Category Archives: Blog

Blog, media

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

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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.

A 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 / WMD, Blog

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

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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
28 April / WMD, Blog

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

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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 Herbertson – my 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 Wright – our 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.

Blog, media

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

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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

Blog, media

Zoom discussion: Organising 101 – Dave Smith on campaigning

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Image

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

Action, Blog

Take action to support sacked EIS safety rep!

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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’

Blog, Hazards conference, media

HAZARDS CONFERENCE 2025

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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.

———————————————————————

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
28 April / WMD, Blog, media

Hazards Campaign reveals the tragic price of work hazards

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Press Release for International Workers Memorial Day to remember people killed by work

For immediate release

On International Workers Memorial Day, Friday 28th April,  workers globally will hold workplace and community events to remember work colleagues, who have died because of their work.  Every year the Hazards Campaign produce ‘The Whole Story’ (1) which is an analysis of the occupational injuries, illness and deaths statistics.

In the last 12 months alone, it is estimated by the Hazards Campaign, that more than 53,000 people died because of work and this number doesn’t include the hundreds of workers who have died because of Covid infections they contracted in the workplace, because there is no obligation for employers to report them to the enforcement agency, or for them to be investigated or employers to be prosecuted.(1) and they not recorded.

The Hazards Campaign includes an estimate of the number of workers who have died from work-related suicide, which is estimated to be as high as 10% of all suicides. (2)  Again, the employer is under no legal duty to report, or investigate these deaths and this estimate is based on numbers recorded in other countries where suicides are reportable.  The Hazards Campaign believes there is a moral obligation to do this, and are campaigning for there to be a legal obligation for work-related suicides to be reportable, investigated and employers prosecuted if they are negligent.(3)

UK Hazards Campaign spokesperson Janet Newsham, said it’s shocking that worldwide, work kills a minimum of 2.9 million people every year.

She said: “Last year safe and healthy work was adopted as a fundamental right by the ILO.  This means that occupational health and safety must be central to all work.  This should also mean that our Government, employers and enforcement authorities must double their efforts to eradicate unsafe and unhealthy work activities.  It should be no longer acceptable that work drives people to take their own life, or that workers are subjected to air pollution and other airborne viruses, toxic chemicals and hazardous substances, that will eventually kill them. It should mean that these are not an optional extra but are fundamental to safe and healthy work.’

‘No-one should lose their life for just going out to work to earn a living. Too many people die because of their work activities.  On International Workers Memorial Day we will remember all those who have died because of work, we will wear purple ribbons in their memory, we will tell their stories(2), and try to hold those responsible for their deaths are held to account.  We don’t want to hear about lessons learnt, that means that someone else has died.  We need all work to be safe and healthy, preventing deaths, diseases and injuries and on April 28th we will ‘Remember the dead and Fight for the Living!’’

Note to editors:

More details on the theme can be found here:

  1. The whole story: https://sway.office.com/0SEVenHS9yTFFJqs?ref=Link
  2. Families against corporate killers 2023 statement: https://www.hazardscampaign.org.uk/blog/uk-fack-statement-international-workers-memorial-day-28-april-2023
  3. Suicide:
  4. Further information:

For more details please contact Janet Newsham on 07734 317158.

28 April / WMD, Blog, media

UK: FACK Statement – International Workers’ Memorial Day 28 April 2023

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FACK Statement

International Workers’ Memorial Day 28 April 2023

 

We FACK families are eternally grateful to each and every person who has come together today to mark International Workers’ Memorial Day.  A day when we remember all of those bereaved by work. And renew our commitment to fighting like hell for the living.

Because, just what is it to be bereaved by work…?

It’s to start a day like any other. And end it like no other. To not have known that was your last goodbye. To be left to rue the denial of so many tomorrows and still feel the ripple effects decades on.

It’s to be let down, time and again.  By the employer who had a moral duty and a legal responsibility to look after our family member, and failed in both respects in the worst possible way.  By those politicians who erroneously believe health and safety protections to be burdens on business, and seek to slash and burn where they should be seeking to safeguard and bolster.  By the enforcement authorities who seem so often incapable of effecting proactive preventative inspections.  And by our prosecution bodies, who take far too long to bring negligent employers to, what passes for, justice.

Because, to be bereaved by work is to be a victim of crime.  But to be made to feel like a lesser class of victim.  One where you’re not placed at the heart of the justice process, but left to feel you exist somewhere on the periphery.  To have to garner the strength time and again to face another battle against a justice system, which is meant to be on our side, but which all too often serves to further deepen our trauma.

It’s to question whether you yourself have done enough.  Whether you could have done more to get answers sooner.  To get action quicker. To ensure changes are implemented to prevent the heartbreak of other families like your own. But having to come to terms with the fact this is never within our own power, but reliant on others.  Others who have let us down.

The loss of our loved one’s life set off a chain reaction of change, where the lives we thought we were going to lead are no longer possible.  The wedding day that didn’t happen.  The child who didn’t survive their apprenticeship.  The future mapped out with your partner of 28 years now a solo challenge, rather than a team adventure.  The sibling you can no longer call for advice, or look to for support.

It’s also about facing poverty through the loss of a breadwinner’s income or losing your own job, house, livelihood, as you grieve for your loved one and are unable to work to sustain yourself and your family. Compensation is often not made at all, or is too little, and the benefits system is very harsh and support very scarce. The effects of a work death can resonate painfully through generations.

It’s to feel a devastation you never thought possible.  And other times to feel numb, a nothing-ness, a lack of hope.  When you see another news report of a death due to a so-called “accident” at work, it’s to not just understand what that actually means, but to feel it.

What else is it to be bereaved by work….?

It’s to find lifelong friends you will cherish, all the while wishing you had met in altogether different circumstances.

It’s to find the voice you never knew you had.  The one which, though it may occasionally tremble, steadies itself to assertively speak truth to power. To find that strength you never ever expected to need.

And though you are let down at too many turns, you are lifted by the fortitude and support of others. Like those who work and volunteer in the Hazards movement, Hazards Centres, and charity Scottish Hazards.  Like the trade unionists who help ensure their workplaces are safer and healthier. And like those individual politicians, enforcers, prosecutors and others who do get it, who do understand what we are going through, and who want desperately to bring about the changes we need to see.

We need the employers who do care to guide, educate and cajole those who need woken up to their responsibilities. Laws to be protected. An end to the odious practice of blacklisting. We need enforcement before the fact.  Lessons to be learned, communicated and actioned before loss of life occurs. Penalties that fit the crime. Those bereaved by work to be placed at the heart of the justice system.  And for no other family to have to walk in our families’ shoes.

So, we will continue to tell our loved ones’ stories. We will continue to lay bare our reality.

All in the desperate hope and eternal expectation that we’ll be able to prevent others going through the turmoil of those of us left behind.  Our loved one went to work to make a better life.  Instead, there was loss of life and lives forever altered.

We FACKers pledge to you is to continue to live the International Workers’ Memorial Day mantra each and every day, as we forever remember our dead, and do our damndest to fight 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, to sit with families in the darkest hour and help them speak truth to power, see www.fack.org.uk  https://gmhazards.org.uk/index.php/fack/      Facebook:  Families Against Corporate Killers

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 Nov 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

c/o GM Hazards Centre/Hazards Campaign, Windrush Millennium Centre,

70 Alexandra Road, Manchester M16 7WD Tel 0161 792 1044

mail@gmhazards.org.uk  www.fack.org.uk https://gmhazards.org.uk/index.php/fack/

28 April / WMD, Blog, Graphics

Posters, ribbons and more – get your 28 April campaign gear!

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International Workers’ Memorial Day on 28 April 2023 – the biggest event on the trade union safety calendar – is just over a week away. Essential resources, including 28 April purple ribbons, car stickers and ‘Organise!’ posters, bags, t-shirts and hi-vis jackets, are available from the national Hazards Campaign.

RESOURCES
Hazards Campaign 28 April #iwmd23 resources

  • Organise! 28 April posters, specify A4 or A3, free plus cost of postage.
  • Purple ribbons, £50/100.
  • Car stickers, single £1, 2-10 50p each, 11-100 30p each.
  • Bags, £5 plus postage.
  • Organise v-neck t-shirts or Hi-viz gilets (sizes S,M, L, XL), £10.

Contact the campaign for discount rates for larger orders. Further details, email Janet Newsham or phone 07734 317158.

Print off order form.  Return order form to: iwmd23, 177 Watling Street Road, Fulwood, Preston PR28AE.

Cheques made payable to ‘Greater Manchester Hazards Centre Ltd’.

BACS payments
Account Name Greater Manchester Hazards Centre Ltd
Sort Code 60 83 01
Account Number 20090443
Bank Name and address Unity Trust Bank,  Nine Brindley place, Birmingham B1 2 HB.