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Network Rail New Boss Attacks Rail Industry’s Safety Record
The head of Network Rail has said the industry’s unsafe working practices are causing “appalling tragedies” and hundreds of workplace casualties each year. Former oil industry executive Mark Carne, who became chief executive of Network Rail a year ago, suggested accident rates were 10 times those in the oil sector. In a speech to an audience of leading rail industry figures, Carne said: “While our passenger safety performance is the best in Europe, about 600 railway workers a year – employees and contractors – are injured to the extent that they cannot return to work the next day. If I were back in oil and gas, a comparable figure for the same amount of activity would be between 30 and 60 people – the difference is that stark. That means that over 500 of our people are getting hurt every year, well over one a day, because our work practices have not kept pace with comparable heavy engineering industries.” Carne said pressure to get work finished quickly had led managers to “send signals that suggest we don’t care as deeply as we could about our workforce and their safety and health.” Mick Cash, general secretary of the rail union RMT said his union “has warned repeatedly that the safety culture on Network Rail has been diluted by savage cuts to staffing and the proliferation of agencies and contractors which has led to casualisation of safety critical work and a surge in staff on zero hours contracts. Those warnings have come home to roost with a vengeance in these shocking figures.” He added: “It is all very well Mark Carne admitting that injuries amongst our members on the railways are running at ten times the level of comparable heavy industries. But that is an appalling indictment on Network Rail and the question is what is he going to do about it?” He said the Network Rail chief should end fragmentation and casualisation, and improve conditions of employment for the directly employed workforce. Source: TUC Risks |
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