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Unite (Friday 17 February) welcomed the withdrawal of controversial contracts by Balfour Beatty Engineering Services (BBES), which would have resulted in the termination of long-held agreements and the de-skilling of electricians, plumbers, heating and ventilation engineers – with inevitable bad effects on health and safety standards throughout the construction industry. Unite statement here: Balfour Beatty withdraws contracts
Wonder if anyone has any information relating to Employer Liability insurance for the above London based upholstery company. They were formally registered under Company No 511878 between 1952 and 1972 They changed their name in 1972 to Sealine Services (Marine Supplies) Ltd and in 1976 to P&O Group Purchasing and Supplies Ltd
Any information would be gratefully received.
mail@lhc.org.uk
Dear Friends- The Italian criminal court in Turin declared the two asbestos defendants GUILTY and condemned them to 16 years in jail! You can hear the full English version of the sentence read out (it took nearly 3 hours) online at: http://www.livestream.com/greenbox_/video?clipId=pla_0c7ba848-010d-4338-9afe-e6f75fa45c5d The verdict was a sensation and everyone in the court was very relieved and pleased, the exception being the defendants’ lawyers. Neither of the defendants was there; neither one of them has appeared in court at any time during the proceedings. Of course this isn’t over and there is another trial for others who have died at Eternit’s hands in Italy, but what an historic milestone in the long search for justice endured by victims and their families. The Italian newspapers had the news of the verdict on front pages; indeed, there has been massive coverage all over the world and the reputation of the two defendants is now well and truly trashed. It will be difficult now for Schmidheiny to present himself as the saviour of the planet in his capacity as an environmental guru and proponent of sustainable development. The court proceedings began at 9:30 on Monday morning and there was a 3 hour interval from around 10 a.m. During that time I was taken to meet the Public Prosecutor Raffaele Guariniello and to present him with a copy of the new publication: Eternit and the Great Asbestos Trial (see link on IBAS website: http://ibasecretariat.org/eternit-great-asbestos-trial-toc.htm He seemed very calm in those hours before the verdict was given. I took that as a good sign. Indeed it was. Friends of mine saw news clips about the trial on TV in Indonesia and Dubai and emailed me. I have found the link at: http://www.euronews.net/2012/02/13/asbestos-victims-breakthrough/ Best regards, Laurie Kazan-Allen
On Monday the 13th February 2012 the verdict of the Turin Eternit Trial will be announced: it is the largest and most important criminal case ever on asbestos-related deaths. Three thousand victims in four Italian plants – Casale Monferrato, Cavagnolo, Rubiera, Napoli – await justice. There is live screening of the trial here: Asbestos in the dock starting at 9am with a live stream providing an english translation. From Laurie Kazan-Allen: There is little information on this important case in English, but on Monday 13th a book called Eternit and The Great Asbestos Trial is being published by a consortium of civil http://www.ibasecretariat.org (a link on the website will lead to the book’s Table of Contents and it can be downloaded as individual chapters or in full). The eighteen papers on Eternit operations in seven countries reveal a consistency of approach and behaviour; a corporate modus operandi which prioritized profits regardless of the cost paid by workers, family members, consumers and communities. Download Press Release here: PR Feb 2012 Eternit – Turin
Sheffield Occupational Health Advisory Service has produced a factsheet for workers who have to work outside when its cold which you can download here: In wet, windy or extremely cold conditions all but emergency outdoor work should be stopped.
Signs of hypothermia to watch out for in yourself and your work mates: • Persistent severe shivering.• Fatigue, incoordination, drowsiness, apathy, hallucinations and resistance to aid.• Skin may go blue, or later, pale, cold and dry.• As body temperature drops, shivering stops and muscles become rigid.• Breathing and heart rates become slower.• Finally loss of consciousness. The early stages of hypothermia must be treated by moving the person to a warm place, and warming them up slowly, even if they resist your help. Get medical help -call 999- as soon as possible. Avoid by
Clearing SnowThe government has produced information about clearing snow to counteract some of the misinformation spread by the anti safety brigade in recent years which you can read here: Clearing snow and ice from pavements yourself
Time bomb in the classroomJonathan Owen in the Independent on Sunday , today 29th January 2012, investigates asbestos in schools and the government decision to exclude asbestos from a review of conditions in schools. It says: ‘The Government has deliberately excluded asbestos from an unprecedented review of the condition of the country’s schools because it knows that tackling the risks to schoolchildren and teachers could cost hundreds of millions, critics claim.
Campaigners reacted with fury last night as it emerged a year-long survey of England’s 23,000 schools will examine every aspect of buildings – from classroom decoration to whether fire alarms and toilets are in working order – but will specifically exclude asbestos, the most serious threat of all to staff and pupils. An internal Department for Education email, seen by The Independent on Sunday, makes it clear that pressure to include asbestos in the assessment of the state of schools, which begins in April and will be used to inform future funding, had to be resisted due to “cost implications and the fact that asbestos management should already be carried out under existing legal requirements”. The memo, dated September 2011, suggests that the survey programme “might well be able to provide some prompts and checks on that wider process, however”.’ Read the article here: Time bomb in the classroom Sent to us by Diane Salisbury, HASAG, and Michael Lees, contact: michael@lees1262.fsworld.co.uk Asbestos in London SchoolsThis article £85m fund for soaring asbestos claims by Neil Millard published some time ago in the Evening Standard, 27 October 2009, gives details about teacher Joan Henry who taught in two east London schools and died of mesothelioma, aged 57, in 2007. The London Pensions Fund Authority, responsible for staff from the former Inner London Education Authority and GLC, has set aside £85m to fund future cases. They see about 12 cases a year and expect this to double to around 24 cases a year. Stephen Henry, Mrs Henry’s widower received £180,000 compensation in an out of court settlement. The schools she worked at – St Philip Howard in Poplar and Chase Cross in Romford – have both closed.
“Agency workers have no legal protection against blacklisting”Press Release from Blacklist Support Group21st January 2012 Agency workers have no legal protection against blacklisting by multi-national firms according to a shock decision in the Central London Employment Tribunal today. The court found that Dave Smith (an engineer) had been blacklisted by the respondents Carillion (JM) Limited and Schal International Limited (a wholly owned subsidiary of Carillion) because he raised concerns about asbestos on building sites and because of his trade union activities. The firms actually admitted that their managers had supplied the malicious information to Mr. Smith’s blacklsit file in a signed statement to the court.
David Renton (pro-bono barrister for Mr.Smith) argued that the blacklist was a major breach of the Human Rights Act and therefore the law should be interpreted in such a way as to protect all “workers” including agency workers. However the court found that because Mr. Smith was employed through an employment agency, UK employment law does not protect him (or millions of other agency workers), so on that point alone the multi-national constrcution firms won on this legal technicality.
Mr. Smith said outside the court:
“The blacklisting conspiracy is a deliberate breach of human rights by big business. Human Rights are supposed to apply to everyone but Carillion and their subsidiaries have got away with systematic abuse of power simply because I was an agency worker. If the British justice system does not protect workers rights, then we will be taking our case direct to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg”
A secret blacklist file collated by the Consulting Association was presented as evidence and contained Mr. Smith’s photograph, address, National Insurance number, work history, car registration, union credentials, information about his family and pages of information about times when Mr. Smith had raised concerns about poor toilet facilities or asbestos on building sites. This information was secretly supplied to the blacklist by managers from major building companies. The blacklist file was covertly shared amongst the 44 largest construction firms in the UK and resulted in periods of unemployment.
Despite the result, the evidence that came out in court about including invoices and hundreds of blacklist files is almost certain to become a key element in a larger “class action” style claim being brought to the High Court by 100 blacklisted workers in the next few months with representation by Hugh Tomlinson QC (the barrister representing celebrity clients in the News of the World phone hacking cases).
There is more to this case still. The evidence which has come up shows that spies attended union meetings and gathered information about people outside work.
Dave Clancy said in the hearing under oath:
“There is information on the Consulting Association files that I believe could only be supplied by the police or the security services” Dave Clancy is the Head of the Investigations Team at the Information Commissioners Office, the man who led the raid on the Consulting Association premises and discovered the blacklist. He is an ex-police officer. Labour MP John McDonnell said after hearing these revelations: “I am calling upon the Government to launch a public inquiry into the full extent and impact on people’s lives of blacklisting. These revelations are truly shocking and warrant a detailed and open, public investigation.”
Mr. Smith was represented by: David Renton (barrister) and Declan Owens (solicitor) on a pro-bono basis via theFree Representation Unit
Replies to Cameron in the Guardian including one from LHCRead some of the replies here: health and safety is no monster
London Hazards letter:
• The most recent figures show the number of workplace deaths in London nearly doubled – from nine to 17 – in a year. When workers get killed, inevitably investigations prove that corners have been cut and the law broken. It is London Hazards Centre’s belief that the 35% cut to The Health and Safety Executive’s budget is already costing workers lives. For David Cameron to start the new year saying his resolution is “to kill off health and safety culture” shows not just insensitivity to bereaved families, but how out of touch he is with countries with more civilised workplace arrangements in Europe and other parts of the world. The actual conclusions of the Löfstedt review are distorted in the rush to turn back the clock to the 1950s. Löfstedt said there was no evidence to suggest there is a case for stripping back current health and safety regulation, or to support reducing regulatory requirements for smaller firms. We must make sure the coalition does not water down worker protection. Also, in over 20 years of campaigning for improvements, London Hazards has seen no evidence of “burdens on business”, only the opposite. Peter Juszczyz was killed on a small site in Wembley in 2006. In court, HSE said: “His death was clearly avoidable as risks of excavations is well known.” The employer was fined just £750. That is not a burden.
Tuesday 31 January6.30pm Bertrand Russell Room, Conway Hall, HolbornWorkers Memorial Day is on Saturday 28th April.This meeting called by Construction Safety Campaign is to plan events in London. All welcome.
workers need strong regulation & enforcementSome good pictures from 2010 here: Workers Memorial Day at the Olympics Stratford 2010
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London Hazards Centre Trust Limited Charity No.293677
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