An employer whose criminal neglect left his
workers at risk of serious occupational disease is being presented by the
Conservatives as a champion of their safety deregulation plans. At prime
minister's questions on 12 September, Tory MP Chris Kelly asked the prime
minister if he agreed 'with Kevin O'Toole, the managing director of Eurocraft
Enclosures Ltd in Dudley, who contacted me about the government's plans to
sweep away unnecessary health and safety red tape to say: 'At last years and
years of regulation are being replaced by a simple concept called common
sense'?' Chris Kelly added: 'Is it not common sense to remove the headache of
inspections for low-risk businesses?' Prime minister David Cameron said the MP
was 'absolutely right' to highlight the issue. UNISON, though, was unimpressed.
The public sector union points out that less than a year before the Health and
Safety Executive (HSE)
had served Eurocraft Enclosures Ltd with an improvement notice for three criminal
breaches of safety law. The employer had failed to eliminate or control the
risk to employees from hand-arm vibration. Vibration exposure of this type can
cause serious and permanent occupational disease. According to UNISON: 'As
demonstrated by Eurocraft Enclosures Ltd, we cannot rely on common sense to
ensure that employees are kept healthy and safe at work. If you believe that
everyone should be able to work without having their health damaged by their
job, join UNISON in defending against the government's attack on health and
safety inspections and legislation.'
