Con Dem cuts mean more deaths on sites

HSE staff outside their office with Construction Safety Campaigners on Workers Memorial Day.

DAVID CAMERON has made a speech to Tory faithful, released in advance to the media, promising that the government will cut back bureaucracy strangling British enterprise. Sounds good, if you have a romantic view of capitalist economy. All those dynamic, enterprising captains of industry, with great ideas, straining at the absurd restrictions placed on them by dictatorial bureaucrats in Brussels and jobsworths in Whitehall.

I doubt if even Old Etonian Dave and his pals believe that, but their chums in the boardrooms and City will cheer, knowing it means more freedom to cut corners for profit, and stash away their loot where the tax inspectors don't pry.

For those who know what such speeches can mean for working people at the sharp end, Cameron's drift was ominous. And we have not had long to wait for its real meaning.

As reported in yesterday's Morning Star (Ucatt fury as checks facing axe,by Paddy McGuffin), trade unions and health and safety campaigners are responding angrily to leaked proposals from the government's Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to cut inspections by a third.

They say lives will be lost as a result.

"It is understood that HSE chief executive Geoffrey Podger is proposing that face-to-face contact by inspectors be replaced by web-based initiatives. The plans were contained in a leaked letter obtained by the BBC's File on Four programme and form part of the HSE response to the government's decision to cut its funding by at least 35 per cent".

The building union UCATT and organisations like the Construction Safety Campaign and Families Against Corporate Killing have long been warning that any erosion of health and safety provisions would lead to an increase in workplace deaths.

Already under the previous Labour government there were complaints of not enough inspections, and HSE inspectors themselves warned they were inadequately staffed and facing cutbacks.

UCATT general secretary Alan Ritchie, quoted in the 'Star' said: "These cuts will kill.

"In construction large numbers of employers simply ignore safety laws. The only thing which compels them to keep workers safe is the fear of a knock on the door from the HSE. If you remove that deterrent deaths will increase."

The Morning Star report continues:

'The union said that voluntary directors' duties on health and safety had failed - citing HSE figures showing that only 19 per cent of directors had even read the guidelines.

Mr Ritchie added: "The softly, softly approach has been proven to be a failure.

"If companies don't care about safety then a glossy leaflet or a flashy website is not going to change their minds. Particularly if they know that it will not be followed up by inspections and a prosecution."

He said the blame rested with the government for imposing the cuts on an already strained HSE.

FACK spokeswoman Hilda Palmer told the Star: "Far too many people are killed under the current regime of workplace health and safety law and enforcement which is totally inadequate to stop non-compliant employers killing workers.

"It is utterly horrifying that due to government budget cuts the HSE, the body that should be the workers' safety and health champion, now plans to cut proactive inspections by another third.

"It is absolutely inevitable that more workers will be needlessly killed by employers who now have a free pass to ignore safety and health rules."

Ucatt fury as checks facing axe

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Politicians and press like to condemn 'violence' if protesters so much as throw a plastic bottle or break a window. But workers' injuries and even deaths at work are often unreported, let alone commented upon.

The government is making them more likely.

What is that if not violence?