Killer blow for workplace safety

The following has been supplied by the TUC:

Unions and campaigners have reacted with horror and anger to the government's new safety strategy. RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: 'When ConDem ministers talk about easing regulation what they mean is removing it, and when it comes to health and safety that is a charter for death and injury. There are already far too few workplace inspections and it is already next to impossible to get bosses whose negligence causes injury, death or disease at work to face legal consequences.' Referring to comments made by employment minister Chris Grayling, CWU general secretary Billy Hayes said: 'What on earth is wrong with Britain having a 'health and safety culture'?' He added: 'If employers know their premises won't be inspected, it's blindingly obvious that they'll start to let standards slip.' A spokesperson for construction union UCATT said: 'These plans will allow employers to ignore safety rules, as they will know that they will not be prosecuted. Workers should not be forced to play Russian roulette with their safety.' Hazards Campaign spokesperson Hilda Palmer said the government strategy 'is dangerously illogical, will have major detrimental impacts on workers' health and lives, and is a completely false economy as it ignores the evidence that the major burden of poor health and safety falls not on employers, but on workers and their families, but also the taxpayer.' Linda Whelan, a founder member of Families Against Corporate Killers (FACK) and whose son Craig died in a workplace fireball, said: 'None of our family members was killed by red tape or employers fearing enforcement. They were killed because of the exact opposite - too little if any time spent on health and safety, and no fear of being found out.'