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Just issued to subscribers of Hazards Magazine is an edition packed with important Health & Safety articles, not least the review of the HSE's woeful and morally bankrupt refusal to include work-related Suicides in their Death At Work statistics and refusal to investigate such terrible incidents.
They have no incentive, beyond the existing legislation around stress at work; to ensure that work processes and environments do not impact upon the mental health of their employees. Further, existing legislation does not go far enough, and the enforcing of it, does not occur as the HSE inspection regime is practically non-existent. Instead, the HSE concerns itself with profit via convictions, rather than acting to prevent death, injuries and mental health injuries and suicides. Hazards Campaign and their magazine, have been focusing on the failings of the Health and Safety Executive, which has been watered down in terms of its resources and its remit, by successive Governments including that of Labour. In this edition of the magazine, the focus is most strongly on work-related suicide, in which this country is seeing an alarming rise year by year. In the leading article of this edition of the Magazine, and entitled RIP HSE, the focus is on the tragic deaths of school Headteacher Ruth Perry and Junior Doctor Vaish Kumar; by suicide, as a result of workplace pressures and the lack of support and notice being taken by their employers of the stresses caused by their working environment and workloads. The main premise of the 4 page article is that the HSE action on work-related suicides could save lives, but it just doesn't want to! Hazards says that people are driven to suicide by their jobs. We know it the Health and Safety Executive knows it. It presents four feeble excuses for refusing to inspect after a suicide, for suicide risks or for requiring reporting of cases: 1 It’s complicated - it’s not, other National Safety enforcers do it. 2 coroners do it - they can’t and don’t we examined the evidence. 3 Leave it to the families – really? HSE has investigative powers and resources families do not. 4 It doesn’t work - except it does. We provided examples. Hazards says that if HSE doesn’t investigate, it will inevitably miss intervention opportunities, and with that, HSE will sacrifice the chance to deliver both prevention and justice for the dead and bereaved. HSE could simply and quickly change its suicide policies and practices - but it needs a push. The article includes a link so that individuals can put pressure on the HSE, by sending them an E-Postard which can be filled in at www.hazards.org/hsesuicide To read the new edition of Hazards Magazine - click the image above right. To subscribe to Hazards and have the Hazards Magazine delivered to you, go to the on-line form here To subscribe to the digital version, send an email to sub@hazards.org Source: Hazards Magazine
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