CWU union calls for tough action by HSE

Communication workers criticised the Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) new strategy (see Workplace Report, June 2009, p. 14) at the CWU annual conference last month.

At a fringe meeting on the HSE’s strategy, around 150 communication workers, including safety reps, also criticised HSE’s reliance on voluntary action by employers and called for a more active enforcement role.

Dave Joyce, CWU health and safety officer, said the CWU welcomed the strategy. However, he warned that the union will be looking for the HSE to back it up and “get tough on the employers, managers and directors who create risks and provide no controls – making workers sick, injured or killing them”.

Joyce said: “The emphasis of the new HSE strategy should be on ensuring management meets its safety duties. Tackling management failure is key in reducing the number of workplace fatalities and accidents in the UK. There’s no place for a softly, softly approach to breaches.”

Joyce added that HSE should provide union safety reps with more legal powers and intervene to ensure employers don’t victimise reps. He said: “We currently have a CWU safety rep who’s been suspended for 10 weeks for no good justified reasons other than he was doggedly doing his job. That’s why CWU has been calling for greater legal rights and protection for safety reps for a decade.”