New Labour going backwards on safety

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Hope flared for a moment when David Blunkett announced that the Government would publish a bill on corporate accountability. But examination of the fine print showed that there was no reason to celebrate. For one thing, the Government has not actually promised to introduce legislation into the House of Commons but only to publish the text of a bill at some point in the future. For another, the Government is not proposing to introduce custodial sentences for company executives and directors found to have caused workplace death and injury through negligence. If it does anything at all, the Government will merely introduce a new means of levying fines on companies. This is not at all the reform demanded by the entire trade union movement and embraced by the Labour Party. The whole point of calling for the introduction of custodial sentences is that the threat of imposing even large fines does not really act as a deterrent..

The Government's initiative was lauded by the great and the good, e.g. the Institute of Directors, perhaps because the possibility of gaol sentences was removed. Sadly the TUC joined in this uncritical applause, apparently failing to note that the Government was not planning to introduce the policy wanted by the trade union movement. Most individual unions took a much stronger lines, reiterating support for custodial sentences.

Also missing from Blunkett's announcement or that of any other minister was any mention of the long promised Safety Bill. This was expected to introduce some tightening of employers' duties and some improvements in safety representatives' rights. Instead we are to have a consultative document from the Health and Safety Commission seeking views on the legal rights of safety representatives. This has already been delayed for several months but is expected to appear later this year. This might seem on the surface to be some progress but is actually no more than a repeat of a very similar exercise carried out a few years ago. However, unconfirmed reports indicate that it may even suggest some weakening of the role of safety reps.

The Government has further backtracked on proposals to bring in a duty on employers to investigate accidents at work. Instead of introducing a statutory duty, the Government has opted to issue guidance leaving it to employers to comply voluntarily. This is not much good. Good employers will already investigate accidents properly. Bad ones, who might have been motivated to obey the law, will carry on as before. The TUC has been moved to protest over this.

Regulation 22 of the 1999 Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations protects employers from being pursued in civil courts for failing to carry out risk assessments or any other breach of duty under the Regulations. The Tories originally included this when the regulations first became law in 1992 against the provisions of the EU Directive. When this was brought to Labour's attention in 2000, ministers agreed that the UK would notify the EC of its intention to remove the civil liability exclusion from the regulations. In February this year the Health and Safety Commission reported that the changes "are likely to take effect in Spring 2003." Well, it hasn't happened yet.

The Government is also dragging its feet by failing to issue the long awaited Code of Practice on smoking at work. There is now indisputable evidence that passive smoking causes illness. The Code of Practice is supported by both the TUC and the CBI. But the Government is listening to some recidivist elements in the catering industry and has now held up the Code for 5 years.

Another area where people need to vigilant is employers' liability for accidents and illness at work. The Government has undertaken a review at the behest of the insurance industry which is alarmed at the growth in compensation payments and would like employers' liability to be diluted. If this occurred it would affect every worker in the country. The Government's first response did not indicate that they had many changes in mind but there will be continuing pressure from the employers and the situation needs to be monitored carefully.

Very recently news has been broken by the civil service union Prospect that the Health and Safety Executive faces significant cuts and redundancies over the next few years. Prospect says that the Government's own targets for the reduction of workplace deaths and injuries will become unattainable. There will be further reductions in the frequency of workplace inspections by HSE inspectors, already standing at an absurdly low level.

While there was some progress on health and safety in Labour's first term, by and large this has now petered out and there are even signs that we might start going backwards. Every trade unionist should be prepared to take action to stop this from happening.

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