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Stress, Blood Donation, RIDDOR And More Discussed At CWU Conference
Lord McKenzie addressed the Safety fringe meeting and responded to the Coalition Governments cuts at the meeting chaired by David Joyce. The meeting, traditionally the largest at CWU conference, was again packed as Lord McKenzie spoke about the frightening plans that the government has on workplace regulations. Massive cuts to enforcement agencies the HSE and local authorities are disturbing and everyone who goes out to work should have the right to return home safely to their families. He noted that “there is pressure on the trade union movement to be particularly vigilant." It was with excellent timing that whilst the meeting was ongoing I received a text from the HSE informing me that “HSE text Alerts have closed.” We discussed the remote likelihood of workplace inspection by the HSE as well as their policy for charging for advice. As both BT and Royal Mail are now categorised as level 3 neither are likely to ever receive a visit from the HSE. The Co-ord has discussed RIDDOR many times and participated in the recent consultation so we were keen to listen to conference debating the issue. We have said for some time that there is a massive underreporting of incidents particularly when a worker is moved to “other duties” for three or more days, sometimes by ignorance but often intentionally to give a false impression on accident data. The Executive were instructed to gather information from those who share this to formally challenge the safety management systems of respective employers and raise examples with relevant authorities. Furthermore work related road traffic accidents should be included so we will look to work with the TUC and other bodies to ensure that these are recorded under RIDDOR. Many of us are blood donors and it is one of the UK’s great services that people volunteer for, freely, to help others, however there is currently a shortfall in blood and organ donations. The CWU will look to get agreement with companies to actively raise awareness and encourage colleague to become donors. Stress in the workplace is a major health problem and we need to reinvigorate our employers’ commitment to their own stress policies and ensure that they are implemented in the workplace not merely left on file to look good. Conference agreed that the CWU, along with other unions, is looking towards restructuring across the whole organisation but we do not want the Health and Safety Department to be lost or absorbed in those changes. The Department, and the CWU generally, have an excellent reputation for our safety work and any watering down would be short sighted and detrimental to our members. Source: Derek Maylor |
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Derek Maylor NW BTU Health & Safety Co-ordinators Committee Chairperson reports from CWU conference in Bournemouth. Whilst doing so, further evidence of the effects of cuts within the HSE became evident. CWU General Conference 23rd May: