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Downing Street petition calling for airborne infection prevention and control measures in healthcare settings 

Downing Street petition calling for airborne infection prevention and control measures in healthcare settings 

The chair of UK Hazards Campaign, Janet Newsham, will be handing-in a petition at 10 Downing Street on Thursday 26th June calling for improved new air quality and PPE rules for health and social care settings. Janet who is also the coordinator at Greater Manchester Hazard’s Centre, will be accompanied at Number 10 by representatives from several organisations, including Sioux Vosper, who is a member of Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice.   Representatives from healthcare organisations will include Jonathan Fluxman from Doctors in Unite union and Dr. Alison Twycross RN, Chair of Supporting Healthcare Heroes UK Charity, Editor-in-Chief of Evidence Based Nursing and Honorary Associate Professor at University of Birmingham, School of Nursing and Midwifery.

The petition that they will be handing in is calling for the government to ‘set new rules on air quality and infection control in health and social care settings, to prevent and control airborne infections, with new ventilation and filtration requirements, new PPE standards and staffing rules’ – it also calls for monitoring and inspection to ensure compliance.

In her covering letter with the petition, Janet will be formally requesting a response from the government to the thousands of people who have supported and signed this important petition.

She has also sent this briefing document on the issue to all UK MPs: See link: https://shh-uk.org/get-in-touch-with-your-mp-safeair4all/

In the first few months of 2025, the UK was gripped by a ‘quaddemic’ of flu, covid, norovirus and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Many hospital trusts across the country declared critical incidents, asking people to stay away from A and E units for non-urgent treatment, also asking them not to visit if they had symptoms of viral illness and to mask if they did have to come to the hospital.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) issued a new alert on Thursday, 30th January, urging the public to adopt measures such as staying at home and masking up when venturing outside. However, it is notable that UHKSA did not mention airborne spread of any of the viruses or the need to protect patients with airborne infection prevention and control measures within healthcare settings.

Covid, flu and RSV are all airborne diseases and norovirus can be passed on by inhaling virus particles (as well as by direct contact or contaminated surfaces.)  Airborne can mean that the virus is spread by either aerosol particles or droplet particles. This means a person can become infected, either by inhaling aerosol particles that are spreading away from the infected person (like smoke in the air) or respiratory droplets that are produced when an infected person coughs, sneezes, or talks. Although flu and RSV are mainly seasonal, covid remains a threat all year round.

Janet believes that improved airborne infection prevention and control measures in UK healthcare services, could help to reduce the impact of the winter crisis that has affected hospitals and GP surgeries across the country.  The measures will also provide reassurance for clinically vulnerable patients who have no choice but to attend essential medical appointments in hospitals and GP surgeries where the risk of airborne infection is high – particularly as this risk exists year round for Covid-19.

“Hospitals are at the forefront of the battle against Covid-19,” said Janet. “However, they are also environments where the risk of transmission is high, particularly for patients and healthcare workers. This has led to a staffing crisis in our health providers with high staff sickness levels, and dozens leaving the profession with long term disabilities. 

 “The ongoing threat posed by Covid-19 underscores the need for a proactive approach to infection control to reduce the incidence of long-term disabilities and prevent avoidable deaths. Protecting these vital spaces ensures the well-being of our most vulnerable citizens and contributes to the broader effort to stem the tide of this relentless virus. 

 “As we learn to coexist with Covid-19, vigilance and collective action remain our strongest tools in safeguarding public health.  It is critical that the Government takes the action called for in our petition.”

Research carried out on Covid wards at Addenbrooke’s Hospital suggests that air filter machines removed almost all traces of airborne Covid virus. The study was led by a team of doctors, scientists and engineers at Addenbrooke’s and the University of Cambridge in January, at the height of the second wave of the pandemic. Air filtration machines were placed in Covid wards and the air quality analysed with the machines switched on for a week, off for a week, and then on for another week. The team found that with the machines on, it removed almost all traces of airborne SARS-CoV-2.

In recent months an All-Party Parliamentary Group for Long Covid has been set up and separately to this group, a letter was sent to the chair of the Covid Inquiry, to invite her to “make urgent interim recommendations to make healthcare settings safe”.  A reply to this letter was received on 27th January 2025, from the Right Honourable Baroness Hallett, Chair of the Covid-19 UK Inquiry, in which she declined to make any interim recommendation in Module 3 of the Inquiry.

Prof Colin McKay (Deputy Director for NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde) testified recently at the Covid Inquiry that, as early as April 2020, it was increasingly clear to those on the ground that airborne transmission was taking place and that infection control advice was incorrect, leaving staff unprotected.

In September 2024, Dr Barry Jones, Chair of CATA (COVID-19 Airborne Transmission Alliance, which is a Core Participant in the UK COVID-19 Inquiry), gave evidence at the Covid Inquiry about healthcare officials denial of how COVID-19 is transmitted, which has resulted in:

  • A failure to protect healthcare workers by providing them with enhanced PPE and adequate ventilation, leading to death and life-changing Long Covid;
  • A failure to protect patients, with many contracting the virus in hospital;
  • Billions of pounds being wasted on inappropriate PPE.

Kamini Gadhok MBE, former Chief Executive of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists and Vice Chair of CATA highlighted the wider impact of these failures on the NHS: “The staffing crisis in the NHS has been compounded by Government officials’ blatant disregard for keeping healthcare workers safe during the pandemic, and we’re now seeing the impact this is having on patient care and waiting times.”

ENDS

EDITOR’S NOTES

Janet Newsham Contact: 07734 317158

Email: janetnewsham@googlemail.com

 Posts from X (formerly Twitter) that illustrate patients anxieties about attending medical appointments:

https://x.com/ELHopkins/status/1849774621555376171

https://x.com/JoIsSummer/status/1865453048379621798

 This ‘MegaThread’ has clips of video evidence given at the Covid-19 UK Inquiry

https://x.com/_CatintheHat/status/1860781843244634365

 UKHSA posts on Thursday 30th January:

New Alert post: https://x.com/UKHSA/status/1884888051748368629

Link to Addenbrooke’s research article:

https://www.cuh.nhs.uk/news/air-filters-on-wards-remove-almost-all-airborne-covid-virus/

**Link to Mirror Online article about UKHSA new alert on 30th January: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/health/urgent-new-stay-home-wear-34580964

Prof. Colin Mckay’s testimony at the Covid Inquiry:    https://x.com/_CatintheHat/status/1860783278464114927

 Information about the Long Covid APPG:
https://joplatt.com/news/2024/12/11/jo-platt-becomes-chair-of-the-all-party-parliamentary-group-for-long-covid/

Letter to chair of Covid Inquiry:
https://x.com/LongCovidSOS/status/1870061604781298062

Links about covid being an airborne disease – information from the covid inquiry was taken from this link: https://www.rcslt.org/news/evidence-given-at-uk-covid-19-inquiry/#:~:text=On%2012%20September%2C%20evidence%20was,ongoing%20investigation%20into%20these%20issues.

Dr. Lisa Ritchie – IPC Lead for NHS England – Still believes that the primary mode of transmission for Covid-19 is droplet and contact.  Professor Clive Beggs testifies in the second part of this video that the primary mode of transmission is ”predominantly by an airborne route”:  Watch video: https://x.com/_CatintheHat/status/1884951090162016643

 

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

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

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

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

Hazards Campaign reveals the tragic price of work hazards

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.

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

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 Herbertsonhusband 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 Murphyson Lewis Murphy 18, killed at work on 21st February 2004

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

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

Dorothy & Douglas Wrightson 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/