Deregulation undermining safety — ILO

The provision of decent employment and safety standards at work are being undermined by government programmes focused on spending cuts and deregulation, the International Labour Organisation (ILO), an arm of the United Nations, has warned.

The highly respected and impartial transnational body has highlighted the dangers for workers of the deficit-slashing that is currently occurring throughout the western world.

Expressing concern about the current situation, the director of the ILO’s Labour Administration and Inspection Programme, Giuseppe Casale, pointed out that “the role of labour inspection is to secure the enforcement of a country’s labour laws dealing with such matters as conditions of work and the protection of workers’ health and safety”.

He added that economic and social development is enhanced (rather than undermined) by “strong and effective labour administration and labour inspection systems”.

Meanwhile in the UK, unions await with trepidation the outcome of the coalition government’s review of health and safety legislation, which it has commissioned as part of its deregulatory agenda. The results of the review, being carried out by Professor Löfstedt, are due out in the autumn.

Pessimism has been exacerbated recently by Löfstedt’s pronouncements in a report he co-authored in March 2010 into Portland Cement in the United States. In it he argued against stricter regulation of the potential carcinogen on the grounds that it would lead to “a risk transfer from the United States to offshore (most notably China), leading to negligible environmental improvements”.