Today is International Workers’ Memorial Day. At midday, trade unionists and campaigners will hold a minute’s silence to remember those workers who have lost their lives due to work.
Hundreds of people in the UK are killed at work each year. Thousands more suffer injuries, disabilities and ill-health due to unsafe and unhealthy jobs and workplaces.
About 50,000 workers die each year from work-related diseases.
These figures are a tragic reminder that there is still more work to be done to protect staff in the workplace.
But the government does not see health and safety laws as a fundamental protection for workers. In fact, it mocks health and safety, labelling it as unnecessary red tape and a “burden on business.”
175,000 workers were forced off work for at least seven days last year because of a work-related injury. And the figure is increasing under this government.
Our members often work under appalling and stressful conditions, and the essential work they do is anything but a burden. It is the government that is a burden on workers.
Since 2010, the ConDems have been tampering with health and safety legislation. They have slashed funding, reduced the number of inspections, blocked new regulations and removed a number of existing protections.
The level of support and guidance available to employers has also been cut.
It is harder for workers to claim compensation when they are injured or made ill, and in many cases employers are simply not required to report injury and illness.
Today is about remembering those who have been killed at work, but it is also about fighting to make workplaces safer and healthier. When our members are put at risk, so are the people they care for – schoolchildren, the elderly, the vulnerable and their families.
The government owes it to all workers to end its cavalier approach to health and safety.
Workplaces must be regularly inspected, vulnerable workers must receive increased protection, and people must have fair access to compensation when the unthinkable happens.