News release – 16 December 2020 – No embargo

The Working Dead! Hazards Campaign demands the Government take tougher action on preventing transmission of the virus

The 16 December 2020 Manchester TUC meeting  (1) on Zero-Covid to save lives and livelihoods heard from Janet Newsham on why the Hazards Campaign is demanding the Government take tougher action on preventing transmission of the virus. She said:

“The number of workers who have died because of Covid-19 is in the thousands. (2)  They are infected in their homes by those they live with who have become infected in schools or in their workplaces , in their communities when they do their weekly shop, on their way to and from work when they use public transport but they are also infected in their workplaces or doing their work activities.  Among the thousands who have died, just 189 Covid deaths were reported in six months to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).  (3)

“These were reported to the HSE despite them discouraging employers from reporting through their RIDDOR system. (4)  However, 189 workers deaths were reported through RIDDOR in six months, compared to 111 fatalities in the previous year.  This is a huge increase and highlights the risks that workers are facing in the pandemic and the lack of controls on their health and safety.

“Occupational risks of becoming infected with Covid-19 highlights the lack of information available about how transmission risks can be controlled in all working environments, and that only Covid-safe workplaces should be open, it highlights the lack of enforcement in ensuring employers are controlling the risks, it highlights the failure of Government to take a precautionary approach to transmission especially of airborne aerosol risks in our workplaces (5) and availability of a preventative standard of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), it highlights the lack of priority in all our Nations to the health of their citizens over opening non-essential businesses and it highlights a lack of Zero-Covid strategy by Nation Governments to removing the virus transmission from our society.

“Occupational risks could and should have been controlled.  Infection control is a standard risk control in many workplaces.  If other workplaces had needed educating in how this could be done, the expertise is out there and available.

“The UK Government from early in the pandemic misrepresented the risks to health and the controls needed to protect people.  They didn’t put in place strict infection control procedures in workplaces or broadcast the risks people were facing.  They did not make available financial support to workplaces to ensure they are Covid-safe (6) but rather put in place short term solutions like some lock-downs which only partially impacted on the spread of the virus and as a result we are on a roller-coaster of partial lock-down based on how many dead bodies are piling up!

“Our loved ones have become collateral damage in the pursuit of profit and privatisation by our incompetent and inept Government.

“The HSE has been like a secret society, operating in the shadows. (7) They have based most of their assumptions of how safe our workplaces are, on telephone conversations with the people that are supposed to be ensuring the safe workplaces!  In normal times HSE / Local Authority (LA) inspectors would also have conversations with Trade Union Safety reps which checks that the information provided by employers is accurate but during one of the most dangerous times for many workers, the HSE thought it fit to believe and talk only to the people who have caused the deaths of hundreds of workers by not controlling the risks.

“We know where the risks to workers health are.  We know how these risks should be controlled.  The controls needed are just the same in care homes, hospitals, buses, work vans, offices, restaurants, pubs, shops, schools, universities, factories etc.  All these working environments are transmitting the virus to our families, communities and other workplaces.

“This isn’t rocket science it is simple message to control the transmission risks and if you cant, shut down until you can. And for the Government to provide additional funding and resources to ensure there is more space, fewer people, greater ventilation, precautionary level PPE, more cleaning, improved hygiene and welfare and greater education of transmission risks.

“On top of this, the Government has a UK wide remit to work with other Nations in the UK to stop transmission from those entering the countries, to ensure test, track, trace and isolate is working to a high level of contact and isolation and that payments are made to workers unable to work because of lock-downs, workers who are sick and workers who need to isolate.

“To achieve it we need a circuit break at Christmas to ensure these Government actions are in place and are working effectively.  A Zero-Covid strategy (8) (9) to end transmission of the virus is the only solution that will save lives and livelihoods, will stop deaths, stop infections and disabilities caused by the infection and lead us on a path back to a healthy future until the vaccine is established in our communities.”

1. Manchester Trades Council Event
2. Covid deaths by occupation – ONS
3. Covid Fatalities reported to HSE
4. RIDDOR reporting of COVID-19 – HSE
5. Aerosol transmission – Hazards Campaign and Reel News video
6.Hazards Campaign and Independent SAGE call for no workers to return to workplaces unless Covid safety plans are in place, 1 September 2020
7. Laid Bare: The scandal of expendable workers before, during and after Covid, Hazards Magazine,
8.Hazards Campaign calls for Zero-Covid strategy by all the Governments in the UK, 27 November 2020
9. Zero Covid campaign webpages

Hazards Campaign details
website www.hazardscampaign.org.uk
twitter @hazardscampaign
facebook www.facebook.com/groups/123746101003963
If you need more information please email: janet@gmhazards.org.uk
or call Janet 07734 317 158
The Hazards Campaign is a UK-wide network of resource centres and campaigners. The Hazards Campaign supports those organising and campaigning for justice and safety at work

Hazards Campaign Thursday Talk – 1 December 2020

Racism and the disproportionate impact on health and safety:  Organising to protect workers

The talk featured:
– Wilf Sullivan, TUC Race Equality Officer,
– Moe Manir, Unite Union London bus worker and
– Ameen Hadi, Chair of NW Unison black members committee and Salford Unison branch officer

The speakers discussed:
1. Why is health and safety an equality issue?
2. Why have black workers been impacted more (infected and died) by Covid-19 and were they disproportionately at risk from injuries, ill health and work related deaths before Covid-19?
3. What has managements response been to the increased risks faced by black workers?
4. How can workers respond to the workplace risks?

View the meeting on YouTube here or below:

In addition we shared information about two NEU safety reps who have been dismissed and need support to be reinstated.  There are links below:

Louise Lewis Louise was carrying out her role as a NEU H&S Rep,  please sign this petition and share widely. We cannot let her employer get away with this!

Action Network petition • Model motion for branches  • change.org petition

Please send message of support for Louise to: hazel.danson@neu.org.uk or melanie.griffiths@neu.org.uk

Sharon Morgan Another NEU rep who is in East London, Sharon Morgan, has also been dismissed, without a hearing or an investigation for raising health and safety issues about Covid.  Members at her school, London Design Engineering UTC, have been on strike today.

A petition has been launched calling on Sharon to be reinstated and the link is: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/sharon

Finally, Wilf Sullivan shared information from the TUC: Dying on the job – Racism and risk at work

Join the Hazards Campaign Thursday Talk with an expert panel of speakers from the Trade Union and Health and Safety movement on Thursday 10th December, 6.00-7.30pm – On ZOOM

The speakers will lead a discussion and address the following issues:

1. Why is health and safety an equality issue?
2. Why have black workers been impacted more (infected and died) by Covid-19 and were they disproportionately at risk from injuries, ill health and work related death before Covid-19?
3. What has managements response been to the increased risks faced by black workers?
4. How can workers respond to the workplace risks?

To book a place and receive the link to the meeting please go to  Eventbrite

For further information relevant to the speakers and subject:

• Hazards Campaign News Releases
• Vulnerable workers, Hazards magazine
• Covid-19: How racism kills
• BME workers have been asked to “shoulder more risk” during pandemic, says TUC
• Society must do more to tackle structural racism, says UNISON
• How and When should an Individual Risk Assessment be carried out

website www.hazardscampaign.org.uk
twitter @hazardscampaign
facebook www.facebook.com/groups/123746101003963

If you need more information please email: janet@gmhazards.org.uk
07734 317 158

The Hazards Campaign is a UK-wide network of resource centres and campaigners. The Hazards Campaign supports those organising and campaigning for justice and safety at work.

If you would like to get more involved or make a donation to our organisation please email: janet@gmhazards.org.uk

Covid Transmission and Killer Workplaces

Join the Hazards Campaign Thursday Talk (19th November 2020 6.00-7.30pm on Zoom) featuring speakers including trade union health and safety officers, reps and activists.

We will be discussing how we can end the lockdown using a Zero-Covid strategy and keep people safe at work in Covid-safe workplaces.

Book a place and receive the link to the meeting via  Eventbrite

We will also be launching the film ‘COVID Transmission and Killer Workplaces’.

For further information relevant to the speakers and subject:

Hazards Campaign News Releases

Hazards Campaign and Independent SAGE call for no workers to return to workplaces unless Covid safety plans are in place

The COVID-19 Safe Workplace Charter and briefing document on
ending work lockdowns in GB, Joint Independent Sage and Hazards Charter and document

A Better Way To Go: towards to a Zero COVID UK,   Independent Sage Zero-Covid Strategy

Zero Covid Campaign

Hazards Campaign details
website www.hazardscampaign.org.uk
twitter @hazardscampaign
facebook www.facebook.com/groups/123746101003963

If you need more information please email: janet@gmhazards.org.uk
07734 317 158

The Hazards Campaign is a UK-wide network of resource centres and campaigners. The Hazards Campaign supports those organising and campaigning for justice and safety at work.

If you would like to get more involved or make a donation to our organisation please email: janet@gmhazards.org.uk

Hazards Campaign Thursday Talk: Breast Cancer Awareness is not enough! [Thursday 29 October]

 October is Breast Cancer Awareness month and every year thousands of people don pink outfits and collect money for a variety of breast cancer charities. The session highlighted some of the preventable occupational and environmental risks to women and why they develop breast cancer. We had a line up of fantastic speakers including:

Jane McArthur – Work and Prevention SSHRC, University of Windsor, Canada

Helen Lynn – Alliance for Cancer prevention , Health and Environment Researcher

Jane Stewart – TUC General Council, Unite NEC and Chair Womens Committee, Unite Convener at Unilever Port sunlight

Video

A link to a recording of the event can be found here or viewed below:

A copy of Helen Lynn and Jane McArthur’s presentation can be found here.

Resources

Negotiators’ guide: Women’s health and safety at work, Unite

Cancer prevalence among flight attendants compared to the general population, NCBI

Study Examines Cancer Rates Among Flight Attendants, American Cancer Society

Breast Cancer Prevention Partners

Hazards Magazine Cancer resources and tools

Work cancer hazards A continually-updated, annotated bibliography of occupational cancer research produced by Hazards, the Alliance for Cancer Prevention and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).

Fact sheet on COSHH and Stopping deadly exposure at work

Jane E. McArthur wins the 2019 Barbara Rosenblum
Cancer Dissertation Scholarship

Linking breast cancer and our environment, Helen Lynn

Breast cancer exposure among Windsor-Detroit border workers needs to be taken more seriously, says researcher, 23 June 2020, CBC News

Hazards Campaign – News Release 2^nd November, 2020

A Government void of reality and enforcers avoiding reality!

This week the national Hazards Campaign will endorse a call for action to force the Government to take a Zero-Covid strategy to suppress the virus to save lives and livelihoods (1).  Throughout the pandemic the Hazards Campaign has argued that unsafe workplaces are infecting workers who transmit it on to families and communities driving up the overall infection rates.  The Government and its authorities continue to focus on demonising individuals, ignoring the role of the workplace as a source of infection and transmission and failing to enforce health and safety law that should ensure employers in every setting are controlling the risks.  Government failure to protect workers has also failed to protect communities.

Janet Newsham of the Hazards Campaign will say that “any Covid circuit-breaker must be part of a Zero-Covid strategy which includes high numbers of people tested, a high percentage of those positive cases traced, contacted, and people supported financially to isolate.  Anything less would be an abdication of government responsibility and a waste of valuable time to get the virus under control .  A circuit break must also ensure that all essential workplaces remaining open are Covid-safe (2).

“On the 5^th November we are going into a second national lockdown that will fail to reduce the transmission rate significantly if it leaves many unsafe workplaces open without adequate enforcement of the controls of risks, and if it doesn’t rebuild  a publicly owned Test, Trace and Isolate  with support system integrated in local public health and the NHS.”

In the North of England many people have been in almost continual restrictions throughout the pandemic and since forced return to unsafe workplaces including schools and universities  the transmission rates have continued to rise.  Unless this lockdown makes significant changes, it will causes much hardship for little benefit.

As we move to a second national lock-down, we should reflect on why we have got here and ensure lessons are learned.

• Our first lock-down was too little, and came too late and (the second one is also too little, and far too late) (3)
• Non-essential workplace continued to work during first lock down and unsafe workplaces have continued to work throughout the pandemic (4)
• Testing was inadequate, not available for many people
• Tracing was privatised and did not function at a high level of contact tracing
• People couldn’t afford to isolate without financial assistance and employers of precarious contracted workers threatened workers from isolating or stopped wages and hours
• Self employed workers were not financially supported (note many construction workers are self-employed)
• Thousands of jobs have been lost due to Government mishandling, leaving people with huge debts and extreme anxiety
• The NHS has been starved of resources and staff because of Government policies and Brexit
• The HSE and LA enforcers. starved of resources and staff over ten years, haven’t been able to inspect or enforce health and safety law (5)
• The Govt has lost credibility and squandered trust  – mixed messaging, confusing tiers/lockdowns, allowing one rule for us and another more lenient rule for the elite  ‘Cummingsgate’ (6)
• Schools, colleges, universities opened up for face to face teaching against the advice of scientists and trade unions and transmission rose dramatically  as forewarned (7)
• Public Health England scapegoated and disbanded in the middle of the current crisis

The Government were advised by their own SAGE  scientific experts to lock-down on 21^st September instead they opted for local lockdowns with confusing rules that couldn’t possibly work. (8)

For the circuit break to succeed, it must be on the basis of:

Closure of all non-essential workplaces;

Schools, colleges and universities closed to face to face teaching but supported to provide on-line teaching; support for in-school provision for key workers and vulnerable and deprived children;

Rebuilding a locally based, publicly run,  high contact and efficient test, track and isolate system is in place, with speedy results available for anyone that needs a test, and people supported financially to isolate.  This must be integrated with public health, the NHS and occupational health and safety.

Workplaces remaining open must be Covid-safe and not endanger the workers, their families and communities. Anyone is potentially infectious whether they show symptoms or not so all risks of transmission of the virus by any route must be controlled and enforced in all essential workplaces. This must include transmission by airborne aerosols which requires good ventilation, filtration and mask and PPE wearing. (9)

Workplaces that are closed must prepare to reopen safely as above.

Workers who have to be in work, need access to safe public transport and workers on public transport need their employers to ensure their safety and health and that of their customers.  The same applies to health and social care, retail staff, teachers, transport workers, postal workers and others in essential work.

For a zero-covid strategy to work it has to be done in conjunction with Covid-Safe Workplaces.  PHE and the HSE and local authority enforcers must be resourced to be able to carry out their primary functions.  Outbreaks must be result in on-site testing centres to open up immediately, and occupational health enforcement officers must be on hand to determine transmission routes.

Janet will say “Government advice must improve and change to take account of updated risks on transmission.  It is pointless regurgitating hollow rhetoric about school children and young people needing education to justify unsafe schools remaining open, if it is exposing them to the virus which they take back to their families and communities.  What is going to harm a child more, a few weeks out of education or the death of their parents, siblings or grandparents, that they involuntarily infected?  If education is open it has to be safe and the risks of aerosol transmission must be controlled.”(9)

1. A Better Way To Go: towards to a Zero COVID UK – 7 July 2020 Independent SAGE
2. Hazards Campaign and Independent SAGE call for no workers to return to workplaces unless Covid safety plans are in place – 2 September 2020, Hazards Campaign and Independent SAGE
3. The Hazards Campaign calls for the government to adopt immediately a zero-Covid19 policy– 31 July 2020, Hazards Campaign
4. No going back to work unless workers say it is safe!– 7 May 2020, Hazards Campaign
5. Deadly failures have placed millions of workers at unnecessary coronavirus exposure risk – 8 April 2020, Hazards Campaign
6. The UK Government response is like a car skidding uncontrollably towards a brick wall – 23 September 2020, Hazards Campaign
7. ‘We’ll be policed all the way to the factory gates’ – 30 September 2020, Hazards Campaign
8. Summary of the effectiveness and harms of different non-pharmaceutical interventions, SAGE minutes 21 st Sept 2020
9. Is two metre physical distancing enough? Aerosol transmission and other emerging issues – 14 September 2020, Hazards Campaign

Further Information

• Hazards magazine coronavirus hub
• Abdication:  HSE has been missing in action throughout the Covid-19 crisis – Hazards 151, 2020
• Laid bare: The scandal of expendable workers before, during and after Covid – Hazards 151, 2020
• Covid19 in the UK and occupational health and safety. Predictable but not inevitable failures  what can we do now, Professor Andrew Watterson
• Exposed: Workers need health, pay and job protection from all job risks, Hazards 149, 2020
• Hazards Campaign: Briefings and statements on Covid-19

Hazards Campaign Twitter: @hazardscampaign
Facebook: We didn’t vote to die at work
email:  info@hazardscampaign.org.uk

For further information contact:
Janet Newsham
janet@gmhazards.org.uk
07734317158

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and every year thousands of people don pink outfits and collect money for a variety of breast cancer charities.  But this doesn’t get to the heart of the problem. This session will highlight some of the preventable occupational risks to breast cancer and what we should be doing in our workplaces and trade unions to challenge those risks.

Join the Hazards Campaign Thursday Talk on Thursday 29 October with speakers:

Jane McArthur – Work and Prevention SSHRC, University of Windsor, Canada

Helen Lynn – Alliance for Cancer prevention , Health and Environment Researcher

Jane Stewart – TUC General Council, Unite NEC and Chair Womens Committee, Unite Convener at Unilever Port sunlight

To book a place and receive the link to the meeting please go visit the Eventbrite page

Hazards Campaign

website www.hazardscampaign.org.uk
twitter @hazardscampaign
facebook www.facebook.com/groups/123746101003963

If you need more information please email: janet@gmhazards.org.uk
or 07734 317 158

The Hazards Campaign is a UK-wide network of resource centres and campaigners. The Hazards Campaign supports those organising and campaigning for justice and safety at work.

If you would like to get more involved or make a donation to our organisation please email: janet@gmhazards.org.uk