The following has ben supplied by the TUC:
A government plan that will make it harder for workers to claim legitimate compensation for injuries at work has been criticised by Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspectors' union Prospect. The union condemnation came after a 16 April vote by MPs to over-rule the House of Lords and go ahead with plans to remove the right to use criminal breaches of safety law by an employer as grounds for a personal injury compensation claim by a worker suffering an occupational injury or disease. The government amendment to the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill had been throw out by peers in a close vote last month, but was reinstated by MPs in a 316 to 241 House of Commons vote. Prospect health and safety officer Sarah Page said: 'The government's proposals to remove civil liability from breaches of health and safety law will make it harder, if not impossible, for people with legitimate claims to be compensated. It signals Victorian neglect for injured workers and plays to rogue employers, who will willingly leave our already overstretched health services to pick up the pieces.' She added: 'This is a miserable decision by a government that is spinning the myth of a compensation culture which even its own advisers have said doesn't exist.'
