Assemble 12.30pm College Green, opposite the Houses of Parliament

Current Health and Safety legislation and enforcement is failing to protect workers. 152 people were fatally injured at work in the last year and there were over 26,000 major injuries. The ConDem government is threatening to make things even worse by diluting health and safety standards and slashing the funding of the Health and Safety Executive by 35 per cent.

Trades unions must resist these threats. The Trade Union Co-ordinating Group (TUCG), to which RMT is affiliated, has called a Health and Safety Week of Action and the centrepiece will be a parliamentary rally on Wednesday March 2. We are calling on all activists to attend to take the message to Members of Parliament that workers demand fair and adequate protections at work and that health and safety breaches are crimes.

We will assemble at 12.30pm on College Green opposite the Houses of Parliament for a demonstration, followed by a rally in Committee Room 14, House of Commons. From 3.30pm members are asked to lobby their MP (instructions how to do this will be provided). Please make every effort to attend.

Affiliates of the TUCG include PCS, FBU, UCU, NUT, NUJ, BFAWU, NAPO, POA and URTU.

TUCG Convenor and RMT Parliamentary Group Convenor John McDonnell MP has tabled the Early Day Motion number 1302 overleaf ‘Health and Safety Week of Action Campaign’. At the time of writing it has been signed by 32 MPs. Please lobby your MP if they have not yet signed.

I look forward to seeing you on March 2.

Yours sincerely,

Bob Crow
General Secretary

EDM 1302

HEALTH AND SAFETY WEEK OF ACTION CAMPAIGN
18.01.2011

McDonnell, John [R]
32 signatures

Blenkinsop, Tom
Campbell, Ronnie
Caton, Martin
Clark, Katy
Corbyn, Jeremy
Crausby, David
Cryer, John
Dobbin, Jim
Durkan, Mark
Edwards, Jonathan
Flynn, Paul
Green, Kate
Hepburn, Stephen
Hopkins, Kelvin [R]
Jackson, Glenda
Lavery, Ian
Lloyd, Tony
McCrea, Dr William
McDonnell, Alasdair
Meale, Alan
Nandy, Lisa
Owen, Albert
Riordan, Linda
Ritchie, Margaret
Russell, Bob
Shannon, Jim
Sharma, Virendra
Skinner, Dennis
Vaz, Keith
Vaz, Valerie
Williams, Hywel

That this House is alarmed to note that, according to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), between April 2009 and March 2010, 152 people were fatally injured at work, 26,061 suffered major injuries at work and 1.3 million people who worked during the last year were suffering from an illness believed to be caused or made worse by their current or past work; notes that the actual figures are likely to be much higher, given that these statistics are an underestimate due to reporting inadequacies and that prosecutions and convictions for health and safety breaches were at a record low; is concerned that the current legislative and enforcement framework is failing to protect workers and that the Government's proposals contained in the Young Report, along with the budget cuts of 35 per cent. facing the HSE, not only fail to address the problem but will make things worse; and therefore welcomes the lobby of Parliament organised by the Trade Union Co-ordinating Group, comprising the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union, the Fire Brigades Union, the National Association of Probation Officers, the National Union of Journalists, the National Union of Teachers, the Public and Commercial Services Union, the Prison Officers Association, the Rail and Maritime Transport Union, the University and College Union and the United Road Transport Union on 2 March 2011and that group's Health and Safety Week of Action between 28 February and 5 March 2011, calling on the Government to tighten legislation and improve enforcement to prevent anymore workplace tragedies.