date: 17 September 2003

embargo: immediate release

Attention: regional/local news, safety media


TUC awards new "Workers’ VC" to safety reps

The TUC announced the national and regional winners of its 2003 Safety Representative of the Year awards at its annual congress in Brighton last week.

The winners have been described by TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber as the heirs of the 440 winners of the Order of Industrial Heroism between 1923 and 1964 - popularly known as the 'Workers’ VC' (Victoria Cross). The original awards were given by the Daily Herald (which later became The Sun), to recognise the 'deeds of valour' of those who saved fellow workers from danger or death. The new awards, initiated this year, recognise the more general work of union-appointed workplace safety representatives, who represent workers to employers over all health and safety matters.

The national winner, who was given his award at TUC Congress on Monday, 8 September, is TGWU safety rep Anthony Hitchins, who works at Peugeot in Coventry. Details of his achievements and those of the regional winners are attached.

The regional awards went to:

  • Scotland - George Kane, Transport and General Workers’ Union (TGWU)
  • Wales - John Evans, Graphical, Paper and Media Union (GPMU)
  • North - Kevin Armstrong, Unifi (banking and finance union)
  • North West - Robert Wilson, Graphical, Paper and Media Union (GPMU)
  • Yorkshire and Humberside - Philip Clarkson, Amicus
  • West Midlands - Ron White, Public and Commercial Services union (PCS)
  • East Midlands - Jackie Harrison, Public and Commercial Services union (PCS)
  • South East - Gwen Cherry, Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers’ Union (USDAW)
  • South West - Malcolm Mellow, Transport and General Workers’ Union (TGWU)

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said:

'Safety reps are the best and sometimes the only defence that working people have. We know that union safety reps cut the rate of serious injury at work by more than 50%, and over the years they have saved thousands of lives by diligence, hard work and commitment.

'Safety reps work their magic by making sure that workers’ health and safety risks are managed properly by employers. These ‘Workers’ VCs’ honour the hard work and ingenuity of two hundred thousand safety reps around Great Britain by picking out just a few of the stories those safety reps have to tell.'

The winners and their unions can be contacted through the TUC press office.

Notes to Editors:

All TUC press releases can be found at www.tuc.org.uk

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pre-embargo releases and reports from the TUC. Visit www.tuc.org.uk/pressextranet

A series of TUC rights leaflets are available on our website and from the know your rights line 0870 600 4 882. Lines are open every day from 8am-10pm. Calls are charged at the national rate.

1. The TUC awards cover Great Britain, and there is therefore no award for Northern Ireland.

2. For more about the Order of Industrial Heroism, see 'The Order of Industrial Heroism' by WH Fevyer, JW Wilson and JE Cribb, The Orders and Medals Research Society, 2000 available from John Wilson, ‘Little Sadlers’, Upper Edgeborough Road, Guildford GU1 2BG for £28 plus £3.50 p&p.

Contacts:

Media enquiries: Ben Hurley 020 7467 1248 or 0796 316903 (pager) or email bhurley@tuc.org.uk

Other enquiries: Owen Tudor, TUC Health and Safety Specialist on 020 7467 1325 or 07788 715261 (mobile) or otudor@tuc.org.uk

TUC Safety Rep of the Year 2003:

Winner pen portraits

National winner

Anthony Hitchins is a safety rep and shop steward for the Transport and General Workers Union at PSA Peugeot in Coventry. His main achievements have been to get machines guarded, and influencing the company to introduce employee medical checks - in one case leading to the eradication of machine cutting oils which were causing scrotal cancer and dermatitis. He campaigned to have asbestos components replaced with safer alternatives, and encouraged the company to eliminate the need for workers to wear eye protection, by providing protection at source. He has helped reduce welding fumes in the body shop and paint shop at Ryton. He is also involved in life saving outside work, and was last year awarded the Royal Life Saving Society Commonwealth Council 'Silver Cross' and 'Medal of Distinction'. When he started out, he recalls workers who would 'chat up colleagues to find out the quickest way to defeat the machine guarding systems just to earn a few shillings more. Other workers would accept ‘dirt’ money or ‘danger money’ to work in dangerous processes or with dangerous chemicals'.

Scotland

George Kane, a member of the General Executive Committee of the Transport and General Workers’ Union (TGWU), became a safety rep in 1977, and although he works in construction, he has never had to deal with a death on one of his sites. When asked why he became a safety rep, he said 'the honest answer is no-one else wanted to do it. But it is a challenge and if you are good at it, you can help people and make a difference to their working environment'. After losing his job for pursuing occupational deafness compensation cases for twenty of his colleagues, he became in 2002 a ‘worker safety adviser’ for the TUC - piloting the concept of a roving safety rep - in the construction industry in Glasgow.

Wales

John Evans, a Graphical, Paper and Media Union (GPMU) branch committee member and FOC for WH Smith Newport has been a safety rep for ten years. He sits on that joint WHSmith/GPMU safety committee and is often asked to contribute to the company’s health and safety policy. In his own workplace, he conducts a quarterly review of safety on the site with the General Manager, and makes sure that all new employees receive safety induction training. He has recently updated the site’s training records to make sure 100% of staff are safety trained, and he is responsible for all the accident reports, following each one up by making sure that extra training is provided.

North

Kevin Armstrong is the banking and finance union Unifi’s full time, seconded health and safety rep for Barclays in the north, and is based in Cumbria. Kevin believes strongly that everyone should have the right to work in a safe and healthy workplace. He first became involved thirteen years ago when he raised concerns with managers about a dangerous situation at work which was ignored, but which the union resolved. He has been campaigning, influencing and helping to raise standards and the profile of health and safety ever since. But he is proudest of having been chosen as the pilot full time safety rep at Barclays and having made a success of it (there are now seven full time seconded reps). A product of partnership between union and management, it has given the union an unprecedented ability to influence and change safety standards for all Barclays staff.

North West

Robert Wilson is the Graphical, Paper and Media Union (GPMU) senior safety rep in the Bridgewater chapel in Ellesmere Port. He became a safety rep in 1985 following a fatality in his department. Bob assisted the victim until the ambulance arrived, but his fellow worker never saw his wife and young child again. His proudest achievement was forming a safety rep ‘safety circle’ covering three other UK paper mills to share experiences and pool their knowledge, with the shared objective of preventing accidents. Management now want to get involved too. He produces a quarterly safety newsletter for workers in his mill, trains colleagues and conducts inspections, holds a NEBOSH General Certificate, and represented the union on the Transport Working Group of the HSC Paper and Board Industry Advisory Committee, formulating guidance for the industry.

Yorkshire and Humberside

Philip Clarkson is an Amicus safety rep, shop steward and secretary to the joint management-union safety committee at BAe systems, Brough, North Humberside. He became a safety rep in 1988, and his site safety manager says that since then 'he has been instrumental in changing the culture within the site trade union movement and developing a working partnership with the company for the joint resolution of health and safety issues'. He developed a system for managing hand arm vibration exposure from percussive tools, minimising the pain and suffering caused and saving the company £100,000 - winning the Chairman’s Award for Innovation in 2002. Despite this, he considers his proudest achievement to be the benchmark audits he conducts across 19 separate areas within the plant.

West Midlands

Ron White is the branch health and safety officer for the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) in Birmingham, a learning rep, and a regional union executive member for Central England. He originally volunteered to be safety rep for the tax enquiry office when no one else would. When he evaluated the management’s risk assessment, he found there was asbestos present in the building. After getting the training he needed to deal with the issue, Ron ensured that all staff, past and present, received a letter for their GPs identifying the possible exposure. In his own office at Solihull and across the region, he has ruffled feathers, educating and winning respect from members and managers. He recently issued the first Union Inspection Notice in the region, to deal with the heat in one of the busiest tax offices in Britain. He has also negotiated a stress policy for the Inland Revenue in Solihull and is now campaigning for a national agreement on the issue.

East Midlands

Jackie Harrison, Public and Commercial Services union (PCS), is health and safety officer for a branch of twelve hundred members in Nottingham. She became a safety rep because she saw the need for cohesive organisation, and wanted to make management take the union seriously over health and safety issues. Her father had also been a safety rep, and colleagues say of Jackie that 'she leads by example, gives her all to the members and is always helpful'. Her main achievements are increasing awareness among her fellow workers, encouraging others to become reps, and getting her managers on board.

South East

Gwen Cherry is a safety rep, stores forum rep and branch secretary for the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers’ Union (USDAW), based in Bishop’s Stortford, Essex. She became a safety rep 'because she cares' and she could see problems that needed sorting out. Gwen won a company award in recognition of her idea, called a 'plank' that reduces the reach needed to scan goods at the checkout. It was successfully trialled in her store and is now used nationwide. The holder of a TUC Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety (the first step towards a professional health and safety qualification achieved after a year-long study course), she had recognised and persuaded management that checkout layouts breached the Manual Handling Regulations. She worked closely with the company’s design team to overcome the problem.

South West

Malcolm Mellow, Transport and General Workers’ Union (TGWU), is chair of the union safety rep committee and the joint management-union safety committee for his quarry in St Austell, Cornwall, and he sits on the Quarries National Joint Advisory Committee which oversees health and safety standards for the whole industry. Malcolm was instrumental in the production of new safety regulations and codes of practice in quarries, and is now working on a new national health strategy. Every week, he runs a poster campaign in his workplace for European health and safety week (13-20 October this year). He also chairs the committee which designs the rules, procedures and forms used by managers and safety reps when they do workplace inspections.

Press release (1,900 words) issued 16 Sep 2003

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