All posts by Jawad

Re: Reappointment of Sarah Newton as chair of HSE – Hazards Campaign comment

News release, 16 May 2025 [No embargo]

The UK’s national Hazards Campaign is shocked to find that the person who has led the Health and Safety Executive through the most disastrous decline in performance in the organisation’s 50-year history has been reappointed by the government as chair of the safety regulator.

government news release announcing the decision to give a second term to  Sarah Newton – a former Conservative minister appointed by the previous Conservative government – claimed she had  ‘driven strategic improvements, strengthened regulatory frameworks and championed HSE’s mission to protect people and places’. This say the national Hazards Campaign is disingenuous.

“Newton’s tenure since 2020 has seen over 17,000 workers killed or serious injured each year. And while the long-term decline in workplace major injuries has stalled on her watch, work-related ill-health is stuck at an all-time high,” says the campaign’s coordinator Janet Newsham.

“As the same time, dangerous employers can now expect to harm their workers with impunity.

“Prosecutions for safety crimes are in freefall and the chances of a workplace being a visited by an HSE inspector are now much less than once in a working lifetime.”

The Hazards Campaign points out that on Sarah Newton’s watch HSE abandoned workplace prosecutions throughout the Covid epidemic, with not a single prosecution despite thousands of often preventable work-related deaths.

It adds the regulator has adopted an advisory only role on work-related stress – the top cause of work-related sickness absence in the UK –  refuses to investigate work-related suicides or sexual harassment at work, and defends dangerous exposure limits on deadly substances like cancer-causing and lung-wrecking silica.

“Keeping Sarah Newton in place speaks volumes,” says Janet Newsham. “It says that the HSE will continue to tolerate the enormous human cost of work-related injuries and ill-health and give a get-out-jail-free card to rogue employers. It says workers are disposable and safety is not a priority.”

Notes to editors
1. Work related ill-health is stuck at an all-time high of 1.7-1.8 million workers, an increase of almost 40 per cent since 2010. In 2003/4 HSE conducted 67,987 proactive inspections.  In 2023/24, the most recent figures available, HSE conducted fewer than 15,000 inspections. There were 963 successful HSE prosecutions for criminal workplace safety offences in 2003/4, compared to 246 in 2023/24.

Further information
Hazards magazine, number 168/169 double issue, 2025 – Flatlining | Work hurts more, but bosses have never been less accountable. https://www.hazards.org/deadlybusiness/flatlining.htm

Hazards magazine, number 95, 2006. Come clean: HSE enforcement crisis.
https://www.hazards.org/commissionimpossible/comeclean.htm

28 April: The Hazards Campaign calls on the Government to increase HSE funding

News release, 23 April 2025 [No embargo]

Every year globally, on 28 April, trade unions, workers, and families hold remembrance events marking International Workers Memorial Day (IWMD) because each year work continues to kill millions. In the UK alone the Hazards Campaign calculates 50,000 deaths a year, that’s 137 daily. (1)

IWMD is our opportunity to ‘Remember the Dead and Fight for the Living.’  This year’s theme is AI and digital platforms and their impact on workers health and safety.

Although Artificial Intelligence (AI) could be used to mitigate monotonous work, AI at work is increasing work intensification, monitoring and surveillance, generating negative impacts on mental and physical wellbeing, as workers experience the extreme pressure of constant, real-time micromanagement and automated assessment.’ (ITUC)(2)

 

AI is already prolific in our working lives, it is used to allocate tasks and track workers but also has been used to negate workers’ rights, for example restricting appropriate breaks leading to work related stress and mental ill health. AI in many circumstances, is leading to unacceptable pressures through pervasive monitoring and target-setting technologies, serious injuries and ill health.(3)

Workers need more than strong words to ensure AI doesn’t increase the pressure on workers.  Workers need robust Government policies and also health and safety enforcement authorities with the teeth to control the risks to workers.

Decades of underfunding and under resourcing with increased responsibilities means HSE is running on empty.

The HSE’s own data shows enforcement is stagnating, it is not making impact on fatal and major injuries at work and is conducting far fewer inspections.  Work related ill-health is stuck at an all-time high of 1.7-1.8 million workers, an increase of almost 40 per cent since 2010. With working time losses of 34 million working days in 2023/2024, an increase from 22 million in 2010.  (4)

If Stephen Timms, the Minister of State for Social Security and Disability responsible for the HSE, and the Government are serious about keeping people in work, they must also be serious about making sure that work is of a decent standard. Jobs should not harm workers or push disabled and ill people out of the workplace—or into an even worse situation.

There is both a moral and economic case for holding employers accountable for managing occupational risks faced by workers. Enforcement authorities must ensure that employers are meeting their legal duties. The Government must guarantee transparency from regulators and provide them with the resources they need to do their job properly.

The Hazards Campaign challenges the Government to invest in the health and safety of workers by resourcing the enforcement authorities and that only then, will work pay and not by workers lives.

For more information Please see:

 

  1. Hazards Campaign The Whole Story – https://www.hazardscampaign.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/The-Whole-story-2024.pdf
  2. ITUC – https://28april.org/?p=7125
  3. Hazards, number 168/169 double issue, 2025 – CODE RED| AI and digitalisation – technology shouldn’t be the boss of you  https://www.hazards.org/AI/codered.htm
  4. Hazards, number 168/169 double issue, 2025 – FLATLINING | Work hurts more, but bosses have never been less accountable – https://www.hazards.org/deadlybusiness/flatlining.htm
  5. https://gmhazards.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/International-Workers-Memorial-Day-general-circular-2025.pdf
For more information, press only:
Contact: Janet Newsham
Tel: 07734317158

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.

Contact details:
The Hazards Campaign
c/o Greater Manchester Hazards Centre
The Wesley Centre
Royce Rd
Manchester M15 5BP
ENGLAND
twitter @hazardscampaign

“Far too little” – FACK Statement – International Workers’ Memorial Day 28 April 2025

FACK Statement
International Workers’ Memorial Day 28 April 2025

Far too little

That is what we FACK families encounter all too often when it comes to achieving justice – or should we say, what passes for justice – when a loved one dies because of a work-related incident.  We say “what passes for justice” because, over a 12 year period, in England and Wales there were 40 cases brought under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act.

Only 29 of which resulted in conviction. And we are unaware of any cases having ever been brought in Scotland.

Yet, when the new legislation was being considered, the Government’s Regulatory Impact Assessment estimated that there would be between 10 and 13 cases per year.  So, by now, we should have expected the number of prosecutions to be in three figures.  If only it were a reduction in the number of fatalities that had resulted in the much lower figure.  It is not.  The number of people who lose their lives because of work remains stubbornly, heart wrenchingly, high. So, it is the inadequacy of our laws and their enforcement which  is to blame.

Companies do not make decisions that result in deaths. Individuals within companies and organisations do, So if a law is to serve as a deterrent, that can only be achieved by framing offences in such a way that those responsible are held accountable, that prosecutions will be brought, prosecutions will succeed and punishment then fits the crime.

As things stand, what passes for justice is far too little, and comes far too late.

We’re sure Natalie Woods McKeown would add to that “if at all”. She posted on Facebook less than 2 weeks ago about the 23rd anniversary of her dad’s death on a site where he became entangled in faulty machinery, making the heartbreaking point that she and her sister still have no answers to fundamentally important

questions.  They feel they have had more than 2 decades of being let down, by the Police, prosecution authorities and the HSE. She heartbreakingly ends her post saying:

Dad, not having you in our lives does not get any easier…23 years of injustice just adds to the pain.”

Ken Cresswell, John Shaw, Michael Collings and Christopher Huxtable left home to go to work on the demolition of Didcot Power Station.  On the 9th anniversary of their deaths, Thames Valley Police issued a press release stating: “…we are confident that we are moving towards the latter stages of our enquiries.”

“Moving towards the latter stages”??  What exactly does that mean in an investigation which has already taken nearly a decade?  These families have, absolutely understandably, lost all confidence in the authorities and their ability to deliver justice.

As have the wife and sister of John Mackay, who died in 2019, alongside Tommy Williams, during demolition works at a former steelworks in Teeside. When the case was handed from the police to the HSE more than 3 years on, the HSE pledged that: “our investigation will be a thorough one, while also recognising the desire for a speedy conclusion.”

Now a further 18 months down the line and Ann and Magi remain in a state of not knowing why John and Tommy died, or whether any individual or company will face criminal charges. So much for recognition of the desire for a speedy conclusion.  We have said it before, and we will continue to say it until someone with the power bring about change listens and takes action:  this interminable wait for answers leads to justice being delayed and denied; and the trauma of loved ones being extended and compounded.

Far too little. Far too late.  Causing far too much pain.

Please let it not be thought that these injustices are faced only by the families of those who worked in high hazard environments.

85 year old June Harvey was at home in the summer of 2020, when a tower crane from a nearby construction site collapsed and devastatingly crashed through the roof and beyond, killing her. Her family still waits for answers as to why.

Simon Midgley and Richard Dyson were enjoying a weekend at Cameron House Hotel in 2017 the week before Christmas, when a fire tore through the building and tore them from their families.  Recommendations for improvements to fire and hotel safety were finally made more than 5 years after their deaths.  Now, a further 2 years later, Simon’s mum and sister have yet to see these recommendations turned to positive preventative action for others, only serving to deepen their distress.

0n a spring morning in 2018 Michaela Boor was walking her young son to nursery when masonry fell five storeys. The next day was her 29th birthday. The day after that, her family had to make the decision to turn off her life support machine.  Michaela’s mum now walks her grandson to school, past the very spot where his mum’s, her daughter’s, life ended. He asks: “why can’t we walk past the building, nanny?” Because she always tells him to cross the road.  Seven years on, no answers, and no justice, for that wee boy.

Far too little. Far too late. Causing far too much pain, that could and should have been avoided.

It could and would have been avoided if all employers cared enough about their health and safety responsibilities, preventing these “accidents waiting to happen”, which are not “accidents”.

It could and would have been avoided had our enforcement authorities – police, the HSE and local authorities – been provided sufficient resources to investigate with the necessary expediency, and wherever possible, undertake proactive preventative work to avoid incidents occurring in the first place.

It could and would have been avoided had our laws served as effective deterrents in the first place, and our justice systems been able to provide meaningful justice, swiftly.

Instead, far too many loved ones continue to lose their lives in incidents which could, should and would be prevented if only everyone cared as much as we FACKers do. We cannot and should not need to keep repeating ourselves.  We are exhausted by the need to say the same thing in a different way every year. For every FACK family that comes after us, we feel we have failed them, because, despite all that we do, all that we say, history continues to repeat itself.

We need you to add your voices to ours, to influence those who can effect change, to turn platitudes into action, and to ensure that no other family ever has to go through what our families already have gone through, and what we are forever going to continue to go through.

So, as we remember the dead, we pledge to continue fighting like hell for the living.

FACK was established in July 2006, by and for families of people killed by the gross negligence of business employers, see https://gmhazards.org.uk/index.php/fack/

Founder Members of FACK:  

Dawn and Paul Adams – our son Samuel Adams aged 6 killed at Trafford Centre,10th October 1998

Linzi Herbertsonmy husband Andrew Herbertson 29, killed at work on 30th January 1998

Mike and Lynne Hutin our son Andrew Hutin 20, killed at work on 8th Nov 2001

Mick & Bet Murphy our son Lewis Murphy 18, killed at work on 21st February 2004

Louise Adamson my brother Michael Adamson 26, killed at work on 4th August 2005

Linda Whelan my son Craig Whelan 23, (and Paul Wakefield) killed at work on 23rd May 2004

Dorothy & Douglas Wrightour son Mark Wright 37, killed at work on 13th April 2005

For more information and to support FACK, contact Greater Manchester Hazards Centre: Unit 2, The Wesley Centre, Royce Rd, Manchester M15 5BP (UK)Telephone: 0161 884 4229  Email: mail@gmhazards.org.uk

Web: https://gmhazards.org.uk/index.php/fack/

Or the Scottish Hazards Centre: 0800 0015 022.

Manifesto for a health and safety system fit for ALL workers

The Hazards Campaign has announced a manifesto for a health and safety system fit for all workers, which is available at this link  https://www.hazardscampaign.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Final-Manifesto.pdf  or by scanning the QR code below.

The manifesto covers a range of topics including:  chemicals used at work; failure to address women’s health and safety issues; the importance of public health and occupational health; air pollution, infection control, long Covid, and directors being held accountable for deaths and injuries at work.

Janet Newsham Hazards Campaign chair said ‘In 2019, the Hazards Campaign produced ‘Decent Jobs and Decent Lives a manifesto for a health and safety system fit for workers’ (1).  This  provides a blue print for reviewing and reorganising our occupational health and safety enforcement authorities and re-establishing the principles of a precautionary, preventative and participative health and safety system with workers health as its priority.

In subsequent years, we have experienced the Covid-19 pandemic –  a catastrophic event which has laid bare the failings inherent in the current occupational health and safety regulatory system, with its inadequate officer force numbers, decades of financial cuts and political capitulation – on top of growing deprivation that contributes to poor worker health.  This is why we have updated and strengthened the demands in the original manifesto .‘

Reference:
1. Decent jobs and decent lives A manifesto for a health and safety system fit for workers: hazardscampaign.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/hazardsmanifesto2019.pdf

For more information, press only:
Contact: Janet Newsham
Email: janet@gmhazards.org.uk
Tel: 07734317158

 

Hazards Campaign Zoom event – Challenging the violence faced by women at work

Nearly fifty years after the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 women continue to face harassment and violence at work. Join the Hazards Campaign event in discussion with Sarah Woolley (BFAWU General Secretary), Joan McNulty (UNISON National Health and Safety Chair), Fliss Premru (#MeTU) and Jo Seery (Thompsons Solicitors) to explore the issues and solutions needed.

Sign up here

Date and time: Thursday, 7 March 2024 18:00 – 19:30 GMT

FACK statement on Coroner’s conclusion of Ofsted inspection’s contribution to suicide

Families Against Corporate Killers (FACK) Statement on inquest into the death of Ruth Perry Head Teacher of Caversham Primary School Coroner’s conclusion: Suicide contributed to by an Ofsted inspection.

News release – no embargo – 7 December 2023

On behalf of Families Against Corporate Killers (FACK), facilitator Hilda Palmer said today:

“There must be massive and constructive change from this painful process and Ruth’s death must be the ‘enough is enough’ moment, no more Ofsted deaths.

“The Coroner made clear that the’ inner workings of Ofsted’ were not in scope for the Inquest, but teachers reports and evidence heard makes clear it is not only the conduct of the inspections that causes acute stress but the fear of the high stakes consequences.  A bad one word judgement can lead to forced academisation of your school, loss of your job, reputation, career with no realistic chance to defend yourself or challenge Ofsted errors of fact or judgement. The weeks of delay between the inspection draft report and publication of report during which time Heads are not permitted, on threat of action against them, to speak to anyone outside of a tiny circle, even a mental health professional, puts intolerable stress on Head Teachers.

“We welcome the conclusions of the Berkshire Chief Coroner, Heidi Connor, based on a finding of facts that Ruth Pery’s death was suicide contributed to by an Ofsted inspection in November 2022, and unequivocally linking her deteriorating state of mind and death to the Ofsted inspection which was at times ‘rude & intimidating, lacked fairness, respect and sensitivity’.

“Ruth was a remarkable woman and a successful, well respected and much liked Head Teacher running an outstanding popular school, committed to the good education safety and welfare of the children.

“She was also much more than this, a much loved and loving wife, mother, sister and daughter, and a friend to many. She worked hard and achieved great things and had no history of mental ill health. All that changed within minutes of the Ofsted Inspection beginning and the loss to her family, friends and Caversham Primary School children and parents is immensely painful.

“At the inquest, Professor Julia Waters, Ruth’s sister,  bravely and eloquently painted a beautiful picture of her beloved sister and her rich and happy life, in words from her parents, her husband and herself and ended with: “We shall feel her terrible loss for the rest of our lives”.

“We are sorry that the coroner refused a renewed Article 2 application from the family, which would mean the state have to carry out an ‘enhanced investigation’ into a death as she said she does not have ‘sufficient concern about systems to protect life’.

And FACK renews its demands that all families have free legal representation provided for Inquests to ‘ensure equality arms’ when they face employers and state funded organisations and are able to challenge, to question and get the answers they need..

“We welcome the Coroner’s Conclusion and her Regulation 28 Preventing Future Deaths recommendations.to Ofsted and the Local Authority and. her hope that the Parliamentary Education Committee and Secretary of State will also consider her findings.

“We believe Ruth’s death and those of other teachers might have been prevented had concern about the suicides of other teachers related to Ofsted over the years been taken more seriously, investigated and acted upon preventatively by the Health and Safety Executive, HSE, Ofsted and Local Authorities when they happened. And we believe it is also essential that the HSE records, investigates and acts to prevent all work-related suicides in schools and all workplaces, something it refuses to do currently.

“After hearing evidence during the Inquest we are even more sceptical that Ofsted can be reformed. It should be scrapped and replaced by a cooperative, collaborative and supportive inspection system, which is accountable and effective in improving schools without destroying the health and lives of teachers.

“Nothing will bring Ruth back, but knowing that stringent efforts are being demanded of the organisations which had a role in her death, and of other related organisations, to prevent the deaths of other teachers in future is an outcome that Ruth’s family wanted. Julia Waters, Ruth’s sister, has fearlessly and eloquently exposed the unbearable and unfair stress of Ofsted inspections, the lack of protection and redress for Head Teachers, given thousands of teachers a chance to speak out, made their concerns a subject of public debate and investigation ever since Ruth’s death. We thank Julia and her family for all they have done to stop Ofsted deaths.

“FACK, Greater Manchester Hazards Centre, Hazards Campaign and Hazards Magazine pledge ourselves to continue the campaign to make all work suicides reportable, investigated and preventive action taken. No one should be driven to deaths of despair by work.”

For more information contact Hilda Palmer 079298 00240 hilda@gmhazards.org.uk

Notes to Editors

Papers and articles relating to Work-Suicide and the problem of the HSE refusing to record or investigate the causes and prevent them.

• Professor Sarah Waters, Hilda Palmer Work Suicides are uncounted: https://ahc.leeds.ac.uk/languages/news/article/1866/work-related-suicides-are-uncounted

• Waters and McKee, BMJ, Ofsted and case of official negligence? https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/381/bmj.p1147.full.pdf

• Waters and Palmer, Journal of Public Health Dying at work. Work-related suicide – how does the UK regulatory context measure up? https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JPMH-09-2021-0114/full/html

• Our postcard campaign to the HSE over many years saw thousands of postcards delivered by mail to the CEO and now is an ecard campaign: https://www.hazards.org/hsesuicide/ • Rory O’Neill Hazards Latest article : https://www.hazards.org/suicide/wedespair.htm • Earlier articles: https://www.hazards.org/suicide/suicidalwork.htm • https://www.hazards.org/suicide/pressuregrows

Founder Members of FACK:

Dawn and Paul Adams – son Samuel Adams aged 6 killed at Trafford Centre, 10th October 1998

Linzi Herbertson -husband Andrew Herbertson 29, killed at work in Oldham, January 1998

Mike and Lynne Hutin – son Andrew Hutin 20, killed at work at Corus, Port Talbot on 8th Nov 2001

Mick & Bet Murphy – son Lewis Murphy 18, killed at work in Brighton on 21st February 2004

Louise Taggart – brother Michael Adamson 26, killed at work ion Aberdeen, on 4th August 2005

Linda Whelan – son Craig Whelan 23, (and Paul Wakefield) killed at work in Bolton on 23rd May 2002

Dorothy & Douglas Wright – son Mark Wright 37, killed at work in Deeside on 13th April 2005

Zoom discussion: Organising 101 – Dave Smith on campaigning

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Thursday, 30 November, 2023, 18.00 – 19.30Register:https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEsfu2rqTwiGNwGMcS6tNP7jyfWpU5KancR

Join us at this brilliant, lively and entertaining event, in discussion with the dynamic and inspiring Dave Smith and organised by the Hazards Campaign. Dave is a blacklisted campaigner, a trade union educator and has been a health and safety advocate for decades. He speaks with enthusiasm and from years of relevant experience.It will be a unique opportunity to hear about his Organising 101 campaigning and organising  tips column in Hazards Magazine and to join him in discussion.

For more information, please contact Janet Newsham –  janet@gmhazards.org.uk

Thursday, 30th November, 2023, 18.00 – 19.30pmRegister: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEsfu2rqTwiGNwGMcS6tNP7jyfWpU5KancR

Take action to support sacked EIS safety rep!

Please take solidarity action to support Kevin Scally, sacked EIS safety rep at Edinburgh College.

Solidarity  from the Troublemakers Striking for Safety fringe meeting, 29/30 July 2023

The victimisation of our Edinburgh College EIS branch official and safety rep Kevin Scally is a matter of principle and social justice. We’ve taken four days’ strike action so far.  And we’ll carry on striking four days a week indefinitely till we win Kevin’s reinstatement. To encourage our management to do the right thing, could you send a message of protest to the Principal and Chair of the College Board- (Audrey.Cumberford@edinburghcollege.ac.uk; ) and (Nora.Senior@edinburghcollege.ac.uk; copying in the EIS-FELA branch secretary, pennygower1@gmail.com;).  If you have any questions or want to invite Kev and Penny to speak at your branch, please write to Penny. So, something along the lines of the following would be great, or anything you want to send….

‘Dear Ms Cumberford and Ms Senior,

I am writing on behalf of my trade union branch and wish to express our concern at the treatment of EIS Branch Official and Safety Rep, Kevin Scally. Edinburgh College has already reached your target of £6m savings through voluntary severance. Kevin is an experienced lecturer who can deliver courses the College needs to be covered and he is the only employee to be made redundant. So we can only assume Mr Scally’s sacking as due to the fact that he is a trade union representative. Shockingly, you refuse to even meet with the union representatives under the College’s Avoidance of Disputes’ Procedure. You also refused to hear the EIS branch grievance against this compulsory redundancy.  Yet trade union recognition is a fundamental right. The stress this has caused Kevin and his family can only be imagined. Your behaviour as managers of a public service charged with delivering education to working class adults has been appalling. We urge that you reinstate Kevin immediately. Regards …………………. NAME OF TRADE UNION/ WORKPLACE’

Hazards Campaign Statement on the sudden and immediate cancellation of RISKS Enewsletter by TUC

News release, 28th June 2023, No embargo

On Friday 23rd June a report was made to the Hazards Campaign meeting, that the enewsletter  RISKS has been cancelled by the TUC with immediate effect.

We are shocked and very alarmed at this decision, because for many safety reps (especially from smaller trade unions with no dedicated health and safety department), this was their main weekly source of health and safety information.

RISKS provided regular and up to date health and safety information from workers’ perspective from around the health and safety movement in the UK, as well as from global health and safety unions and organisations.

RISKS provided information and analysis on what the government, the TUC, trade unions and other relevant organisations are doing, campaigns, workplace victories on health and safety and on going struggles, relevant scientific and technical information on all aspects of health, safety, environment and Just Transition, in a readable format from trusted source as it was edited by Rory O’ Neill editor of Hazards Magazine.

RISKS has been invaluable for thousands of safety reps and union health and safety officers, for many years. It helped to create and network the community of safety reps, and health and safety activists across the UK in all unions, types of workplaces and sectors.

The sudden end of RISKS is a huge loss for us all.

In the absence of the TUC reconsidering this regressive decision, we urge all trade unions and progressive organisations, to now put every effort in to maximising and increasing the support for the Hazards Magazine.

Hazards Magazine is the most treasured and valuable health and safety publication in the Hazards and health and safety movement. Hazards articles feature in almost all TUC and union health and safety courses, it is the first place to go for research for many of us,  and it is  much envied across the world’s labour movements which don’t have an equivalent or have long since lost their own print publications.

So we ask you now to recommit to support and grow support for Hazards Magazine to ensure its future as a print plus online publication by subscribing and encouraging others to subscribe.

Contact Jawad Qasrawi  Sub Editor  sub@hazards.org
Hazards Magazine: www.hazards.org/subscribe

Thank you

Janet Newsham, Chair of Hazards Campaign

info@hazardscampaign.org.uk

janet@gmhazards.org.uk

HAZARDS CONFERENCE 2025


Hazards Conference 2025

The 36th National Hazards Conference
Deregulation, AI and climate change – the critical role of safety reps into the future  (5 September – 7 September 2025)

Booking for attendance In-person and online attendance here
Download a paper booking form here

This year sees the 36th annual Hazard Conference and like last year it will be a packed weekend for safety activists. The conference is hybrid (online and in-person) you can book online or by completing the paper form.

This years conference will include sessions on:

  • Can AI ever be good for our health?
  • Dealing with violence and stress at work
  • Workers health crisis amid a lack of enforcement
  • From climate crisis to choking air – what can safety reps do?
  • Certificates to great health and safety campaigns
  • Calling out the bad employers on health and safety.

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Hazards Conference 2024

The 35th National Hazards Conference

The 35th National Hazards Conference
Keele University

30 August – 1 September 2024

The climate crisis and workers’ health – a deadly combination
The Hazards Conference is one of the biggest grassroots conferences for trade union safety reps and activists, with plenary sessions, and a comprehensive workshop programme.  It is an opportunity to exchange experience and information with and learn from safety reps from other unions, sectors and jobs across the UK.  It’ s a good craic too!
This years conference will include sessions on:
  • HASAWA @50 – What is the future?
  • Climate and workers’ health and safety – the challenges of extreme weather events and the impact of work activity on the climate
  • Making the case for mentally healthy work – workers are being exposed to increasing workloads, health impacting work related stress, violence and bullying and we need to resist not be more resilient
  • Bad work injures and kills – collective pressure and safety reps save lives – but the majority of workers are not in trade union organised workplaces, how are we fighting for these workers?
And again this year, we will be awarding certificates to great health and safety campaigns and calling out the bad employers on health and safety.
Either register using the Eventbrite booking form:  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/845819989357 or download the paper copy booking form