Delegates attack Black report

The Hazards campaign held one of its most successful conferences in recent years, with over 500 delegates attending the three-day event at Keele University.

The government’s failure to tackle ill health and injuries at work came under particular attack. Dame Carol Black’s report, Working for a healthier tomorrow, which supports the government’s message that “work is good for you” was given a critical and thorough examination.

At the closing plenary, Carole Duerden from the Bradford Occupational Health Project moved a motion criticising the report as “an ideological document with no reference to occupational diseases and bears no resemblance to the realities of working life in Britain today”. The motion added that Black’s report was “a tool for driving workers back to work taking no account of the causes of their ill health and will not deliver a healthier tomorrow for workers”.

The Hazards website has a standard letter that can be sent to the government rejecting Black’s report.

Karen Messing, a Canadian researcher who has helped put gender-sensitive health and safety at the centre of union strategy in recent years, gave an impressive presentation. The conference heard Messing describe how “light” work for women in schools, hotels, in cleaning and other occupations turns out to be heavy, damaging and highly stressful.

Safety campaigners who have suffered the loss of their own loved ones, and yet have fought for justice for other workers also addressed the conference.