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Despite claims by David Cameron and his band of vampires, sucking the life-blood from UK workers whilst destroying health and safety at work protection legislation; that the UK is the safest country in Europe in which to work, the true scale of health and safety breaches by employers is now only just coming to light in official figures. But not as a result of true and accurate accident, injuries and deaths statistics captured by the HSE, but in companies financial statements intead! Following a Freedom of Information request made by health and safety company ELAS, it has been revealed that the HSE has fined UK firms more than £5.5 million for health and safety failings under its Fee For Intervention (FFI) scheme.
According to the findings, the breaches ranged from slips, trips and falls ( the most common accident in the workplace) to not providing enough toilets or washing facilities. The sectors that received the most fines were manufacturing (38 per cent) and construction (36 per cent), while at the bottom of the list were water and waste management (3 per cent) and agriculture (2 per cent). Commenting on the findings, Wayne Dunning, ELAS's health and safety consultant, blew the whistle on the true state of UK workpalces by saying: "This figure is surprising. We're led to believe that we live in a world where health and safety is seemingly enforced to such a high degree that it's sometimes ridiculed as a result. This clearly isn't the case for all companies judging by this result." Well, the Trade Union movement and its thousands of Union Safety Reps would no doubt say the figures are no surprise to them, having spent years of campaigning to get successive governmetn’s to take appropriate action against companies breaking health and safety legislation, thereby injuring and killing their employees.
"It shows that the FFI scheme is a force to be reckoned with and that companies are clearly bearing the brunt of having poor, or even non-existent, health and safety measures in place." Echoing the usual advice to ignorant and deaf employers, Dunning went on to add that firms could take simple measures to boost their health and safety policy and avoid getting fined, including having a comprehensive plan in place for dealing with HSE inspections, and ensuring that staff members are aware of the parts they have to play. Further evidence for the claim that UK employers still don’t take the eahlth safety and welfare of their workers seriously can be seen from this fact: Research carried out by DAC Beachcroft has found that fewer than 50 per cent of those surveyed had heard of FFI prior to the inspector turning up on-site! Even more telling is this: The HSE's six-month report into FFI shows that 25 of the 32 reports of threatening/violent behaviour towards inspectors for the year 2012 were in the three months post-FFI, which may be an indicator of an increase in tension and frustration among industry about this scheme. All this points to a total lack of top down management of health and safety in the workplace, and total ignorance of the law and prioritising health and safety at work. Source: SHP On-line / HSE / Unionsafety |
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Under the Health and Safety (Fees) Regulations 2012, companies that break health and safety laws are liable for fines to cover HSE-related costs, which include call-outs, inspections, investigations and taking enforcement action.