Health and safety worries

Figures published in July 1997 by the UK's Health and Safety Executive have caused something of a shock. There has not only been a rise in the number of major injuries at work but also in the number of deaths in the workplace. We look in more detail at the pattern of the results and the response to them.

Provisional figures published by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) at the end of July 1997 (Safety Statistics Bulletin 1997/8, Health and Safety Executive, Bootle, Merseyside (1997)) suggest that major injuries to employees have risen by two-thirds to just over 28,000 in the year April 1996 to March 1997. The comparable figure for the self-employed is 1,166, which is up by nearly 14% on the previous year. The HSE is the UK government agency responsible for monitoring such developments, as well as enforcing the legislation in the area.

The results which have attracted most attention, however, are those showing that there has been a rise of a fifth in fatal injuries to workers in general (employees and the self-employed) to 302 in the same period. Especially marked in this case was the increase in the number of workplace deaths of the self-employed, which rose from 49 to 83. This gives an expected fatal injury rate of 1.0 deaths per 100,000 for the employed and 2.5 deaths per 100,000 for the self-employed.

The pattern of injuries

The increase in the major injury rate is expected to be across the board in every sector. By contrast, the increase in the fatal injury rate for workers is concentrated in the agricultural, manufacturing and construction sectors. It is pretty constant in services and has declined in the extractive and utility supply sectors.

A special cause of concern, according to the HSE, was the rise in the number of deaths in construction and agriculture. It was in construction that much of the increase in the deaths of employees occurred, while it was in agriculture that the most significant rise in the deaths of the self-employed took place.

The figures are especially surprising since the number of fatal injuries at work in the UK has been falling year on year since 1989/90 and the Piper Alpha oil platform disaster. The UK's health and safety arrangements, which date back to the 1972 Robens Committee Report on Safety and Health at Work, had also come to be seen as something of a model. They involve a mix of legislation and self-regulation, backed up by the unified system of administration and support of the HSE, which appeared to be an effective combination. Significantly, too, the Health and Safety Council, which is the HSE's supervisory body, is one of the few institutions in which a regular trade union presence had been maintained throughout the 18 years of Conservative Governments from 1979.

Reaction

The director general of the HSC and the junior Minister for the Environment responsible for health and safety matters have both said that the increases have to be taken seriously, even though they might be just a short-term phenomenon. The Minister promised a higher profile for health and safety as part of the Government's commitment to worker protection. She also said she wanted to encourage people to bring bad practice to the HSE's attention so that "those who endanger the lives of others should receive suitable penalties."

Referring to agriculture, the HSE's director general is reported as saying that: "We will be conducting blitzes throughout the country, which will include inspectors looking at safety of children, maintenance work and the dangers arising from moving machinery and transport during harvesting."

She is also quoted as saying that the increase in construction deaths was "discouraging" as the HSE had already increased the number of inspectors in the area. "We will be looking at what action to be taking at local level, but the industry itself has to act."

The general secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC),John Monks, was quick to draw some lessons: "These tragic figures show we cannot be complacent about health and safety at work. The rising death toll for the self-employed is especially alarming and should give pause for thought for everyone applauding greater labour market flexibility. We must not take risks with working people's lives. Cuts in the HSE are a dangerous and false economy."

Mr Monks has also written to the Minister of the Environment with a number of specific requests: stronger laws on manslaughter at work - the TUC wants to make it easier to convict grossly negligent employers which cause fatalities; a review of the legal protection for self-employed workers - especially to prevent some unscrupulous employers from evading their safety duties by declaring their workers "self-employed"; and a moratorium on the cuts to the budgets of the Health and Safety Executive which were planned by the previous Government.

Commentary

There is little doubt that the publication of the HSE's results has been a shock. There has been a widespread view, which is shared by trade unions, that the UK has pretty effective regulations governing health and safety. It remains to be seen if the 1996/7 increases represent an exceptional year or if they are the beginning of trend. If the latter, it is likely that more attention will focused on the growing demands of work alluded to in the TUC general secretary's comments and fears that they are putting intolerable pressure on workers. Certainly such demands are reflected in the longer hours being worked in the UK than in other EU countries (discussed in UK9702103F). One imponderable is whether the tightening of the existing health and safety provisions, coupled with the impact of introducing the EU working time Directive, begins to reduce the pressure. If not, demands for a more radical rethink of working arrangements will surely increase. (Keith Sisson, IRRU)