The Excuses

David Morris of the HSE Policy Unit is responsible for the review of the Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations. He had been invited to brief safety reps on HSE thinking and hear reps speak about their problems and ideas. He said (and we say):

giving new powers to reps would lead employers to dump their own responsibilities on the reps. This happens already - how many reps have been asked to do the COSHH assessment because the boss cant understand chemicals? even with the existing powers, reps "can be seen as a threat" because they are "better informed than many of their managers". It's time the managers trained themselves - or are reps supposed to dumb themselves down? giving reps powers to stop a dangerous job would give bosses an opening to argue that reps who fail to stop dangerous work should be legally liable for resulting injuries. As long as the law makes clear that reps have no liability, this can't be a problem. roving reps would be resisted by employers' delegates in the Health and Safety Commission. We thought the HSC was there to be impartial. no reforms would be made that might increase employers costs. The HSE has proved that safe workplaces reduce costs, and that employers shouldn't object to investing in safety. the Consultation with Employees Regulations have failed so badly that he can't find a single 'representative of employee safety' to interview. there are rules for inspectors on keeping in touch with safety reps. Many inspectors don't live up to them.

What Action Next?

Labour ministers say they want to support safety reps. There have been advances, such as the scrapping of the 'minded to' notice system which safety inspectors hated. But serious reforms will be opposed by employers and bureaucrats and politicians are likely to give way.

A consultative document on safety reps' rights is to be issued in the autumn it will be essential for safety reps to flood the HSE with responses. In the meantime, write to David Morris at the HSE with your ideas - he is drafting the document now. And get motions into your trade union machinery.

The latest version of the Hazards Charter contains the Hazards Campaign's proposals for reform. This has been compiled by safety reps at national Hazards Conferences over the past few years. Contact us for a copy and start fighting for support for it in your trade union.

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Twice victimised - but fighting back

Construction worker Dave Smith tries to keep his head down and avoid trouble at work but he knows how dangerous construction employers and building sites are. Twice in the last year Dave, a member of construction union UCATT, has taken on the role of safety representative to try and do something about dangerous conditions on site and twice he's been victimised and sacked for his troubles.

The legal loophole the employers use is that Dave is an agency worker and therefore not an employee of any of the firms he actually works for.

Dave took his first dismissal to an Employment Tribunal (ET) which decided he was unfairly dismissed for raising safety issues. Costains, the defendants, appealed to an Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT) who overturned the ET decision.

The EAT chair's were that Dave was not a direct employee of Costains and so was not entitled to protection from discrimination under the law for being a safety rep. But the chair added that given current practices in construction of agency work and self-employment there will never be any safety representatives in this very dangerous industry because they have effectively no protection.

Dave started work for another agency and was sent to a big Schal site in Brentwood. Schal is owned by Tarmac, recently shown to be the worst performing company on health and safety in Britain by Channel 4's Dispatches programme.

In his first few months on site, there were six HSE reportable incidents. These included a broken arm; an excavator which turned over; a fork lift truck which turned over; a mobile crane positioned too close to the edge of a bank which started to slide down the slope before being rescued.

On Workers Memorial Day, 28 April 28, an 18 year old glazier narrowly escaped death after falling three floors from an unprotected walkway. Dave approached his union official and took up the role of safety rep again. Two days after his credentials were issued, his wages were reduced by 150 per week by a cut in his hours. No other worker had his hours cut.

Dave worked to his new timetable and started performing his safety rep functions including an inspection. The inspection report was ignored. People on site kept complaining to management about the unhygienic condition of the toilets but nothing was done. Dave gave the site bosses a petition signed by 150 workers complaining about the toilets but he was ignored. He was sacked the next day.

Since then Dave, with the support the London Joint Sites Committee, has picketed the site at Brentwood where a good number of his colleagues have twice stopped work in an effort to get his job back. They have also picketed other sites in central London to put pressure on Schal. Dave says, "All this talk about partnership in the construction industry is nonsense because as soon as any worker raises health and safety issues he is victimised and sacked. The big construction firms talk a safe job but in reality they're no better than the cowboy outfits."

Breakthroughs on stress

Stress has moved right to the top of the health and safety agenda with the in-court award of 67,000 to Beverley Lancaster, a former employee of Birmingham City Council.

After 21 years' employment as a draughtsperson with an exemplary record, Beverley was compelled to switch to a totally new job involving frequent contact with members of the public. Training and support were promised but did not materialise. After a first bout of illness caused by work-induced stress, the promises were renewed but still not kept. Eventually Beverley was forced to retire on health grounds. Assisted by UNISON, she then successfully sued the Council; in a legal first, the Council accepted liability.

In another recent case with UNISON involvement, Cath Noonan, a former social services worker with Liverpool City Council, received 84,000 in an out-of-court settlement. She was forced to retire on ill health grounds after suffering years of bullying and intimidation.

The interim findings of the Bristol University stress survey commissioned by the Health and Safety Executive are also guaranteed to make employers sit up and take notice. The researchers surveyed over 4000 people in paid employment randomly selected from the general population. They found that

one in five respondents were "very" or "extremely" stressed at work and that nearly half were "moderately" stressed about a quarter had suffered an illness caused or made worse by work in the preceding year stress levels outside work were lower than in work stress factors included long and intense work, high workloads and lack of support.

The first, tentative steps to beef up employers' duties on stress are now under way. The Health and Safety Commission (HSC) has published a Discussion Document setting out its own views and seeking those of interested parties. Replies were due in at the end of July.

The HSC is cautious in its approach, favouring no more than issuing improved guidance, the lowest level of official advice. It does not even support the publication of an Approved Code of Practice, which would have rather more force, and is positively against the introduction of Regulations which would bring in legal duties.

But the HSC may find it is not in step with other people in the field. At a special HSC conference in June on stress, representative of a very wide range of interests, more than half those present indicated that they would prefer to see Regulations brought in.

While it would be too much to expect significant movement from the HSC in the short run, recent developments have put more pressure on employers to reduce or eliminate stress on their employees. As in every area of health and safety, it is only regrettable that it has taken the broken health and careers of the victims to achieve this.

Further reading: Hard Labour: Stress, ill-health and hazardous employment practices, London Hazards Centre, 6.95 p & p. Also, send s.a.e. for free factsheet on stress.

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Asbestos banned at last

As we go to press, news is breaking that the European Commission has finally decided to bring in a virtually total ban on white asbestos. The EU Directive on dangerous substances and preparations will be updated and member states will have until the beginning of 2005 to bring their national laws into line. While asbestos already installed is not affected by the change in legislation, no new uses will be permitted.

Most EC countries already ban asbestos but the UK government has been havering for the last two years for fear of legal action by asbestos-producing countries. Now Michael Meacher, the Environment Minister, has given a commitment to bring in a ban; there must be no further delay.

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Revised Hazards Charter now available

Since it was first published in 1997 the Hazards Charter has proven its worth with many of its key demands now adopted as policy by major unions and the TUC. With new opportunities of achieving changes in Government and HSE policy the Hazards Campaign decided to revise and reissue it.

This revision takes on board comments made by safety representatives at the 1999 Hazards Conference. It develops ideas on further rights for workers and safety reps as well as arguing for stronger enforcement by the HSE, EHOs and the courts.

The Charter sets out a basic programme of "health and safety demands on Government." If you agree with the changes proposed, then take the relevant issues to your members, your branch, your union conference and the TUC Congress. The Charter needs to be turned into action.

Copies of the new edition are available from the London Hazards Centre or the Greater Manchester Hazards Centre, 23 New Mount St, Manchester M4 4DE, tel: 0161 953 4037.

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New Staff join the Centre Team

Two new members of staff join the Centre in the summer to deliver the second and third years of the Voluntary Sector Training Project, funded by the National Lottery Charities Board. Diana Shelley joins us from UNISON, and Mumtaz Mahmood moves to London from Leeds where she has been working in health promotion.

Diana and Mumtaz join Shonagh Methven in delivering nearly one hundred courses to more than 500 voluntary organisations based in Greater London. The courses will be followed up, in 2000-2001, by health and safety advice and support, which will be offered to each voluntary organisation which takes part in the training courses. The Centre workers will work with each organisation to make the workplace and practices safer for workers and service users alike.

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