Details supplied by the TUC:
The coalition government is attacking the most fundamental of workers' rights - the right to be safe at work, retail union Usdaw has warned.
Moving a rights at work motion at this week's Labour Party annual conference in Manchester, Usdaw general secretary John Hannett said the government was intent on diluting workplace safety protections.
'The Tories claim that shops and offices are safe workplaces, that they don't need health and safety inspections,' Hannett said. But drawing attention to the violence risks facing workers in the public service frontline, he added: 'It's true that they don't have the obvious hazards of a chemical factory, or an oil rig, but there are hidden dangers. Like so many other public facing workers, those dangers tend to come from other people. As soon as the Tories and Lib Dems got into power, they attacked the most fundamental workplace right - the right to be safe. The Tories, because they are ideologically committed to putting profit before people and the Lib Dems, because they are ideologically committed to clinging to their ministerial limos. They justify their attacks by peddling myths and misinformation.'
The union leader concluded: 'We must keep independent workplace inspections, we must resource rigorous enforcement of the law and we must protect all public facing workers. Protect them from the dangers of the workplace and from the dangers of the coalition government.'
A September report from the TUC challenged the safety myths behind the government's attack on safety, and concluded health and safety regulations and enforcement were a benefit and not a burden to business.
