All posts by Jawad

It’s not just our liberties at stake, but our lives!

Press Release: For immediate release – 7.10.22

Today is the ITUC World Day for Decent Work (1).  Decent work is a hallmark of a progressive society, but the Governments actions this week show they don’t want it, wont police it, and thinks workers shouldn’t have the power to defend it.

Workers are facing ever rising, unrelenting workloads, never ending working hours, with emails and phone calls at all times of the day and night, a disappearing work/life balance and hundreds of thousands of workers off sick with mental ill health and long-covid disabilities.

The latest proposed bonfire of employment and health and safety regulations of everything that originated in the EU and the shackling of trade unions, will place workers enslaved in low paid, dangerous unhealthy work at the behest of unscrupulous employers.  At a time when modern slavery is increasing, the 5th richest nation Government could be adding to it.

None of us voted to die at work, but the policies of this government will mean an increasing number of us will.  They will die because they cannot afford to give up work to retire, they will die because of the stress of having to work multiple jobs to pay their mortgages or energy bills, they will die because their employer will not have to assess and control the risks to their health and safety, they will die in their communities from exposure to toxic substances or unleashed viruses.

This Government are choosing not to value the lives of ordinary working people and at the same time ‘raiding’ the public purse to reduce the tax burden on the wealthy, without any scrutiny or electoral mandate.

They are about to plunge us into more despair.  They are coming after our working conditions, our safety at work and our future health.  And if they succeed, they will let bad employers determine the number of working hours people work, whether they will pay for holidays, whether we have maternity leave or sick pay, the ability to retain contracts when our organisations are outsourced, to name a few.  There could be no standard for the PPE provided by employers when we work with hazardous substances, no right to have it provided free by your employer, no minimum standards of welfare at work.  They will literally be able to work us to death!  As Rory O’Neill says in the Hazards Magazine (2) they have ‘plans for a lawless, dangerous and disposable worker UK plc!

At the heart of decent jobs and decent lives, workers need a health and safety system with strong laws, strict enforcement and strong, organised, and active trade unions.

Ref:
(1) www.wddw.org
(2) www.hazards.org

For more information:
Janet Newsham – Chair UK Hazards Campaign
janet@gmhazards.org.uk
07734317158

News release: The Hazards Campaign rejects the political hijacking of the HSE

11 September 2022: For immediate release

The Hazards Campaign rejects the political hijacking of the HSE

On the 50th anniversary of the Robens Report it is shameful that the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions has chosen this year to put the final nail in the coffin of tripartism.

The UK Hazards Campaign is deeply concerned at the political hijacking of the Health and Safety enforcement (HSE) authority, which again has rejected a representative nominated from the TUC on to the HSE Board, which replaced the HSC.

The HSE has become an organisation which at worst, no longer operates as a tripartite organisation or at best only pretends to operate as one.  The principles of tripartism were fundamental to ensuring that workers voices are heard and their concerns about health and safety risks are represented at every level of the HSE organisation including board level 1.

The Robens report, which established the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (HSWA), is 50 this year– It set up the Health and Safety Commission, HSC, to agree any new regulations and oversee the Health and Safety Executive, HSE, enforcement of health and safety at work, on tripartite principles2.

Working effectively with business, workers and government to keep workers safe, no decision could be made without the support of both employers and employee representatives. This meant that any changes to health and safety law were seen to have come about by consensus, achieved through a common purpose of improving health and safety in the workplace.

This can no longer be the case if the Government refuses to accept those people that the TUC or other trade unions with due diligence legitimately nominate.  It is also becoming apparent that the HSE are withdrawing their involvement from the industrial committees, which also operate on a tripartite basis.

The UK Hazards Campaign, urges the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, to reverse this dangerous and politically motivated path and return the HSE to its independent tripartite origins.

Further information:

  1. So much for the Robens vision of health and safety 08 May 2013, By Kevin Rowan https://strongerunions.org/2013/05/08/so-much-for-the-robens-vision-of-health-and-safety/
  2. Briefing: Work and Health: 50 years of regulatory failure – IER   https://www.ier.org.uk/publications/briefing-work-and-health-50-years-of-regulatory-failure/
  3. Hazards, number 153, 2021 – RUBBED OUT | HSE bosses are the only ones that think it’s doing a good job https://www.hazards.org/infections/rubbedout.htm

For More Information:
Janet Newsham
janet@gmhazards.org.uk
07734317158

UK Hazards Campaign welcomes the new ILO Fundamental Right on health and safety at work and demands UK Government act now

Press Statement For Immediate Release

14 June 2022.

UK Hazards Campaign welcomes the new ILO Fundamental Right on health and safety at work and demands UK Government action to implement it, save lives and livelihoods.

On 10th June a historic announcement was made to introduce a fifth fundamental principal and right at work with the right for workers to a healthy and safe working environment.  It is the first extension of workers’ rights in 25 years. (1)

This stands alongside those Fundamental principles and rights at work, originally adopted in 1998:

  1. Freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining
  2. The elimination of forced or compulsory labour
  3. The effective abolition of child labour
  4. The Elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation. And now
  5. Right to a healthy and safe working environment

The main aim of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) is to promote rights at work, encourage decent employment opportunities, enhance social protection and strengthen dialogue on work related issues.  It is the only tripartite UN Agency and has been in existence since 1919 when the ILO was formed.

This significant development has only been possible with the dedication and hard work of individuals across the globe and we congratulate and thank them for their fortitude and relentless pursuit of decent work that is safe and healthy and that will benefit all of society.

The fundamental right to safe and healthy work was the major theme of this year’s International Workers Memorial Day as we remembered all those people who die in the UK because of exposure to toxic and hazardous substances and work activities.

Every year in the UK more than 50,000 people die because of work activities and because their employers have failed to control the risks to their health and safety. (2)  This is both immoral and makes no economic sense to the UK economy, to our health care systems and to the commercial interests of organisations.  Every death is cost to individuals, to communities and to society in general.  This needs to be addressed and reduced.  Covid-19 has led to the deaths of more than 20,000 workers.  Deaths that should and could have been avoided with employers taking a precautionary approach to the risks.

This Thursday 16.6.22 is ‘Clean Air Day’ and the Hazards Campaigns TUCAN (Trade Union Clean Air Network) is holding an event to discuss the harm that toxic and polluted air is causing workers, their community and families.  According to the Govt, air pollution is the largest environmental risk to public health, killing between 28,000 and 36,000 deaths every year. (3)   However, little is done to protect the health of workers exposed inside and outside the workplace every day and everyone should have the right to not be harmed because of their work.

“No-one should be exposed to polluted air, be injured, develop occupational diseases or die because of work.  The vast majority of these are foreseeable and preventable.  Workplace harm is a blight on our society and for our families and loved ones.”

The Hazards Campaign calls on the UK government to ensure the safety and health of all workers as outlined in ILO conventions 155 and 187 and to agree to support their recommendations in UK law, including in trade agreements, international financing rules and in the global supply chains.

“Having the International Labour Organisation, a United Nations body with representation from governments, employers and workers organisations, agree the right to safe and healthy work as a fundamental right globally is an amazingly significant event and those who have achieved it deserve applause.  However, this right does not apply in the same way EU Directives or national laws do and we will have to fight to ensure our government (and many others) do what is necessary to meet the spirit of this right. What is clear is that it will be a useful tool in the fight against the de-regulators and those who hide de-regulation in secret international trade deals but we will have to learn exactly how it may be used in those fights in the months and years to come.”

For more information Please see:

  1. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/air-pollution-applying-all-our-health/air-pollution-applying-all-our-health#:~:text=The%20annual%20mortality%20of%20human,and%2036%2C000%20deaths%20every%20year.
  2. https://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/news/WCMS_848132/lang–en/index.htm
  3. https://gmhazards.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/The-Whole-story-2022.pdf

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

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
Windrush Millennium Centre
70 Alexandra Road
Manchester,
M16 7WD
ENGLAND

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

FACK 28 April statement: Healthy and safe work should not be only a fundamental right, but also a fundamental reality

FACK Statement
International Workers’ Memorial Day 28 April 2022

Time is a healer. Or so it is said. Because, so often for families who lose loved ones because of work, the extended periods of time spent waiting and fighting for action, searching and battling for answers,
simply serves to exacerbate the trauma we have suffered and which we will continue to suffer for all time.

We say that families deserve justice. In fact what we really deserved was for our child… parent… sibling… spouse… partner… to have got home from work that fateful day. We deserved for them to have been kept safe and healthy. We deserved for corners not to have been cut, for profit not to have been put before people. We deserved so much more time with our loved ones. Decades upon decades which we have been denied.

And to add insult to our injury, we continue to have to wait for healthy and safe work to be recognised as a fundamental right by the ILO. Here we are, a year on from having pleaded for it last year, to find this surely most basic of recognitions, has not been approved by employers groups though the tide of support from Unions, Governments and some employers is growing.

For families of those who lose loved ones because of work, the extent of any healing very much depends on how we are treated over time. The scar tissue can only grow to cover and protect our grievous, grieving wounds, when we receive care and understanding.
And we get that in spades from those in our Hazards and trade union movements, and from joining forces with fellow FACKers – people we wished we’d never had to meet, but are eternally grateful that we did.

Most often our wounds are re-opened or are left festering because of failures by our enforcement and prosecuting authorities, by politicians, and by the employers who caused the wounds in the first place.

That’s not to say we never receive any care or understanding from those quarters. Because we sometimes do. But more often than not, the systems we should be able to rely on let us down so fundamentally, to the extent that we end up battling against a justice system which should work for us. And we have to do this when we are mired in shock and grief, our whole lives turned up-side down.

We are all too frequently left feeling like we are the ones in the wrong, rather than the victims we in actual fact are.

More than anything, we want answers swiftly, so that those answers prompt action, and we can prevent others from having to become FACKers, to ensure others are saved from suffering the gut-wrenching heartache we are enduring.

Mick Collings, Chris Huxtable, Ken Cresswell and John Shaw are the 4 partners, husbands, dads, sons, uncles, who died in the Didcot collapse. It’s now more than 6 years since that fateful day.

These families have endured many agonising waits. Not least the more than 6 months it took for the  bodies of three of all their loved ones to be recovered.

And then, as Ken Cresswell’s wife Gail, has said recently: “Six years without answers for our men who just went to work, and also for all those still working in this industry that need answers too, so no other families go through this dreadful nightmare like us.”

How much longer must these families wait?

And when so much time is spent waiting for what passes for justice to be delivered, it is all too often justice denied. Jane Midgley is the mum of Simon. He and his partner Richard Dyson died in a fire at Cameron House Hotel in December 2017. Guilty pleas were submitted by the hotel’s operating company, and by an individual worker and sentences handed down in January 2021. No evidence was heard. And then it was decided no Fatal Accident Inquiry should be held. But Jane desperately needed answers. She needed to know change was going to happen. So she appealed. And the Crown relented. A Fatal Accident Inquiry will now be held.

But as she says “no-one should need to beg for an FAI…it’s not going to bring Simon and Richard back, but I’m doing this to get answers so this doesn’t happen again. I need to know everything that happened,
from the thread to the needle. It gets harder and harder with each year that passes. I can’t move forward without knowing all the facts.”.

By the time a Sheriff issues a determination, it will be around 5 years since the deaths of Jane’s beloved boys.

How much longer must we expect to be unable to move forward, time in many ways standing still during our waiting, fighting, searching and battling? Until we emerge changed. And all the more determined to use what time we have left on this earth to continue to effect change.

Time is a healer. Or so it is said. But far better to never have to experience the process of trying to heal. Far better that the fatal injury or illness were prevented from ever occurring. Far better that healthy and safe work is not just finally recognised as a fundamental right, but is a fundamental reality.

Because we remember all of our dead each and every day. And to ensure none of your families have their time cut so tragically short as ours, we pledge to continue fighting like hell for the living!

By Louise Adamson on behalf of FACK

Michaels Story: https://michaels-story.net/;

FACK was established in July 2006, by and for families of people killed by the gross negligence of business employers, see www.fack.org.uk .

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 on 30th January 1998
  • Mike and Lynne Hutin – son Andrew Hutin 20, killed at work on 8th November 2001
  • Mick & Bet Murphy – son Lewis Murphy 18, killed at work on 21st February 2004
  • Louise Adamson – brother Michael Adamson 26, killed at work on 4th August 2005
  • Linda Whelan – son Craig Whelan 23, (and Paul Wakefield) killed at work on 23rd May 2004
  • Dorothy & Douglas Wright – son Mark Wright 37, killed at work on 13th April 2005

For more information and to support FACK, contact Hilda Palmer, Facilitator for FACK: Tel 0161 792 1044

Source: FACK

The Whole Story – 28 April statistics briefing and information

UK Hazards Campaign tells the whole story on work related injury and death – the real statistics and the real stories behind those statistics.

Each year the Hazards Campaign tells the stories behind the statistics of those workers who have died because of work. And also  also provides an estimated number of workers who have died because of work – giving complete evidence-based estimates of work-related harm, including estimates of people who die by suicide.

This year, for the second year, Hazards Campaign has also included the estimated number of workers who have died because of Covid-19.  More than 60,000 workers are now estimated to have died last year because of work-related harm. https://gmhazards.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/The-Whole-story-2022.pdf

International Workers Memorial Information sheet – What are you doing for International Workers Memorial Day? The information sheet explains what Workers Memorial Day is all about and provides suggestions to raise the issue in your workplace, union or community.  Finally it provides links to more resources and information.   https://gmhazards.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/International-Workers-Memorial-Day-general-circular-2022.pdf

Workers’ Memorial Day resources from the Hazards Campaign

The Hazards Campaign has produced a wide selection of resources to help  you mark International Workers’ Memorial Day effectively and visually including ribbons, car stickers, posters, bags, fabric face masks and t-shirts.

Download the order form here

Below is the poster – other resources can be viewed in the order form.

 

Hazards Conference 2022 – It’s a Deadly Business! But Decent work is safe and healthy

Hazards Conference 2022

It’s a Deadly Business!
but Decent work is Safe and Healthy

29-31st July, 2022 at Keele University and online

The annual Hazards Conference is returning to Keele University this year with an online option for those who would rather not attend in person.

Since 2019, we have held two online conferences during the difficult circumstances of the pandemic.  These have been held free of charge,  however we all recognise that we need to get back to in person conferences, but they need to be held safely.

The last two years have been tremendously difficult for all workers and in the Hazards Campaign we have worked hard to respond to workers and their trade union’s needs.

The feedback we have received over the last two years has been encouraging and to this end we are moving the Hazards Conference to a hybrid model, where delegates can attend in person or participate online.

We would like to ensure all participants have an equal opportunity to attend and participate in the conference but we are acutely aware that some of our regular attendees have health conditions which will make them at risk of serious illness if they became infected by Covid and therefore we are providing an opportunity for everyone to attend, either in person or online.

We have an online registration this year
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/hazards-conference-2022-tickets-279528616617

A copy of the booking form can be downloaded from https://gmhazards.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Final-booking-form-Hazards-Conference-33rd.pdf and if anyone needs a printed form please let me know.

If anyone would like to sponsor the conference, a sponsorship form can be found at:

https://gmhazards.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Sponsorship-of-Hazards-Conference-2022-.pdf

If you would like more information about the conference then please email hazconf@gmhazards.org.uk
or phone: 07734 317158

Toxic Chemicals – Risk prevention through use Toxic Use Reduction: Conference report, recordings and resources

Report on the Toxic Chemicals – Risk prevention through use reduction Conference organised by GMHC as part of a project with the CSEU- Toxic Use Reduction Conference – 25th Feb

Recording of the conference with presentations and discussion:
https://youtu.be/5jWY6PGiNb0

Hilda Palmer – Greater Manchester Hazards Centre, FACK facilitator and Hazards Campaign

Bud Hudspith – Unite National health and safety advisor

Professor Andrew Watterson – Occupational health expert Stirling university

Dan Shears – GMB National health, safety and environment director

Survey: Chemicals and hazardous substances at work

Greater Manchester Hazards Centre (GMHC) is working with trade unions to reduce worker exposure to harmful, toxic chemicals  in a project on ‘Toxics Use Reduction’.

To help safety reps deal with toxic exposures better, we need to know more about the types of chemicals workers are exposed to, the harms caused, their awareness and knowledge of risks and of successful eliminations or substitution of safer chemicals or changes to processes that have been made in your workplace.

Please go to the following link and complete the questions, it should only take about 10 mins.

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/6C6WWW6

 

 

Hazards Conference 2022 – Urgent sponsorship appeal

Delegates at a pre-Covid Hazards conference participating in the innovative Body and Risk Mapping workshop.

Please would your organisation consider sponsoring this year’s Hazards Conference

In 2019, 185 trade union national, regional and branch organisations, personal injury solicitors, and groups and individuals supported the Hazards Conference.  Since then we have held two online conferences during the difficult circumstances of the pandemic.  These have been held free of charge, with the kind sponsorship of some organisations, but we cannot sustain this for any longer.

Hazards sponsors in the past have always risen to the challenge and continued their invaluable and essential support.  The last two years have been tremendously difficult for all workers. In the Hazards Campaign we have worked hard to respond to workers’ and trade unions’ needs.

The feedback we have received over the last two years has been encouraging and to this end we are moving the Hazards Conference to a hybrid model, where delegates can attend in person or participate online.

We would like to ensure all participants have an equal opportunity to attend and participate in the conference but we are acutely aware that some of our regular attendees have health conditions which will make them at risk of serious illness if they became infected by Covid and therefore we are providing an opportunity for everyone to attend, either in person or online.

However we will incur additional IT and administrative costs to do this, but hopefully with the support of sponsors we can keep the price as low as possible.

Therefore, please would your organisation consider sponsoring the 34th National Hazards Conference.  If you would like to speak to someone about the conference then please email Janet  at hazconf@gmhazards.org.uk

To sponsor please complete the Hazards Conference 2022 – sponsorship form and send it to c.bedale@btinternet.com or mail it to Caroline Bedale, 123 Coppice Street, Oldham OL8 4BH.

For further information please email Janet at  hazconf@gmhazards.org.uk or
phone: 07734 317158