Staying safe at work Monday 6 June 2022 | 14:00-15:00 –> Workers should feel safe whilst working and when travel…Read more…
‘Alarming’ lack of lorry safety inspections
A UK based lorry can, on average, travel the equivalent of three and a half times around the world without expecting to undergo an on-the-spot check. Unite, the UK’s leading union, which represents…Read more…
Health & safety and the ageing workforce
With twice as many people working past the State Pension Age, we need to give proper attention to the health and safety implications of the changing workforce.
I have highlighted before our research…Read more…
Regulation is not ‘Red Tape’
If the Grenfell tragedy teaches us anything, it must be that regulation is not ‘Red Tape’, it is an essential safeguard for a civilised society. Scotland has escaped some of the worst examples of…Read more…
Suicide – why it is a workplace issue
Suicides can be a tragedy both for those who attempt it and their families and friends. It can also have a huge effect on the lives of some groups such as train and tube drivers when people attempt…Read more…
Dark satanic mills: Lobbyists fight against EU’s workplace cancer protection
If you were told that more than 100,000 premature deaths in Europe each year could be prevented with a few policy changes, wouldn’t you think it was about time? Unfortunately not everyone agrees: this is the story of how industry is ducking its responsibility to protect workers from cancer-causing…Read more…
Pregnant womens’ safety – Government gets it half right
Yesterday the Government published their response to a report from the House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee into pregnancy and maternity discrimination. Quite a bit of that original report…Read more…
Health & Safety Week – challenging authority.
‘Those in authority must always be challenged’. According to BBC presenter, John Humphries, that was the key lesson to be learned from the Aberfan disaster. Miners repeatedly warned the employers…Read more…
HSE: What social partnership means to the Tories
On Friday the Government announced a number of new appointments to the board of the Health and Safety Executive. The DWP did not indicate who they were representing when they made the announcement…Read more…
After Brexit – Where now on health and safety and employment rights?
Before the referendum the TUC gave a strong warning that the rights of workers to a safe workplace could be threatened by a vote to leave the EU, as could many employment rights. Now that that has…Read more…
International Workers Memorial Day
Today is International Workers Memorial Day. When we go home to our loved ones tonight, we should remember the twenty Scottish workers last year, three a week across the UK, who didn’t make it home…Read more…
Threat to safety representatives still there.
Tomorrow sees not just the budget but also the debate on the Trade Union Bill in the House of Lords. The Bill includes a provision to allow the Government to restrict access to facility time for…Read more…
Insurers take another pot-shot at the victims.
The insurers seem to be going after our compensation again. The last government gave them a huge bonus by making it far harder to take claims and recover all your costs by introducing legislation…Read more…
Taking the high road to better work
The Scottish Government can support good quality employment by ‘blocking the low-road’ for employers and ‘paving the high-road’ towards an empowered and healthy workforce.
That’s the conclusion of…Read more…
Responsibility Deal – Gone but not mourned.
The Government has now admitted that the “Responsibility Deal” which they set up in 2010 to deal with health issues is to be quietly left to disappear. In the words of the Government spin doctors,…Read more…
Workplace safety enforcement in freefall
I have just read a paper that was produced a couple of months ago on health and safety inspections conducted by Local Authorities. They inspect the majority of workplaces, including most offices,…Read more…
Work and Well-being – How to get involved
In the past year or so far more employers in the UK have been introducing “well-being” schemes in the workplace. This follows a trend that we have seen in the USA where 70% of Fortune 200 companies…Read more…
Using agency workers to break strikes will threaten safety
I have already written about the effect that the Trade Union Bill will have on health and safety by restricting the right to strike and limiting the amount of time off that trade union health and…Read more…
Using agency workers to break strikes will threaten safety
I have already written about the effect that the Trade Union Bill will have on health and safety by restricting the right to strike and limiting the amount of time off that trade union health and…Read more…
European regulation is good for you – Part 2.
Earlier this week I posted a blog about an EU evaluation of the European occupational safety and health directives. I complained that the Commission had not published the report, although a joint…Read more…