Dan Shears GMB National H&S Department 8th April

Transcript:Dan Shears GMB National H&S Department 8th April:
Dan Shears GMB National H&S Department 8th April 2016 Your Health, Your Safety How your H&S is being attacked – and what we’re doing about it Outline Political Background Coalition Government Conservative Policies Impact of Policy Changes How we fight back The 6 myths that must be challenged GMB Special Report – ‘Your Health, Your Safety’ What you can do Years of decline This is a tale of successive governments – both the Coalition and the Tories– have downplayed, under-resourced and undermined health and safety standards in Great Britain The key issue is not whether we accept this agenda – it has already been imposed upon us Our challenge is to reverse this decline and renew society’s commitment to safe and healthy work Tories=Reviews! 2010 Lord Young ‘Common Sense, Common Safety’ - RIDDOR changes; low hazard workplaces 2010 Comprehensive Spending Review - 35% cuts to HSE budget over 3 years 2011 Grayling’s ‘Good Health and Safety: Good for everyone’ – HSE ‘fee for intervention’; proactive inspections cut by 33% -11,000 cut in HSE inspections, 65,000+ in Local Authorities 2012 Lofstedt Review of all H&S law, EU law, and employee blame, with a view to removing burdens from business Inspections? Following Grayling’s new strategy preventative inspections are still allowed in Nuclear & Major Hazard industries, and in: Construction Foundries Waste/ recycling Glass But not in equally high risk: agriculture, quarries, docks, social care, manufacturing, electrical engineering, transport Post Office, NHS, schools, offices, shops, whole of public sector etc. - now reclassified ‘low risk’ Lofstedt Report “I have concluded that in general there is no case for radically altering current health and safety legislation. The regulations place responsibilities on those who create the risk, recognising that they are best placed to decide who to control them and allowing them to do so in a proportionate manner.” “There is a view across the board that the existing regulatory requirements are broadly right and that regulation has a role to play in preventing injury and ill-health in the workplace. Indeed there is evidence to suggest that proportionate risk management can make good business sense.” Other threats Red Tape Challenge No new ‘burdens’ for 3 years on employers of 10 or less No new regs except from EU and no ‘gold plating’ ‘One in, one out’, and Sunsetting clauses Sickness Absence Review and ‘Fit Notes’ Attacks on legal aid, access to justice TU Bill -