissing the injured person who has complained. GMB wants Wendy reinstated immediately with no loss of pay and a full investigation in to the working practices at the Gateshead factory.'

Alarm at increase in attacks on ships

Seafarers' union Nautilus UK has voiced concern at new figures showing a sharp increase in the rate of piracy and armed attacks on shipping over the past three months. Figures released by the ICC International Maritime Bureau (IMB) show the number of attacks was up by 37 per cent in the second quarter compared with the same period in 2006. The IMB report revealed a total of 126 attacks in the first six months of the year, four of which involved UK-controlled ships. There was a 20 per cent increase in violence against crew members, with 13 vessels hijacked by heavily-armed gangs, 152 crew members taken hostage, 41 kidnapped, 20 assaulted and three killed. At the July meeting of the Nautilus UK governing body, members expressed concern at the growing threat to shipping - especially in the waters off Somalia and Nigeria. General secretary Brian Orrell told the meeting that the union is to seek talks with the UK Foreign Office on the problem. Although the 126 attacks in the first half of 2007 remained close to 127 in the same period last year, the spike in the second quarter is worrying, the London-based IMB said through its piracy reporting centre in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 'Despite a sustained decrease in acts of piracy over the past three years, the statistics for the second quarter of this year suggest that we may be seeing a reversal of this trend,' IMB director Pottengal Mukundan warned in a statement.

Waste collection anger directed at workers

Public anger at the switch by over 100 councils to fortnightly waste collections is leading to a massive increase in attacks on refuse workers, the union GMB has said. Commenting this week after the publication of a report from the House of Commons communities and local government select committee, the union said it had warned the government in May that councils should be required to consult with communities before reducing bin collection frequency. GMB's Brian Strutton said attacks were up by 50 per cent on last year. He added: 'It is unacceptable that refuse workers find themselves attacked and abused by householders because councils are not winning public approval for changes in collection policies.' He said while minimising waste and maximising recycling was right, 'local authorities have to educate and support communities when extending collection periods and do so with consent.' Mr Strutton added: 'GMB will not accept our members taking all the stick. We call on council leaders to go and empty the bins themselves where they've upset the householders. If we are genuinely committed to recycling and reducing fly-tipping we ought to follow the lead of major European countries - increase the frequency of collection and remove large items for free.' The report from MPs said fortnightly rubbish collections are not appropriate in every area, adding there is no proof they are responsible for an increase in recycling.

OTHER NEWS
Miner compensation delays criticised

A Government department has been accused of delaying compensation to ex-miners whose health suffered as a result of working down pits because of 'significant weaknesses' in planning the payouts. A report by the National Audit Office (NAO) also identified additional costs to the two schemes, which have so far paid out £3.6 billion to 575,000 claimants for an occupational lung disease (430,000 cases of Chronic Obstructive Airways Disease settled by 31 March) and for vibration white finger (145,000 VWF claims settled). Administration costs have totalled £1.9 billion, the report revealed. The former Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), since renamed the Department for Business and Enterprise, faced a formidable challenge, but there were significant weaknesses in the planning and early implementation of the schemes which led to delays in payouts, said the report. When all of the 760,000 claims are settled, the department expects to have spent £2.3 billion in administration costs, including £1.3 billion in legal fees, and to have paid £4.1 billion in compensation. Comptroller and Auditor General Sir John Bourn commented: 'The former Department of Trade and Industry has settled some 575,000 coal health compensation claims which in itself would be a major achievement, but it did not prepare itself properly for introducing the schemes for these two serious mining related injuries. In the early stages the consequences were significant. The taxpayer has paid too much in administration costs and many claimants, some of whom are elderly and infirm, have had to wait a long time for their compensation. But the department also showed what can be achieved once it started to get its act together. These schemes illustrate important lessons for other government departments when establishing and implementing future compensation schemes.'

Scheme reveals official blindspot on work health

The National Audit Office report on the coal health compensation schemes has cast serious doubt on Great Britain's official occupational disease estimates. The government's original, wildly inaccurate, forecast was that there would be a total of 218,000 vibration white finger (VWF) and chronic obstructive airways disease claims under the scheme, but the final claims total was over three times higher, at 760,000. This failure to recognise the extent of work-related ill health seems to carry over to the official workplace safety agency. The Health and Safety Executive's (HSE) estimates of occupational ill health in Great Britain, published on 19 July, say in 2005/06 there were only 156,000 people in Great Britain with 'breathing or lung problems' related to their current or past work. However, the coal miners' health scheme alone has identified in the last decade almost three times as many workers from just one occupation, coal mining, suffering from just one of the many occupational lung conditions. Although some of the obstructive lung disease claimants have now died, latest government figures indicate 242,000 are still alive and, like affected workers in many other occupations, appear to be largely missing from HSE estimates. Vibration white finger does not even register in the HSE report, despite affecting over 140,000 coal miners alone. These VWF cases have been confirmed in coal health scheme medical evaluations, with the government in June indicating over 85 per cent of the affected workers are still alive. Together this amounts to hundreds of thousands of cases of occupational disease missed in just one occupation. Both obstructive lung disease and VWF are common in other industrial jobs. Other conditions, like occupational cancer, are also overlooked in the report, which puts the total number of people suffering work-related ill health in the 12 months prior to the survey at under 2 million.

Corroded pipe led to Stockline blast

Nine workers at Glasgow's Stockline plastic factory died after petroleum gas ignited in a pipe which had corroded for years. The revelation at the High Court in Glasgow came as the companies that owned Stockline prepare to face four charges brought under the Health and Safety at Work Act. Their trial is due to get under way next month. Defence QC Paul McBride told a preliminary hearing this week that discussions with the prosecution could have a 'significant impact' on the trial and could reduce its duration even further. He said that relatives of the nine dead and 24 injured in the blast on 11 May 2004 would not have to give evidence 'about the tragic circumstances of that day.' The long-delayed trial of the two companies which owned the business, ICL Tech Limited and ICL Plastics Limited, is due to start on 13 August ( Risks 291 ). They face charges alleging that the companies failed to ensure their workers were not exposed to risks of personal injury and death from fire, explosion and other dangers arising out of corroded pipes and an escape of liquid petroleum gas which accumulated in the basement and exploded. Angus Stewart QC, prosecuting, said the exact cause of the explosion had been agreed between the Crown and the defence. He told the judge, Lord Hardie: 'The cause of the explosion was the ignition of petroleum gas in a pipeline which over the years had corroded.'

Accountant's visits led to asbestos cancer

A chartered accountant died as a result of exposure to asbestos, an inquest has heard. Raymond Dunn, 73, died on 9 May this year after developing pneumonia as a result of the asbestos cancer mesothelioma. He contracted the condition even though he had visited a factory's offices only a couple of days a year - more than 50 years ago. The inquest in Blackpool was told it was most likely that Mr Dunn had been exposed to the deadly fibres while working as an articled clerk in Manchester during the mid-1950s. As part of his job, he had to visit the offices in the city two days a year to audit their accounts. Mr Dunn's daughter, Michelle Gerrard, told the inquest: 'He did not visit the factory, but he did speak of asbestos clouds surrounding the factory and entering the office next door. We think this is where he was exposed to asbestos.' Dr James Johnston, a consultant pathologist at Blackpool Victoria Hospital, said: 'If you are exposed to large doses of asbestos, you've a high chance of getting mesothelioma, but you can also get it from a smaller dose. We have had people who have had it and you can't trace any industrial exposure.' Blackpool coroner Anne Hind recorded a verdict that Mr Dunn had died from industrial disease as a result of exposure to asbestos. She said: 'He has lived with this for many years, not realising what has happened because exposure doesn't always mean you get the disease but, when you do, there is no facility for curing it. It's like a time-bomb that has been there for half a century and then suddenly manifests itself.'



Workplace noise still a health threat

Workers, some exposed recently, are still developing noise-induced hearing loss, recent compensation cases show (Risks 311). The noise levels in the Leeds factory of Depuy International, where Alan Gosling was part of a team making knee and hip replacements, has permanently damaging his hearing. Now the 39-year-old has been awarded £6,500 in compensation for the condition and been transferred to another department at the firm. He worked as a fitter and polisher between 1996 and 2006 and worked on spindles to grind and finish surgical implant components. The spindles - and shot blast machines around 10 metres away - generated high levels of noise when in use. However, until 2001, ear protection was not mandatory. Trade union Unite's Amicus section, working with Thompsons Solicitors, secured the payout for Mr Gosling. Sheffield shopfitter Peter Nelson, 65, has been awarded £12,000 compensation pay out after he contracted noise induced hearing loss caused by noise from power tools whilst working for Plumb Furniture Systems Limited. As a result of being exposed to noise from circular saws, routers, sledge hammers, brakers and drills Mr Nelson developed hearing loss which is irreversible and makes it difficult for him to follow conversations. He now has to wear a hearing aid. Mark Allen, from law firm Irwin Mitchell, who represented Mr Nelson, said he 'was never warned or advised about the dangers of noise induced hearing loss or was provided with any protective equipment. This case highlights the importance of health and safety policies. Employers have a duty of care to their staff which includes ensuring full protective equipment is provided so workers' exposure to risk is kept to a minimum.'

High price paid for cheap clothes

Workers in Bangladesh making clothes for some of Britain's best-known high street brands, including Asda, Tesco ( Risks 313 ) and Primark, are enduring long hours, low wages and dangerous working conditions, a union leader has claimed. Nazma Akter, president of the United Garment Workers Federation and general secretary of the Awaj Foundation, a local organisation which fights for workers' rights, said that long hours, bad working conditions, poverty and the overcrowded and insanitary conditions in which garment workers are forced to live made them susceptible to illness. 'They get tuberculosis, kidney problems, diarrhoea, problems with their hearing and there are a huge amount of skin diseases caused by the dust and fibres. People here boil water before they drink it but the garment workers do not have the time to do that. There are also mental health problems brought on by constant stress.' Responding last week to an investigation by the Guardian newspaper, Asda said that it would re-audit all its Bangladeshi factories. A spokesperson for Primark said that labour conditions were a matter of 'considerable concern'. In a statement, it said that it had audited all its Bangladeshi suppliers in the last six months and had 'agreed a programme of remediation' with those not complying with its code of conduct. It acknowledged that audits were an 'imperfect tool' to achieve compliance and that it was working with the Ethical Trading Initiative, an alliance of companies, NGOs, and trade unions, to lobby the Bangladeshi government to improve workers' rights.

Holidays drive up employee stress

Holidays are being ruined by job-related stress, new research has found. An online survey of over 3,400 people for Investors in People found about half of employees (51 per cent) report working extra hours in the run up to taking annual leave. Nearly one in ten (9 per cent) said they felt guilty about leaving colleagues - and nearly one in six (15 per cent) felt stressed that work might not be done properly in their absence. The research also found that over a quarter (27 per cent) of workers left in the office felt more pressured when a colleague is on holiday. Simon Jones, acting chief executive of Investors in People, said 'managers can guard against the inevitable 'summer stretch' by openly co-ordinating and discussing holiday dates, identifying potential pinch points and planning extra resource or balancing workloads accordingly. It's about careful planning and prioritisation well in advance.'

Firm warns of fake crane parts risk

UK contractors must be on their guard over counterfeit tower crane sections, a leading manufacturer has warned. While there have long been rumours regarding fake parts and bad practice, the issuing of two technical notes by the manufacturer has renewed safety concerns across the industry. Contract Journal said a notice from the unnamed company to its customers warned: 'Use of counterfeit parts may result in the collapse of a tower crane, which may cause property loss, personal injury or death.' The journal says the current boom in the construction industry and the increasing height of buildings mean crane hire companies have come under extreme pressure to get more crane sections - a demand crane manufacturers are struggling to meet. Many have order backlogs running to several months. Construction union UCATT expressed concern at the practice. A spokesperson said: 'This latest information is very disturbing to anyone concerned with crane safety. The issue of counterfeit crane sections shows potential problems for the future.' And a Construction Confederation spokesperson said: 'Contractors need to be vigilant at all times. Where replacement parts have not been supplied by the original manufacturer, they should carry a CE mark.' However, some of the copies carry counterfeit CE identification plates that pose particular problems for those tasked with checking the integrity of the crane. The Health and Safety Executive told the journal it is aware of the situation, but said it had received no reports of counterfeit sections in the UK.

Firm fined £3,000 for arm injury

A firm has been fined more than £3,000 after one of its workers was injured when his arm was caught in an industrial cutting machine. Bury St Edmunds-based Petlife International admitted two health and safety offences. The prosecution, by St Edmundsbury Borough Council, came in the wake of an incident where Robert Murton was left with serious injuries to his arm after his hand became trapped in a roller and cutter machine used to make bedding for pets. The business, which is a specialist supplier of dog bedding and pet care products, was fined £3,000 for failing to ensure the health and safety of Mr Murton, who was 40 at the time of the accident. The company was also fined £750 under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations for failing to make a suitable and sufficient risk assessment. Costs of £758 were also awarded to the council. A spokesperson for the council said: 'While operating the machine he got his hand caught in the roller and was pulled into the machine causing serious injuries to his arm.'

INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Australia: Concern at new ABC breast cancer case

Australian journalists' union MEAA wants broadcaster ABC to extend its cancer cluster investigation (Risks 300) to other Brisbane sites after yet another breast cancer diagnosis for a former employee. Angela Eckersley, 40, has become the 14th case of breast cancer at the ABC's former studios at Toowong. She was based at Toowong for about seven years, working up to four shifts a week on the same newsroom production desk as many of the other women diagnosed with the disease since 1994. She left two years ago. ABC abandoned the Toowong site just before Christmas (Risks 289). An expert panel has since found women who worked at the Toowong studios from January 1994 to July 2006 had a six times greater risk of developing breast cancer than other Queensland women, but it could not pinpoint a cause. MEAA Queensland secretary, David Waters, this week asked ABC to widen the investigation to include all seven sites around Brisbane where the ABC employees now work. 'Testing of current sites is paramount if employees are to be further reassured about the safety at work,' he said. The union is also calling for a register of past and present employees for health monitoring purposes. 'There is universal concern amongst ABC Brisbane employees about this cancer cluster," Mr Waters said. 'Yes, we have seen 15 cases of breast cancer since 1994 but all staff are concerned about cancer and that extends to men.'

Australia: Church shareholder challenges safety sackings

An Australian church is calling for an investigation after claims an energy company fired two subcontractors who raised safety concerns. The Uniting Church Synod of Victoria and Tasmania is a significant shareholder in power industry giant Woodside Energy, owner of the Port Campbell gas plant where two workers were sacked, allegedly after reporting safety incidents. The church is trying to use its ethical investor status to pressure the company into investigating the claims. One worker, a safety manager, has signed a statutory declaration alleging he was sacked after he refused to falsify an incident safety report. Another alleges he was dismissed on the suspicion he reported a safety incident. Both were employed by subcontractors reporting to Technip Oceania, the company engaged by Woodside to manage the gas plant site. Director of social justice for the Uniting Church, Mark Zirnsak, said the church was an ethical investor that would not invest in companies with unacceptable human rights, environmental and occupational health and safety practices. 'We are deeply disappointed that Woodside has refused to conduct a thorough investigation into allegations that employees of subcontractors have been sacked over the reporting of safety incidents,' Dr Zirnsak said. 'We are worried that if the allegations are true, employees on the site are being intimidated into not reporting safety risks. This thereby increases the likelihood of a serious accident on the Port Campbell site.' Dr Zirnsak said the church had gone public after seven months of 'failed dialogue' with Woodside. It says the company has a moral responsibility for the subcontract workers. The Victorian secretary of construction union CFMEU, Martin Kingham, said there have been disputes at the site since construction began. 'We really welcome this stance being taken by the Uniting Church... being prepared to put their mouth where their money is,' he said.

Canada: Support for asbestos, but not for victims

The Canadian government spends millions promoting its asbestos exports, but isn't so forthcoming when it comes to its own victims of asbestos disease. Contracting mesothelioma in Ontario - the province that is home to the federal government - is supposed to mean being placed on a fast track for compensation from a workplace insurance plan, since there is a presumption that the asbestos exposure came at work. Yet almost 1,000 of the 1,500 people who developed that cancer between 1980 and 2002 weren't compensated, according to a new research paper, which says this allowed the province's Workplace Safety and Insurance Board to shortchange victims of the disease, and taxpayers, out of hundreds of millions of dollars. The paper, published in the current issue of the International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health, provides some of the first estimates of the human and financial toll in Canada caused by exposure to asbestos. The paper, written by a research team headed by Jim Brophy, one of Canada's top occupational health experts, said Ontario taxpayers have been covering huge medical bills for people with mesothelioma and thousands of other asbestos-caused cancers - costs that should have been covered by fees the WSIB charges employers to cover workplace diseases. Canada, unlike many developed countries, doesn't compile statistics on asbestos illnesses. The incidence and compensation figures are based on data recently released by Cancer Care Ontario and the WSIB, which found from 1980 to 2002 nearly 1,500 men in Ontario were diagnosed with mesothelioma - but only about 550 claims were filed for the illness with the WSIB. 'It is an alarming statistic, and for the first time, reveals to the public the tragic consequences of poorly regulated and controlled asbestos exposures,' the paper said. Canada continues to mine large quantities of asbestos, but the paper said about 95 per cent of the output is exported, mainly to poor, developing countries.

South Africa: Unenforced laws leave work unsafe

Lenient, poorly enforced occupational safety laws are allowing companies to get away with inadequate safety measures, the Southern African Institute for Occupational Hygiene said last week. Deon van Vuuren, the institute's president, said most firms did not carry out risk assessments every two years, as required by law, because government inspections rarely took place. 'America and Europe are at least 20 times stricter than we are,' he said. 'The quality of the inspections is very poor because occupational hygiene is a specialised field.' Just over 100 labour inspectors had to handle 15 different sets of regulations. Less than 20 inspectors specialised in occupational safety. David Rees, a professor of occupational health at Wits University, commented: 'We don't have a culture of health and safety, enforcement agencies are not adequately resourced and we do not have an overall strategy.' The lack of trained personnel, lack of research and casualisation of jobs were also factors. Deon Van Vuuren said even when risk assessors did identify dangers, their obligation was only to warn the company; they had no legal duty to inform the government. 'If you say anything, then you will be cut out of business. That is why in other countries, they do not use consultants like us; government has its own hygienists.'

EVENTS AND COURSES
TUC courses for safety reps
COURSES FOR JULY TO OCTOBER 2007
USEFUL LINKS

Newsletter (5,700 words) issued 20 Jul 2007

This page http://www.tuc.org.uk/workplace/tuc-13536-f0.cfm
printed 22 May 2012 at 21:55 hrs by 38.107.179.232