Crisis of Health and Safety enforcement

Swindon TUC Press Release
27th April 2008

Representatives of Swindon Trades Union Council and the unions GMB, Unite and UNISON, met with Michael Wills MP to raise concerns regarding the crisis in enforcement of Health and Safety legislation, resulting from government policy. The meeting was organised as part of the programme of events taking place for Workers Memorial Day, when trades unions across the world highlight unecessary deaths and injuries in the workplace, often resulting from negligence or complete disregard by employers for the health and safety of their workers.

“Safety” Honda style

This is a letter to the Swindon Advertiser.

I am pleased to hear that Honda management is “not prepared to compromise the safety of their staff”. What comes as something of a surprise, however, is that the main threat to their health and safety comes from cake and fruit, rather than the work they do. Perhaps the company can, in the interests of transparency, publicise the statistics for accidents in the plant, including those resulting from the proliferation of crumbs throughout the workplace. Would that be too much to ask, or is such a thing not possible because it’s ‘commercial in confidence’?

It was also interesting to read a spokesperson tell us that, benevolent company that they are, all “associate related issues” (staff or workers to you and me) are discussed “through our associate representative council”. However, this is a bit of a freudian slip, not mentioning the trade union which the company is supposed to recognise. Oh no, we discuss things with our beloved ARC.

I don’t know who the spokesperson was but their knowledge of life on the factory floor does seem a trifle lacking. Running to the canteen in a 10 minute break?

By the way, how is this rule being policed? CCTV in the break areas? Searching of all staff when they leave the break areas or finish work, for the tell-tell signs of crumbs clinging to their clothing or juice stains from fruit?

No wonder workers feel that they are being treated like children.

Martin Wicks
Secretary, Swindon TUC

Health & Safety Crisis

Swindon TUC Health & Safety Briefing

hsbriefing Download this as a PDF

Swindon TUC and local unions are meeting with Swindon MP Michael Wills on Friday April 25th to discuss what the unions consider to be a crisis in the regime of Health & Safety inspection and enforcement. We were hoping for this to take place on Workers Memorial Day but Mr Wills could not make it on that day. WMD is an event organised by the unions to commemorate workers killed and injured at work, often owing to the negligence of employers.

The importance of Health & Safety is often downplayed or has scorn poured on it by the media, identifying it with ‘PC’ (political correctness), and the odd incident such as children being prevented from playing conkers because of the risk to them.

In fact, Health & Safety is a crucial part of the work of the trades unions, which protects workers from injury, illness, and sometime death, which they suffer as a result of work. It is a well-known fact that the chance of an accident is 50% less likely to occur in a unionised workplace as compared with a non-union one.

Health & Safety legislation imposes a duty of care on employers for their workers. However, too often these responsibilities are either ignored or the workplace Health & Safety system which is in place, is shoddy. Too often union Health & Safety reps have to struggle to take advantage of their legal rights because employers obstruct their work when it costs money and takes reps away from their day job.

The Health & Safety Executive is one port of call for reps when management is obstructive. Moreover, it is responsible for investigating deaths and serious accidents. However, owing to the cuts that have been imposed by the government the HSE cannot do the job that it is supposed to do. Hazards magazine reports that:

“HSE’s desperately poor safety enforcement record just took a turn for the worse. Now 9 out of 10 major injuries don’t result in an investigation, HSE inspections have hit a new low and the last two years have seen the worst enforcement performance on record. Hazards editor Rory O’Neill says only dangerous employers now have reason to feel safe.”

The statistics are worrying:

Fatalities are Up – 241 worker deaths in 2006/07 compared to 217 in 2005/06, an 11 % increase. It should be born in mind that workers (who drive for a living) who die in road accidents are not counted as ‘workplace deaths’.

Inspections are down - 41,496 HSE inspections in 2006/07 compared to 54,717 in 2005/06, a 24 per cent decrease. In 2001 workplaces could expect a visit every 7 years, This has now risen to every 14.5 years.

Investigations down – the proportion of reported serious injuries investigated by the HSE is down to 11% in 2005/06 from 13% the previous year.

Prosecutions remain low - 1,056 offences were prosecuted by HSE in 2005/06 compared to 1,320 in 2004/05, a fall of 20 per cent. Convictions dropped by 10 per cent. Provisional figures for 2006/07 show a minor improvement in prosecutions and convictions, but the last two years remain the worst on record.

Enforcement notices remain low - notices issued by HSE in 2005/06 compared to 8,471 in 2004/05, a fall of over 22 per cent. Prohibition notices were down by 18 per cent and improvement notices by 24 per cent. The provisional total notices figure rose to 8,071 in 2006/07, but the last two years remain the worst on record.

The HSE’s ‘decision reporting forms’ reveal the number of incidents so serious investigation should follow automatically but where no investigation has occurred because of “inadequate resources” has increased from 207 in 2005/05, to 255 in 2005/06 and to 307 in 2006/07.

There are serious concerns that the enforcement crisis at HSE will worsen, as further funding cuts bite. HSE has already lost over 250 jobs since April 2006 and faces a further 100 job losses in the second half of the financial year. HSE is grappling with the news that the anticipated 15 per cent budget cut by 2011 to meet Treasury efficiency targets may in fact be larger still.

Since 2002, HSE has lost over 1,000 posts as a result of government spending cuts; HSE union Prospect says the organisation now employs fewer than 3,250 staff, down from over 4,000 when Labour took office.

These statistics indicate that HSE is an organisation which cannot cope with the amount of work it has. Government cuts mean that the overwhelming majority of serious accidents in the workplace are not being investigated. That inevitably means that negligent employers are not subject to the necessary action to call them to order and to force them to carry out their legal responsibilities.

In June 2007, the Health and Safety Commission (HSC) followed HSE’s recommendation and said there would be no new rights for safety reps, following a “consultation” in which 9 out of 10 respondents supported increasing the rights of union Health & Safety reps. The move came after the CBI “strongly opposed” the new rights, safety minister Lord McKenzie said in an 8 June 2007 letter to NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear.

Lord McKenzie said:

“HSC cannot make changes without broad stakeholder agreement to them and the lack of consensus between the social partners on this issue means that no progress can be made on any regulatory changes.”

So there can be no changes unless the employers agree!

We believe that:

The cutbacks which have adversely impacted on the HSE should be halted, and indeed reversed.

The rights of Health & Safety reps should be reinforced.

‘Roving Reps’ (or Workers Safety Advisers) should be recognised in law.

Swindon TUC
April 13th 2008

Notes:

Workers Memorial Day is an international trade union event, taking place annually on April 28th, organised to commemorate those killed and injured needlessly in the workplace, and to campaign for effective Health & Safety legislation and a rigorous inspection regime.

See material on International Workers Memorial Day
http://www.hazards.org/wmd/index.htm

Below is material which explains the impact of negligence on the part of employers and a slack H&S regime.

Too young to dieA young worker between 16 and 24 is injured every 12 minutes, seriously injured every 40 minutes and killed every 4 weeks. Read the stories of those workers whose young lives have been needlessly cut short.
http://www.hazards.org/2young2die/index.htm

Safety repressed
Despite a consultation on the role of safety reps the government has failed to strengthen reps rights and failed to challenge the obstructions employees place in the way of reps having the time to carry out their role.
http://www.hazards.org/safetyreps/safetyrepressed.htm

Breaking the fifty-first promise!

Swindon’s current Council likes to pride itself on delivering its promises. Hence it put forward its famous menu of 50 promises against which it reckoned it should be judged. Their self-image is one of an efficient and well-managed Council.

Although it wasn’t in the big 50, another promise was made by Council Leader Rod Bluh. When Bath University’s proposal to build a University campus close to the Great Western Hospital at Commonhead, was abandoned, Rod publicly committed the Council to a policy of ‘No University, No housing’ (in the area surrounding Coate Water). Let’s call this the 51st promise.

Meeting: Rebuilding union workplace organisation

Rebuilding workplace union organisation – the National Shop Stewards Network

Wednesday April 2nd 2008, 7.30 p.m.
Venue: The Broadgreen Centre, Salisbury St

The guest speaker at Swindon TUC’s April 2008 meeting is Dave Chapple Secretary of Bridgwater TUC, and President of the CWU’s big Bristol Amalgamated branch covering Royal Mail. Dave is also Chair of the National Shop Stewards Network, in which capacity he is speaking.

Buses: a public service, not a ‘business’

This is a letter in response to a debate in the Swindon Advertiser letters page. 

I don’t know whether John Forster-Heatlie has heard of climate change, but his view that bus companies which do not make a profit should be allowed to go “out of business”, would have the result of pushing more people into cars. Perhaps he doesn’t think there is a threat to the environment and society. Yet he must know that the state of Swindon’s roads is worsening, and is threatened by government imposed housing targets. He bemoans the very idea of “subsidies” but doesn’t appear to mind us all choking to death as a result of pollution, whilst the roads become ever more congested.

Historically, government’s of whatever political stripe, have always tended to differentiate between subsidy and investment; the first being viewed as bad, the second being seen as virtuous. In reality, road transport has been given massive state subsidies which the tax payer has had to pay. The railways, for instance, have to pay the full cost of their infrastructure, whereas the private motorist and transport companies have never had to pay the real cost of the infrastructure they use. That, in part, is why the railways have been unable to ‘compete’ with the car. Yet the big increase in rail passenger numbers has resulted from the terrible congestion created by increasing road transport, despite the chaos caused by privatisation of the railways.

In the case of the buses, privatisation was a disaster, precisely because the industry was transformed from a public service into a profit-oriented one. This led to a decline in services and, with the exception of London, a decline in the number of passengers. Since 1995-6 local bus journeys outside London have fallen from 2,660 million to 2,315 million. In London they have increased from 1,193 million to 1,810 million.

The increase in passenger numbers in London, taking people out of their cars, has resulted from the dreaded subsidies (£550 million out of contracts worth £1.4 billion), and of course, because driving there is a nightmare. The average road speed in London is 11 mph.

So called free-market competition has been revered like a God, at least since the days of Thatcher. ‘New Labour’ adopted this ideology, endeavouring to turn everything (even health provision) into a commodity. In real life, however, contrary to the theory competition does not lead to increased ‘efficiency’. The free-marketeers only measure efficiency by profit levels. But every economic activity, or the absence of it, has social and environmental consequences, and costs. Subsidising roads rather than buses and trains has had disastrous environmental and social consequences, and we pay the costs.

What we need is not for Thamesdown Transport to go ‘out of business’ but an improved public service; more frequent, more reliable, and cheaper buses. In order to achieve that we need an end to the de-regulation of buses. What’s the problem with subsidy for a socially useful and beneficial purpose? In order to tackle the environmental crisis we need to make a big shift from road to rail and buses.

Martin Wicks
Secretary, Swindon TUC

Swindon’s transport ‘vision’

Swindon Borough Council has produced a consultation document, “2030 – a Transport Vision for Swindon”. This is Swindon Trades Union Council’s submission to the consultation.

The basic contradiction at the heart of Swindon Borough Council’s consultation document is the assertion that massive expansion of the town can go hand in hand with “sustainability”. The document recites the mantra of sustainability but it accepts an expansion of the town which is not the result of deliberation and decision by the local population but a ‘target’ imposed upon us by national government and an un-elected Regional quango. Such growth would have drastic social and environmental consequences. Already the current infrastructure of the town is struggling with the level of car use resulting from the increased population.

The document talks of a “compact” with the government in which the Borough accepts “economic and housing growth” and “expects government to recognise its shared responsibility for enabling investment”. However, as the recent dispute over the amount the government is offering for infrastructure shows, there is little chance of such a “compact”.

The population of Swindon has grown from 151,000 in 1981 to 184,000 in 2005.This has obviously impacted on the growth of road journeys. In the last 15 years the number of kilometres driven on roads in the Borough has increased from an estimated 897 million to 1025 million. In the last five years alone traffic on the outskirts of town has increased by 27%, principally as a result of commuting to work. During the morning peak our roads carry 50,000 vehicles. The capacity is estimated at 60,000. If no action is taken, says the Council consultation document “there will be significant congestion on the roads by 2016”. After 2026 they predict that the congestion will spread to beyond the traditional peaks and average speed of traffic could decline from 27 mph to 18 mph in the morning peak.

This increase in traffic has taken place in the context of a 21% population increase over 25 years. Imagine what is likely to happen if the target population of 250,000 were to be reached by 2030; a nearly 28% increase in 23 years. We believe that the local population should campaign against this imposed growth target.

Historically, of course, the growth of Swindon has been at a much slower pace than expected. In the famous Silver Book of Swindon Council in 1968 the population of Swindon was predicted to 296,000 by the year 2000. We do not believe that 250,000 will be reached by 2030. However, any transport strategy has to answer the question of whether we should aim to stop or reduce the number of car journeys or simply mitigate the impact of their continuing increase resulting from further expansion of the town. The Council appears to chose the latter course, which fails to face up to the challenge of global warming. Amongst the ten local objectives listed in the Council’s Transport Plan we read:

“Manage the impact of traffic growth in Swindon by implementing sustainable mitigation measures.”

Mitigation, of course, means to limit the results of traffic growth rather than stopping it.

Road Transport accounted for an estimated 22% of greenhouse gas emissions in 2005, according to DEFRA. The only larger component, with 37% is the energy industry. In addition road transport is a major source of pollution which has a detrimental impact on health. It is now a commonplace that in order to tackle climate change there is a need for a significant shift away from cars to rail and buses. The House of Commons Transport Committee has said that “Modal shift from car to bus is vital if the United Kingdom is to properly tackle congestion and reduce carbon emissions.” Yet despite much talk of ’sustainable development’ the radical action which is required to achieve this shift has not been taken, largely as a result of the dominant conception of economic ‘growth’ (any increase in economic activity is automatically a good thing) and a belief that ‘market mechanisms’ can address the crisis.

Whilst in Swindon we have the advantage that the Council effectively still owns the local bus company, deregulation of buses instituted by Thatcher, remains an obstacle to radically improving bus services. Local authorities were no longer permitted to provide ‘blanket support’ for bus services. Whilst Thatcher’s legislation enabled some routes to be subsidised, today only 16% of services receive subsidy. Moreover, it has become a common feature for companies to pull out of providing services in some areas where the rate of profit is not considered high enough, only for them to tender for them when a local authority has to step in, in order to provide a subsidy for a socially necessary service.

It is instructive that whilst in most of the country bus usage has declined from 2,660 million to 2,315 million (since 1995-6), in London they have increased from 1,193 million to 1,810 million. This is the result of a £550 million subsidy (on a £1.4 billion contract). Spending on buses per head is £660 in London compared with £230 outside!

Whilst Swindon Borough Council talks of increasing bus usage, it does not explain how it will achieve this. It requires social subsidy to improve the service provided and to cut the cost of fares to attract people. Whilst the document mentions increased bus lanes, in a meeting earlier this year with the Director of the bus company we were told that there were no plans for more of them.

Public transport should be run as a public service rather than a commercial business. That requires a campaign to end deregulation and to facilitate public subsidy. Local companies should also be approached to provide subsidies for work buses, as a social responsibility for reducing the numbers of their own staff who travel to work by car.

Planning obviously plays a big role in relation to transport because the geography of any town, the composition of developments, determines the level of travel which is necessary. Planning permission for massive hyper-markets, for instance, encourages car journeys. Likewise, other policies can impact on transport. For instance, the early morning school run is the result of so-called ‘parent choice’ and school closures. When children tended to go to local schools, most of them walked the short distance necessary to reach them.

So far as the town centre is concerned the best way to discourage car use is to further pedestrianise it and improve bus services.

The Council’s document is right when it says that:

“Trying to solve congestion by building more roads gives short term relief but it doesn’t solve the underlying problems.”

However, it is wrong when it asserts that an “incremental approach” will suffice. Even if you accept the inevitability of targeted growth to increase towards 250,000 by 2030, the Council should seek to halt the increase of car journeys rather than simply slowing the rate of growth. Only the provision of frequent, fast, and cheap public transport which serves the transport patterns of the populace will get people out of their cars.

We can agree with the aspiration for local train stations since this will take people out of their cars, at least so far as commuters to the town centre are concerned.

Martin Wicks
Secretary, Swindon TUC

December 30th 2007

Meeting focuses on greener travel

From the Evening Advertiser 

GREEN activists from Swindon will meet unions next week to share ideas about public transport.

Swindon Climate Action Network (Scan) and Swindon Trades Union Council are joining forces on Wednesday for an open meeting.

They will discuss how unions and environmental campaigners can encourage greater investment and use of public transport.

Hugh Kirkbride, district secretary of the Transport & General Workers’ Union, will be joining Andy Parsons, campaigns co-ordinator of Scan, to lead the discussion.

Andy said: “Transportation accounts for over a quarter of the UK’s carbon emissions and personal transport is the fastest growing source of carbon dioxide.

“The UK has lagged behind in the sort of investment in public transport that is seen in Europe.

“High-speed rail in France has greatly reduced internal air travel and most cities and towns in Germany and the Netherlands have proper integrated public transport with trams, buses and trains all linked together, with simple tickets at a reasonable price.

“If they can do it, why can’t we? To get people out of cars and cut carbon emissions and dependence on fossil fuels, as a country we urgently need to invest in decent alternatives.”

Martin Wicks, secretary of Swindon Trades Union Council, said: “It has long been accepted that there needs to be a decrease in the number of car journeys if pollution and global warming are to be tackled.

“However, while rail and bus transport are run as commercial businesses instead of public services there is little chance of a sufficient shift from the car to rail and bus taking place.

“We have organised this meeting with Scan to discuss how we can campaign locally and nationally for a major shift from car use to public transport.”

The meeting is open to all and will take place at the Broadgreen Centre in Salisbury Street at 7.30pm.

It is a short walk from bus stops in Fleming Way and Manchester Road.

The strange case of Leyton Orient and the postal workers dispute

Why would 66 Leyton Orient supporters visit a Swindon TUC website to read an article (http://swindontuc.wordpress.xom/2007/08/07/postal-workers-stage-walk-out/ ) reproduced from the local paper, on an unofficial walk out by Swindon Postal workers? No, it’s not a trick question. It is a weird example of the unexpected connections which happen on the internet.

Since ‘wordpress’ records the origins of visits to you web site, you can trace them. It appears that somebody (with the unlikely moniker of ‘Euripides Trousers’) posted a link to the Swindon TUC web site on the Leyton Orient supporters chat site. There must have been some discussion on the postal workers’ strike action, possibly prompted by ‘SwindonO’, a Leyton Orient fan exiled to the far reaches of Wiltshire, and working for the Royal Mail.

‘SwindonO’ gives an inside account of the walk-out:

“I was one of the posties that walked out at dorcan in support of the two union members that were moved from hawksworth. The unofficial strike only lasted an hour at our office but it made the big guys see that we will not be walked over and this dispute is far from over.

This morning our boss told us that the planned strike in our office for thursday night/friday morning was off and we will have to work, the union rep comes along say’s it is all lies and the strike is on. Seems to be a cat and mouse game at the moment.”

‘Patients not being given a choice’

From the Swindon Advertiser

By Kevin Burchall

A CONSULTATION over Swindon and Marlborough NHS Trust’s plans to move to foundation status has been branded “bogus.”

Swindon Trades Union Council (TUC) claims staff and users of the Great Western Hospital have been denied the chance to say whether or not they support the plans.

The Swindon TUC says the Government’s bid to create Foundation Trusts will destroy the NHS.

By next year the trust says it will have more flexibility as an independent, not-for-profit corporation with a council of governors and board of directors.

The trust will also have the power to borrow money on the open market and anyone living in the area would be eligible to become a member.

But Swindon TUC secretary Martin Wicks said the trust would be looking to make a surplus and could cut its wage bill.

He said: “The so-called consultation which has been launched by the trust is a bogus one. It has specifically excluded any discussion on foundation status itself, wanting to restrict debate to the detail of becoming one and the name.

“Indeed, the feedback form excludes respondents from indicating whether they agree with or oppose it becoming a Foundation Trust.

“The regulator which is in charge of Foundation Trusts has made it clear that they should concentrate on profit-making work, in order to build up surpluses. They’re expected to behave like any other business.”

Mr Wicks added: “Staff will be wary because the trust has refused to commit itself to maintaining NHS wages and conditions of service. What other conclusion can they draw than the trust will be looking to cut their wage bill in order to make a surplus which they can keep?”

Swindon and Marlborough NHS Trust chief executive Lyn Hill-Tout said the 70 trusts to achieve foundation status in the three years since the option was introduced had offered better services for patients.

She said: “As a Foundation Trust we will be directly accountable to our local population - and so will need to ensure that we continue to provide high quality services that meet the needs of our local population.

“The reason we have not consulted on actually becoming a Foundation Trust is that all NHS Trusts in England are required to achieve Foundation Trust status - it is not something we are able to or requested to consult on.

“What we are requested to consult on are our proposals for achieving Foundation Trust status - such as our future strategy and how we will ensure local accountability through membership and governors. We will have to demonstrate within our application how we have listened to the views of staff and people living within our local communities.

“We have absolutely no intention of cutting wages or conditions of service.”

The trust is holding a series of public meetings. The next one is at Steam on September 11 from 7pm to 9pm. Details about the plans can be viewed at the hospital’s open day on Saturday, September 15 between 10am and 3pm. For more information, visit www.swindon-marlborough.nhs.uk.