Labour Research June 2002

Features: Health and safety matters

"Mend it like Beckham"

The TUC wants everyone who is injured at work to receive the same sort of rehabilitation as footballer David Beckham following the highly publicised incident when he broke a bone in his foot.

Official figures show Beckham's break is just one of 8,000 bones broken at work each year and the TUC is calling for a partnership between employers, unions and the NHS to provide rehabilitation for everyone injured at work.

TUC general secretary John Monks said: "Everyone at work is part of a team, and few employers can do without their star performers for very long before results start to suffer. It doesn't matter if you are a footballer, a factory worker or a florist- it's a false economy for your boss to ignore prevention and rehabilitation."