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Health and safety regulation is not the burden on business the prime minister suggests (Risks 538), but something any responsible business should embrace, the TUC has asserted. 'Regulation should not be seen as a burden on business,' a TUC briefing confirms. 'It is a responsibility, just as paying taxes is a responsibility, and no business should be able to operate unless it can do so safety.' The briefing, the first in a series of TUC bulletins to be issued in the run up to Workers' Memorial Day on 28 April, adds 'there is no evidence that, despite all the complaints, health and safety regulations impose even a minimal hardship on businesses.' TUC says David Cameron's claim that businesses are burdened by a tide of risk assessment forms every year 'is nonsense. The vast majority of employers never carry out any kind of written risk assessments, and for those that do, there is easy-to-understand advice available from the Health and Safety Executive on how to do them.' It adds the government's 'attack on health and safety laws destroys the consensus that has existed around health and safety for the last 40 years. It will make it harder to get the laws we need in areas where there are new risks and could lead to Britain having some of the lowest levels of protection in Europe.' This threat has led the union body to declare 28 April this year 'a Day of Action to defend health and safety.' TUC adds: 'Join any events in your area on that day and demonstrate that we will not give up our right to a safe workplace.'
Defending regulation, TUC Day of Action to defend health and safety bulletin No.1. TUC Workers' Memorial Day webpages. ITUC/Hazards International Workers' Memorial Day webpages.
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