The Hazards Campaign
is a network of
resource centres and campaigners
on health and safety at work
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The Hazards Campaign
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News release - Construction Safety Campaign (CSC) Protest
17 September 2007 Demonstrators will be available for interview, photographs and filming. The CSC will let Peter Hain MP and the construction employers know of their disgust at the government's killer cuts agenda and the appalling safety record of the industry outside the government's "safety forum" held in the Thistle Hotel. Following the announcement of a 28 per cent increase in workers killed in construction for 2006/7, Peter Hain MP, who is in charge of health and safety in the government, announced he was to call together "clients, contractors, trade unions, designers, suppliers and others for a special forum in September to try and crack the problems in these areas." He also said he was to concentrate on the housing and refurbishment sectors. The CSC say this is the third time the government has politely called the construction employers and asked them to stop killing and they haven't. It's now time for the government to drop the carrot and use the big stick. The government has been persistently told a strong enforcement policy, more enforcement officers in the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and jail for killer employers is one of the two main ways of cracking this problem but this flies in the face of Mr Brown's and the government's de-regulation, "lighter touch", cuts agenda - an agenda that kills. The other key to this problem is to ensure a more active trade union presence in the industry which still blacklists workers who complain about safety and their working conditions. The CSC also says that the narrow focus of this forum ignores major contractors on whose sites there have been several fatalities recently. The government needs to address the industry as a whole. This protest is to let the government and industry know - ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.
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The Hazards Campaign,
c/o Greater Manchester Hazards Centre, Windrush Millennium Centre, 70
Alexandra Road, |