Micro Tech Industry Horror Show Needs Tackling

Microelectronics firms in Britain have neglected health risks to workers, tampered with crucial safety alarms and have shown no consideration of the risks faced by entire groups of workers, an official report has found.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) uncovered 'weaknesses', 'misunderstandings' and poor practices in vital safety procedures across the sector. Despite evidence of widespread and potentially deadly breaches of health and safety law, no prosecutions were taken by the watchdog, with just four targeted with a total of seven HSE improvement notices. HSE says the investigation last year involved inspectors visiting 17 companies in the UK involved in making semiconductors for the computer industry.

The inspectors found monitoring to ensure compliance with safety rules in high hazard situations 'was weak at several sites.' The investigation report noted: "Often, there was no consideration of risks to others arising from maintenance and cleaning, for example from spread of contamination." Occupational health services for workers had not improved since a 2002 evaluation and were "often poorly targeted", it added. "Few companies had satisfactory auditing and review arrangements for their management system for hazardous substances."

In a few cases companies had been 'slow' to investigate abnormal results from monitoring workers, the inspectors found. And in 'several' cases, gauges had been tampered with to prevent safety alarms from stopping production. The report warns: 'High level, corporate oversight was often largely concentrated on safety rather than health issues.' This is despite the industry having been linked in studies to elevated rates of several cancers (Risks 396).

Unite was critical of the investigation, which did not consider conditions prior to 2002, when it believes exposures to hazardous substances were much higher. However it said a Micro-Electronics Joint Working Group (MEJWG) could be 'a potentially effective means of agreeing and implementing' improvements, if it meets regularly and works to a formal action plan, which Unite said should be drafted at its 23 September meeting.

Source: TUC Risks

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