Danger: People At Work

By John Bamford, Hilda Palmer, Steve Tombs and Dave Whyte

UK Labour is systematically undermining health and safety regulations in a way that business - and even Margaret Thatcher -could never have imagined.

In the UK there has been a series horrific mass killings at workplaces this year. One at Morecambe Bay involving 23 Cockle pickers (see four rail workers in Tebay, Cumbria and nine people in the ICI Plastics factory in Glasgow. None of these was "an accident", that is something that could b not be prevented. In Tebay and Morecambe Bay, there had been recent near misses reported to the Health and Safety Executive (the regulator). These near misses were, but for the deaths, almost identical.

Surely there is a case for reinvigorating the safety agenda in the UK workplace? It seems that the long fought for protections are being wound back. The HSE is facing a 10% cut by 2006. The government is moving away from corporate manslaughter legislation.

(Red Pepper. issue 123, September 2004)