PDF version available for download (PDF help)

Number 423 - 12 September 2009

Risks
Hazards magazine
 Asbestos - the hidden killer
 Hazards at Work

Risks is the TUC's weekly online bulletin for safety reps and others, read each week by over 17,000 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

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

Union News

Firefighters put out new safety strategy

Firefighters' union FBU is using its nationwide network of safety reps to investigate work-related health problems across the service. A new strategy, spelled out in a video clip on 'fbutube', is looking to establish the extent and causes of harm caused by work and to use this information to identify measures to improve work practices. The union says so far around 1,500 FBU safety reps have received the new materials, including a safety reps' rights guide and workplace inspection guide. Its approach will be informed by a nationwide bodymapping project, to kick off later this year. 'We hope this information will provide a national picture of workplace health and safety problems and we will use that to go the employers and negotiate improvements,' said FBU national health and safety officer John McGhee. He said the union was also seeking to recruit new safety reps so the union could provide cover on more watches at more workplaces. 'We need safety reps because we need them to be vigilant... we've never relied on management to do that,' he said. 'Without health and safety reps we'd go back years and years on health and safety.'

Street cleaning action over 'disgusting' tactics

Street cleaners in Liverpool resorted to industrial action after workers were threatened with disciplinary measures when they raised safety concerns. GMB and Unite members at Liverpool Enterprise said the dispute - which was this week referred to the arbitration service Acas - was in response to the 'disgusting tactics' adopted by the company. They say staff were 'bullied and intimidated' by senior Liverpool Enterprise managers, who made threats of suspension, disciplinary action and dismissal to drivers who had been instructed to take out vehicles without proper safety checks. The unions also say the staff 'are denied basic health and safety facilities for lunch breaks.' The industrial action, a series of one and two hour stoppages, involves 600 refuse collectors, street cleaners, recycling and highways staff working for Liverpool City Council. It was prompted by unresolved safety, breaks and pay issues. Speaking last week, before talks were initiated at Acas, GMB regional organiser Dave Hulse said: 'GMB deplore the way the company are conducting things. Our members will not be bullied or intimidated and we will stand firm in the face of these tactics in order to achieve a fair and just settlement on behalf of our members. We are ready and willing to meet with the company at any time in order to conduct meaningful negotiations.'

Injury ends lifeboat heroics

A lifeboat volunteer, who received a royal honour for decades of life-saving, has been awarded £6,000 compensation after a car accident forced him to quit. UNISON helped Robert Briggs after he suffered whiplash injuries when his car was hit from behind on the M27 in November 2005. Mr Briggs, who had to see a chiropractor for two years for his injuries, had been a member of the Royal National Lifeboat Institute (RNLI) since 1986 and a senior helmsman since 1995. He also received the Queen's Golden Jubilee Medal for long service in 2003. But the 50-year-old has been forced to remain on dry land since he sustained the serious injuries, which saw him fail the medical needed to remain a crew member. He also had to take four weeks off work from his job as a trading services manager at Portsmouth Council. A psychological condition has prevented him from applying for new jobs to further his career, including being unable to drive for long distances. Mr Briggs said: 'Everything changed overnight after the accident, I never realised how debilitating whiplash injuries could be.' UNISON regional secretary Phil Wood said: 'Back and neck injuries can ruin lives and he lost confidence, energy and was forced to give up his volunteering passion and hobbies. Mr Briggs had dedicated decades to saving lives on the lifeboat. For a man that has always been active this is a devastating blow.'

Trip led to back problems for pregnant mum

A pregnant civil servant who tripped at work and damaged her back has received £9,000 in compensation. PCS member Andrea Swales, 39, was almost five months pregnant when she tripped on a loose carpet tile at HM Revenue and Customs offices in Peterlee in July 2006. At first the tax credit adviser put her back pain down to her pregnancy. It wasn't until she gave birth to daughter Tegan that she realised the extent of the injury. At her six week post pregnancy check-up she told her doctor about her bad back and was told she needed physiotherapy. She has since received steroid injections to help with pain relief. It was later found that the fall had brought forward back problems for Andrea by nine years. She has struggled to cope with her injury and has had to rely on her 13-year-old son, Cameron, to help with the new baby. She said: 'All the pleasure was taken out of the first few months after Tegan's birth. Everything was a real struggle. Some days I was in so much pain I couldn't leave the house. I don't know what I would have done if my son hadn't been old enough to help me out.' She has now returned to work, but still suffers from some pain. HM Customs and Revenue admitted liability and settled the compensation claim out of court. Emma Wiles, director of legal services at PCS, said: 'Employers are expected to have a simple inspection programme to make sure thoroughfares are safe.' Janice Hook from Thompsons Solicitors, the personal injury law firm that took Andrea's case for the union, said: 'This fall happened at a time when Ms Swales was particularly vulnerable. She and her unborn child were fortunate that she managed to break her fall. We hope her employer has learnt from this incident and has put procedures in place to avoid this kind of accident happening again.'

Site abuses show need for gangmaster action

Construction union UCATT has renewed its call for gangmasters legislation to be extended to construction. The move follows an investigation by The Observer that revealed workers on the East London line extension had been 'conned' out of wages by Paul Singh, a gangmaster who pocketed hundreds of thousands for their labour. Singh was contracted to provide the staff by Woulfe and Son, a firm sub-contracted by Balfour Beatty/Carillion, the consortium which won the £363m contract to build the first phase of the project. Alan Ritchie, general secretary of UCATT, said: 'The level of exploitation occurring on the East London Line was outrageous. It is very disturbing that this level of abuse went unchecked for such a long time. The highly fragmented nature of the construction industry allows principal contractors to turn a blind eye about the working conditions on their sites.' The union says if the Gangmasters Licensing Act was extended to cover the construction industry, gangmasters and employment agencies could only supply labour once they had met a series of minimum conditions, including checks concerning financial probity and health and safety. 'Sadly until the Gangmasters Act is extended to the construction industry, unscrupulous employers will continue to be able to exploit their workforce,' Mr Ritchie said. In July this year Rita Donaghy's government commissioned report into construction fatalities recommended the act be extended to the construction industry (Risks 415). The government has not so far issued a formal response to the report.

Other news

HSE takes its stall to the unions

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) says it will use its presence at next week's TUC conference in Liverpool to promote plans to get more employees involved in health and safety where they work. The watchdog says its research suggests that involving workers has a positive effect on health and safety performance, and there is 'strong evidence' that unionised workplaces with health and safety representatives are safer and healthier. It says the chance of being injured is almost double in workplaces where workers 'are not involved.' An HSE news release this week noted: 'The TUC plans to recruit more safety representatives from a range of industries - a move fully supported by HSE. Increasing worker involvement in both unionised and non-unionised workplaces is a key principle of HSE's new strategy. It envisages management and the workforce sharing concerns, ideas and solutions through their involvement in joint training, inspections, investigations and risk assessments.' TUC head of safety Hugh Robertson, who also sits on HSE's board, commented: 'Worker involvement must be a pillar of any organisation's health and safety strategy; however it is not worker involvement alone, but worker involvement where the employees are supported by a trade union that has been shown to be most effective in driving down injuries. The TUC therefore welcomes this initiative at the TUC Congress.' HSE said it is working on the next phase of a campaign to promote the benefits of worker involvement and to increase the numbers actively involved in health and safety in the workplace. It said it is set to deliver a package of new subsidised training initiatives, including a new joint training course for managers and health and safety representatives.

Data watchdog says abusers should face jail

The Information Commissioner has called for prison sentences for data abuse offenders. The UK's data protection watchdog this week called for prison sentences for people found guilty of serious misuse of confidential personal information. The move follows high profile cases this year, including the prosecution of Ian Kerr for running a construction industry-backed service that blacklisted trade union and safety activists. Information Commissioner Christopher Graham, who took up his post in June this year, dismissed the penalties currently available to judges under the Data Protection Act as 'pathetic' and said that legislation could be tightened to give them the option of custodial sentences by April next year. Mr Graham said the Kerr case, when his office shut down the company running an illegal blacklist of construction workers, had led to only a 'very modest' £5,000 fine for those responsible. He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'I think for the most blatant and reckless examples of people playing fast and loose with private information, a custodial sentence is certainly appropriate. The DPA is supposed to safeguard confidential personal information, but the penalties in the Act are simply inappropriate for the activities going on today.' He added: 'In the case of the construction industry database, which we closed down earlier this year, we have got hundreds of workers who were denied jobs because they were blacklisted because they were on a database and the guy who was running that got a very modest fine in the magistrates' court. Here's a blatant example of a business making a lot of money by trading in people's personal data, which I believe parliament could stop if we activated a custodial sentence for the worst offenders.'

Work experience shouldn't hurt you

Schools are being told to make sure full health and safety checks are carried out before pupils head out on work experience, following the prosecution of a Stafford company. Deansfield High School in Wolverhampton employed Making Learning Work Ltd to locate extended work experience placements for 32 pupils, at a cost of £650 each. This week the company was given one year's conditional discharge and ordered to pay costs of £22,000 at Wolverhampton Magistrates' Court after pleading guilty to a safety offence. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecution followed an injury to a 14-year-old pupil on a placement in January 2006. The court heard the teenager was placed at R&B Motor Services, a garage owned by Harjinder Kumar. The school was led to believe that Making Learning Work Ltd would carry out a full health and safety audit and risk assessment prior to the pupil starting work at the garage. However, the checks failed to take place and the teenager was almost exclusively supervised by one employee who spoke very little English. During a petrol draining operation the teenager sustained a burn injury to his left hand. HSE inspector John Healy said: 'Making Learning Work Ltd failed in its duty by exposing this pupil to health and safety risks. Had they carried out a risk assessment, it would have soon been obvious that the garage was unsuitable.' He added: 'HSE has investigated several fatal accidents resulting from petrol draining from vehicles where the appropriate safety device, called a fuel retriever, which costs less than £500, was not used.' At a previous hearing, Harjinder Kumar pleaded guilty to a health and safety offence and was fined £3,500 and ordered to pay costs. The case is one of a number where pupils have received serious burns on work placements, with related HSE prosecutions occurring in July (Risks 417) and March (Risks 397) this year.

Worker suffers waste site shock

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is warning employers to be wary of operating machinery near overhead power cables after a Staffordshire man suffered serious burns when he was hit by an electrical charge. The injured man, Andrew Perry, was visiting a waste site at Booths Farm, Cheadle, on 3 September 2008. He was using a control lever to move the extending arm of his truck to tip waste materials, when it touched a set of 33,000 volt overhead electric cables. The electricity surged through the metal structure of the vehicle and through Mr Perry's body, throwing him from the vehicle, leaving him with burns to his arm and feet. John Rowland Fallows, the owner of the site and who trades as Fallows Recycling Services, this week pleaded guilty at Newcastle-under-Lyme Magistrates Court a breach of the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989. He was fined £1,600 and ordered to pay £2,214 costs. HSE inspector Lynne Boulton said: 'Mr Perry was very lucky not to have lost his life. Around 60 per cent of electrical fatalities at work are caused by inadvertent contact with overhead power lines. It's important to remember that machinery and equipment do not need to touch power lines for electricity to be transmitted because it can arc or jump across gaps.' She added: 'In this case, there were no barriers or warnings to prevent drivers visiting this site from tipping waste materials under the power lines and it was only a matter of time before an incident like this took place. It wouldn't have taken much effort to install barriers, as proven by the fact that Mr Fallows quickly erected barriers and warning signs to avoid a repeat of this incident shortly after it occurred.'

Safety breaches cost worker his leg

A Wolverhampton company has been fined £14,000 after a worker was seriously injured. KJ Plant Developments Ltd was also ordered to pay £6,015 costs after pleading guilty to breaches of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 and the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998. Stafford Magistrates Court heard how on 26 March 2008, employee Michael Jones was unloading mesh reinforcement from a vehicle when the load slipped from the forks of a forklift truck and fell on him, crushing his legs. He was taken to hospital where one leg was eventually amputated, while the other leg underwent extensive surgery. Speaking after the case, HSE inspector David Brassington said: 'Mr Jones has been left with life changing injuries. His employer failed to implement fundamental safety procedures. The loading and unloading of lorries requires careful planning and effective control and should be considered as a critical part of transport management. This case has shown that failure to control these activities can lead to horrific injuries and maybe even death.'

Bupa fined for safety training failures

Bupa Care Homes has been ordered to pay £15,000 for 'miserably failing' a severely disabled Wakefield grandmother who died days after breaking both legs while in the firm's care. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), who brought the prosecution, said the fine should serve as a warning to care home operators that they must have the correct training and patient handling procedures. Multiple sclerosis sufferer Muriel Lindley, 80, was a quadraplegic who couldn't move her arms and legs and her care plan stated she needed two carers to move or handle her. However, she was being dressed by just one carer, who had just one day's training, when she fell out of her bed and broke both legs at the Bupa-run West Riding Care Home in Lofthouse, Wakefield last July. Mrs Lindley died in hospital of pneumonia nine days later. Magistrates fined the firm £15,000 and ordered it to pay £10,500 costs after it admitted failing in its duty of care to Mrs Lindley. Prosecutor Andrew Cameron said carer Elizabeth Lindsay had no previous experience and had only been working at the Bupa home for six days when the accident happened. She didn't complete the necessary formal training on patient handling until 22 July - the day Mrs Lindley died. Following the hearing, HSE inspector Paul Robinson commented: 'This prosecution should serve as a reminder to all carers, management and care home operators of what can happen when the correct training and procedures aren't adhered to - and why such policies and guidelines are put in place to safeguard patients in the first place.' Manual handling training and safety lifting procedures are also essential to protect the health of health care staff.

Fines for unlicensed asbestos removal

Three contractors who carried out unlicensed asbestos removal at Kelford School in Rotherham in 2006 have been fined. Mansell Build Ltd (previously Birse Build Ltd) of Cheadle Hulme, Cheshire, was fined £12,500 and ordered to pay £12,500 costs. Andrew Brightmore, a former manager of ARB Agriplant Ltd, was fined £2,500 and ordered to pay £500 costs and Gary Cusack was fined £500 and ordered to pay £250 costs. All were prosecuted at Rotherham Magistrates' Court for health and safety breaches. Mansell Build Ltd, the principal contractor, was employed to carry out work to remove asbestos insulating board ceilings at the school. The work should have been carried out by a contractor licensed by HSE, but the company contracted to carry out the work, ARB Agriplant Ltd, did not have a licence. Now in administration, ARB Agriplant Ltd then subcontracted the work to Gary Cusack, another unlicensed contractor. All contractors failed to implement basic requirements to prevent exposure to asbestos to both those removing the materials and to others working at the school at the time. After the removal work had been completed, Mansell Build Ltd allowed other contractors to work in those areas without verifying which areas were free from asbestos. It was then found that these areas were contaminated with asbestos. ARB Agriplant Ltd provided a forged asbestos licence and a falsified clearance certificate to Mansell Build Ltd, claiming that the work had been undertaken by a licensed contractor and that the area was free from asbestos. Speaking after the case, HSE inspector David Bradley said 'the contractors responsible put others in a dangerous situation, which could have been avoided had the work been carried out by a licensed contractor.'

Woman killed by father's dusty overalls

A 66-year-old Swindon woman died as a result of exposure to her father's asbestos-contaminated overalls as a child. An inquest was told Anita Peters suffered from vascular dementia and developed chest problems in 2007, but a confirmed diagnosis was never made. A post mortem by pathologist Lawrence John showed that Mrs Peters had the asbestos cancer pleural mesothelioma. Widower John said his wife spent her professional life working in accounts and never came into contact with asbestos through her own work. Mr Peters said his father-in-law Albert Summers died of the asbestos-related disease mesothelioma in April 2006 after coming into contact with the substance during his time at a railway company as a younger man. 'He was a fitter,' said Mr Peters. 'They didn't have showers in those days - he would come home in his overalls and they would be dirty, covered in dust.' Recording a narrative verdict, Wiltshire coroner David Ridley said: 'Anita, in a balance of probability, was most likely to be involved in asbestos exposure down to her father's contact with asbestos. Anita's death was caused by industrial disease mesothelioma.'

Long hours are bad all round

Long hours are bad for workers and should be curtailed for the sake of the workforce, the economy and the environment, an investigation by The Ecologist has concluded. It notes: 'There's something wonky with the way we work. Those of us with jobs are stressed when we work, and fatigued when we're not.' The feature in the current issue of the magazine continues: 'Many of us don't feel we have time to interact with our communities. Forty-six per cent of Brits have described themselves as being 'exhausted' at the end of a day's work. A similar survey by the Families and Work Institute found one third of Americans were 'chronically overworked'. Less than a quarter of Brits are 'satisfied' with their work hours. But while some of us are shackled to a long-hours culture, unemployment has been rising.' This reflects the TUC's findings. The union body's research found the UK workforce has too many people overworked at the same time it has lots of people struggling to survive because they are unemployed or under-employed. Like the TUC, The Ecologist argues there is a strong business case for tackling long hours. It says 'signs indicate that businesses too would benefit from decreasing working hours - the harmful impact of fatigue in manufacturing has long been established.' It adds that 'the US Department of Labor has found that employees are generally more productive in the first five hours of their workday.' The magazine says the environmental benefits of reducing working hours 'could be considerable', noting that if Europe mirrored the excessive working hours of the USA 'carbon dioxide emissions would rise by 30 per cent.'

International News

Europe: More than 1 in 11 are damaged by work

More than 1 in every 11 workers in the European Union has suffered a work-related health problem in the last year, according to official research. The extent of the problem was revealed after the 2007 European Union (EU) Labour Force Survey included a module on work accidents and work-related health problems. Initial findings reveal that in the European Union's 27 member states, 8.6 per cent of workers had experienced a work-related health problem in the 12 months prior to the survey. The figures were near identical for men (8.53 per cent) and women (8.59 per cent), even though women account for only a small percentage of officially recorded occupational illnesses in the EU. Men and women in the agriculture, hunting and forestry sector had particularly high rates of work-related ill-health, with 13.47 per cent of women and 10.47 per cent of men reported a work-related health problem in the preceding year. Men in the mining and quarrying, transport, storage and communication sectors also suffered high rates of work-related ill-health, while health and social services were risky for women. The survey found 3.2 per cent of EU workers had a work-related injury in the preceding year.

Global: Deadly lung disease in denim factories

Migrant workers formerly employed in Turkey's textile and garment industry may have contracted silicosis from sandblasting denim in factories that lacked basic protective measures (Risks 226). The warning comes from ITGLWF, the global union for the textile and clothing industry. In a joint letter, ITGLWF and the Solidarity Committee of Sandblasting Laborers have urged the governments of Azerbaijan, Moldova, Georgia and Romania to take measures to protect returned workers who may be at risk. ITGLWF general secretary Neil Kearney said: 'The process of sandblasting, in which fabric is blasted with sand in order to give it a worn look, exposes workers to the risk of inhaling dust and thus developing silicosis. The most fatal and irreversible form of silicosis can occur after only a few months of exposure. In the European Union this type of production has been banned for more than 40 years because it represents a major health risk.' He added: 'An estimated 10,000 workers in the country are believed to have been exposed to risk in unsafe factories until the process was banned earlier this year. To date 550 workers have been diagnosed with silicosis, and 40 have died. However, with an incidence rate estimated at almost 50 per cent among workers in the sector the actual number affected could be ten times greater.' He said new research had highlighted the risk to often illegally employed migrant workers.

India: Tea workers dying for safe water

On 4 September, Sukesh Munda of Joy Birpara Tea Estate died from a gut infection. This brought the number of deaths from the enteric disease to four in a one-week period. One hundred workers were admitted to hospital in a single day bringing the total number of admissions to 250 by 5 September. The disease - acute diarrhoea is a main symptom - first showed up in a closed tea garden, Dheklapara, at the end of August. A local medical officer, Sujan Sarkar, has visited the area and confirmed to the press that the number of cases of enteric diseases was on the rise. He said: 'The situation is grim and if garden management do not ensure the supply of safe drinking water, there is nothing we can do.' He added that the medical service was doing everything it could to supply medicines, saline and oral rehydration solutions to the gardens but unless the source of the infection was controlled there was little that could be done. Global farm and food union federation IUF's Asia/Pacific office has sent a team to the area. Joydeb Barman, superintendent of the Birpara State Hospital, told IUF's team the hospital was struggling to cope. He also said that drinking water in the tea gardens was 'not up to the mark.'

Global: Work pressures lead to suicide problem

Reports from Ireland, France, the USA and the UK have identified a sharp rise in suicide risks related to work. Workplace bullying has 'far surpassed' any other reason why people are seeking advice from suicide prevention counselling services, the head of a suicide prevention charity in Ireland warned this week. Dr Tony Byrne said the church-based Awareness Education Office was experiencing a 'huge increase' in calls for help in relation to 'corporate' bullying. 'It is unbelievable how many people are calling for help,' he said. 'We deal with suicide prevention and so look at all forms of bullying, but in recent times problems in the workplace have far surpassed others.' In France, 21 employee suicides at France Télécom since February 2008 eventually prompted management action on 'prevention of psychosocial risks.' The problems have been blamed on remorseless pressure to increase productivity and reduce costs following the privatisation of the previously highly-regarded public service. In the US, preliminary data from the 2008 Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) programme released last month recorded 251 suicides at work, their highest level since the inception of the CFOI programme in 1992. The 2008 count is 28 per cent higher than the 196 suicides at work recorded in 2007 (Risks 421). A UK study this year concluded soaring stress brought on by job losses could prompt a rise in suicide rates in people under 64 years of age (Risks 414). 'Crying shame', a report last year from Hazards magazine, warned that work factors could account for up to 250 suicide deaths in the UK each year.

Resources

Green jobs, safe jobs blog

This December, unions will join government representatives, employers and international agencies at the Copenhagen summit, a meeting charged with providing an answer to critical problems of climate change. While most in attendance will accept the case for green jobs, it will be the union side that also considers the lot of workers in polluting industries and the quality and safety of the green jobs - recent reports have detailed workplace poisonings, occupational diseases and runaway injury rates in the sector (Risks 420). Unions will press the case for 'just transition,' providing 'decent', safe, union jobs for those displaced from the dirty jobs targeted for phase out. Unions also know that just because an employer is 'green', that employer may be no more inclined than the rest to be 'good' or 'safe'. A new blog, 'Green jobs, safe jobs', has been created by Hazards magazine and the global union confederation ITUC. It deals head-on with workplace health and safety challenges, arguing the case for new jobs that are good, green and safe.

Events and Courses

TUC courses for safety reps

COURSES FOR AUGUST to OCTOBER 2009

Useful Links

  • Visit the TUC 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.
  • Subscribe 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.

Newsletter (5,100 words) issued 11 Sep 2009

This page http://www.tuc.org.uk/workplace/tuc-16958-f0.cfm
printed 9 February 2012 at 08:28 hrs by 38.107.179.232