The following has been supplied by the TUC:
A government safety strategy 'built on myth and
dogma' is making the UK's
workplaces more deadly, unions have warned. Unite accused the government of
hiding behind poor statistics, with workplace deaths 'underestimated by more
than 800 per cent' in the official toll. Unite's general secretary Len
McCluskey, speaking ahead of Workers' Memorial Day on 28 April, said: 'The
government is hell bent on reducing health and safety regulations, and standards.
It will lead to fewer inspections, less enforcement and more deaths, injuries
and ill-health at work. The government's strategy, built on myth and dogma,
puts workers at greater risk.' The union estimates up to 50,000 people could
die each year as a result of work-related injuries and diseases. UNISON general
secretary Dave Prentis, calling on the government 'to think again about its
damaging cuts,' said: 'The government is wrong in believing that health and
safety rules are a burden on business. Cut the funding to develop and enforce
these rules and business and the taxpayer will face the bigger burden of an
injured and unwell workforce.' A statement from PCS,
one of the main unions representing Health and Safety Executive (HSE) staff, noted: 'We believe that health and
safety hurts nobody. In fact, businesses responded to the government's Red Tape
Challenge by saying that they wanted more advice, not less. However, the
government ignored the results and the HSE
remains under threat.' Chris Keates, general secretary of the teaching union
NASUWT, said 'the Coalition wheels out apocryphal stories about health and
safety for the amusement and entertainment of the public.' She said the
government's 'underlying, sinister intention' was to use the stories as
'decoys' to excuse a 'disgraceful stripping away' of critically important
workplace safety rules. CWU general secretary Billy Hayes, speaking at a 28
April event in Liverpool questioned 'how many
in the Cabinet of millionaires know a relative, friend, workmate, or pensioner,
who worked with asbestos?' Asbestos cancers kill several thousand people each
year in the UK.
