Mixed signals on health and safety from EEF
Britain’s manufacturers are calling for the current health and safety landscape to be maintained when the UK leaves the European Union, with existing worker production and legislative requirements continuing to be transferred into UK law to avoid cost and disruption to business.
The call is made in a wide-ranging report, Making health & safety work for UK business — manufacturers’ concerns in a post-Brexit world published by the EEF manufacturers’ organisation and leading health and safety experts Arco.
In particular, the report says it is vital that the British Standards Institution (BSI) continues to play a leading role in European standards setting so that UK companies can continue to make products set within the European standards environment. This is essential, says the report, to ensure UK companies can continue to trade without the risk of technical barriers emerging and to avoid the unnecessary development of multiple standards.
However, there is devil in the detail, and Lee Pickering of Arco said: “According to the survey 42% of companies want no change to the current regulatory regime, while a further 55% want no immediate change, but would like a review of health & safety regulations once the UK has left the EU (our italics).
So, unions will have to be watchful. And remember the GMB has accused Arco of trying to derecognise the union (see Fact Service, issue 36).