Unite calls for action on enforcement

This is from the latest issue of 'Risks'

A dramatic increase in workplace deaths shows the need for more
resources for the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and a reversal in
the downward trend in enforcement, Britain's biggest union has said.
Unite, the union formed this month from the merger of TGWU and Amicus,
made the call after latest provisional figures showed workplace
fatalities in the construction industry increased last year by over 30
per cent (Risks 301). Unite is concerned that this and enforcement
trends - a new report for construction union UCATT has claimed that
the proportion of deaths in the sector that were followed by a
prosecution had fallen by nearly three quarters in the period from
1998 to 2004 (Risks 304) - show the safety watchdog is increasingly
reluctant to take the necessary enforcement action after criminal
safety breaches. HSE challenged the findings of the UCATT report when
the story was picked up the BBC Radio 4's flagship Today programme,
saying in a comment released to the press there was only a 'possible
10-15 per cent rise in fatal accidents', later defending this figure
when challenged by Hazards magazine. However, HSE later conceded its
own estimate was wrong and amended the press release online to say
there was a 'possible 20-25 per cent risk in fatal accidents' in the
construction sector, although the revised figures were not distributed
to HSE's press list. Amicus and the Centre for Corporate
Accountability, which prepared the report for UCATT, criticised HSE
chief executive Geoffrey Podger's defence of his organisation's
enforcement record, which included a statement that 'this is not a
police state'. They point out that his own memo last year commenting
on the findings of an internal HSE audit conceded enforcement rates
should be 'considerably greater' and warned that 'the implications of
this need to concern us all.' Rob Miguel, health and safety officer
with Unite's Amicus section, said: 'It seems though that HSE has
written off over half those devastated families within these figures.
For many years we have campaigned for increased enforcement for health
and safety breaches, and despite HSE worries about a police state,
they are more than concerned over the lack of enforcement themselves.'