The
Hazards Campaign Charter: health and safety demands on the Government
The Hazards Campaign
network was established in 1987 to work against the widespread ill-health
and danger in workplaces, and for major improvement in occupational health
and safety. The first Hazards Charter was published as a manifesto for
the 1997 election. The Labour Party in opposition made promises that if
elected they would reverse the deregulation and downward spiral of health
and safety under 17 years of Tory rule and support the demands in the
Hazards Charter. Eight years on, two terms of a Labour Government later,
very few of the 1996 promises have been delivered.
The Hazards Campaign
believes:
‘It is a universal human right to have a safe and healthy workplace,
and to be able to go to work and return home after a day's work as fit
and healthy as when we left home’.
Equal
Health and Safety Standards for all workers
Some workers
do not get the full protection of H&S Law.
Hazards
Campaign demand: That the health, safety and welfare standards
at work of all workers are universally enforced, that a gender sensitive
approach is ensured, and that work is fitted to the workers and is
fit for all workers.
Safety
representatives rights
Safety reps
save lives and make workplaces safer and healthier.
Hazards
Campaign demand: Full recognition and enforcement of existing
safety reps rights and the establishment of additional rights, including
the right to be Roving Reps, serve Provisional Improvement Notices
(PINS), refuse dangerous work by stopping the job, and to fully participate
in all aspects of health and safety in the workplace.
Employers'
duties and responsibilities
At least 70%
of incidents that kill or injure workers are due to failures by employers
to properly manage health and safety.
Hazards
Campaign demand: New laws to criminalise corporate killing, define
the health and safety duties of controllers of organisations, include
health and safety performance in Annual Reports and abolish Crown
Immunity.
Enforcement
Breaches of
health and safety laws are criminal offences which should be properly
enforced and resourced as other areas of criminal justice system.
Hazards
Campaign demand: More resources for the HSE and LAs, higher penalties
and more preventative enforcement, shifts from Guidance to ACOPs and
from ACOPs to Regulations.
Occupational Ill-health
Millions of
workers are made ill every year by stress, musculo-skeletal disorders,
asbestos-related diseases, cancer, asthma.
Hazards
Campaign demand: Government and employers prioritise the prevention
of work related ill-health and establish an adequately funded worker-controlled
occupational health system, available free of charge to all workers.
Compensation
for occupational injury and illness
Workers injured
or made ill by work get a raw deal.
Hazards
Campaign demand: A just and effective system of civil and state
compensation which maintains workers standard of living and addresses
the burden of all illnesses caused by work, addresses gender inequalities
and increases opportunities for the rehabilitation of those disabled
by work.
Globalisation
Workers across
the world have a common interest in their health, safety and welfare
at work.
Hazards
Campaign demand: Health and safety in the UK and worldwide must
conform to the highest standard, not be diminished by market forces.
Environment
What happens
in workplaces can adversely affect the environment.
Hazards
Campaign demand: The role and rights for any/all reps to act
on issues relating to the environmental impact of their workplaces.
Asbestos
Despite the
recent ban on importation and use, millions of tonnes of asbestos remain
in buildings and the environment in the UK.
Hazards
Campaign demand: The strictest possible enforcement of current
Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations 2002 and other legislation
to protect current workers and communities in the UK; a world wide
ban on asbestos mining and manufacture of asbestos products, and an
end to exports of asbestos to developing countries.
Road Risks
Risks associated
with driving at work must be managed under the framework of health and
safety legislation.
Hazards
Campaign demand: The employers of workers who drive as part of
their work, must include the risks of driving in their management
of health and safety at work and report injuries recorded RIDDOR.
Workers
Memorial Day
People killed
at work are not officially remembered and the causes of their deaths
are not formally acknowledged.
Hazards
Campaign demand: The government officially recognises Workers
Memorial Day on 28th April every year.
If you want a
printed version contact Hazards Campaign Secretariat, C/O GMHC Windrush
Millennium Centre, 70 Alexandra Road, Manchester, M16 7WD or e-mail mail@gmhazards.org.uk
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