Manufacturing safety to become more ‘hands off’

A “dramatically revised” strategy for policing the manufacturing sector planned by the HSE has been slammed by general union Unite.

Under this draft strategy only some sections of the metals, ship and food industries, categorised as “A”, would remain under the current level of scrutiny. According to material seen by Hazards magazine, the approach becomes progressively more hands-off, with “C” groups — although still considered “high or medium risk” — largely left to oversight by “intermediaries” like trade associations. Lower risk industries or “D” groups are to be left entirely to their own devices, with the HSE only stepping in after things go wrong.

According to Unite: “The idea that some industries are characterised as lower risk, or even medium risk, is unbelievable (and possibly even laughable!) to many employees and employers who work in those industries.”

The union’s head of manufacturing, assistant general secretary Tony Burke, said: “Unite cannot support a strategy which oversees a reduction in health and safety standards and which, we believe, puts manufacturing workers, many of them Unite members, at greater risk. This strategy is built on the back of cuts to the HSE and will lead to fewer inspections, less enforcement, and more deaths, injuries and ill health at work.”