The following has been supplied by the TUC:
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has formally implemented controversial changes to 'simplify the mandatory reporting of workplace injuries for businesses.' The changes to the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR) 1995, which have been criticised by workplace health groups and unions, introduce a shorter list of reportable major injuries, reduce the number of reportable occupational diseases from 47 to just eight and cut down the types of reportable 'dangerous occurrences.'
Injuries will not have to be reported unless they cause more than seven days absence, up from over three days. After the much worse than anticipated scaling back of the workplace injury and disease reporting rules was announced by HSE in July, unions warned it was a 'dangerous' move.
UCATT general secretary Steve Murphy commented: 'The government is determined to ensure that the reporting of accidents is so weak that they become meaningless. The government says it wants to simplify accident reporting for employers, it is clear they don't care about the consequences it has for workers.'
Under the new scheme being rendered unconscious by an electric shock or as a result of exposure to chemicals or biological agents will no longer be reportable. Dislocations of the spine, shoulder, knee or hip are also dropped from the list, as is temporary blindness. The Chartered Society for Worker Health Protection (BOHS) had also been critical of the new system. It said it was 'concerned about the lack of data being collected on long latency diseases such as silicosis' .
