While the TUC believes the HSWA has made major progress in saving lives, it wants more Government funding to prevent work-related deaths, highlighting that there has been an average of more than 100 deaths for the past decade. Specifically, the trade union body is urging the Government to restore “adequate funding” to the Health and Safety Executive.
Usdaw is backing TUC calls for the Government to take action to speed up asbestos removal from all workplaces, protect the role of trade union health and safety representatives, allow unions to enter and organise workplaces that lack union representation and foster a culture of positive industrial relations so that both employers and workers benefit from a collaborative approach to improving health and safety.
Usdaw General Secretary Paddy Lillis says: “The previous Conservative Government didn’t take health and safety seriously. They viewed it as needlessly bureaucratic, a ‘red tape’ on business or simply a waste of time. But, as trade unionists, we know that keeping workers safe and healthy is not needless bureaucracy, and this legislation, which made it a duty for every employer to protect the health and safety of staff, has saved thousands of lives over the years.
“Workplace inspections and prosecutions have plummeted because of Conservative cuts, and more than 100 people died from work-related injuries last year. Half a century later, this legislation is still as relevant as ever. And we need fresh funding and fresh thinking to ensure people are safe wherever they work and whatever they do.”
Notes for editors:
Usdaw (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) is one of the fastest growing unions in the TUC and the UK's fifth biggest trade union with around 360,000 members. Most Usdaw members work in the retail sector, but the union also has many members in transport, distribution, food manufacturing, chemical industry and other trades www.usdaw.org.uk
For Usdaw press releases visit: http://www.usdaw.org.uk/news and you can follow us on Twitter/X @UsdawUnion