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Pleural Plaques campaign
In October 2007, the House of Lords decided to uphold the Court of Appeal’s conclusions that asbestos-related pleural plaques do not constitute a compensatable medical condition and will have effects beyond the cases themselves. Pleural Plaques are a scarring of the lungs caused by heavy and prolonged exposure to asbestos.
One of the most frequently encountered problems when pursuing any disease claim is identifying defendants and their insurers. Asbestos exposure for most individuals occurred over 25 years ago. Many of the firms that employed them have gone into liquidation. Considerable time has to be spent in identifying defendants and then carrying out searches and enquiries to locate their insurers. An individual now diagnosed as suffering from asbestos-related pleural plaques under this law has no claim. Therefore there is no obligation on any employer or insurer to respond to any claim.
Under the old law an individual who suffered from pleural plaques could initiate a claim and obtain compensation on a provisional basis. This gave the individual and the dependents security should one of the serious complications, such as mesothelioma, develop in later life. The insurers would be identified and judgment obtained. As the law now stands an individual will have to wait until one of the compensatable conditions develops before being able to pursue a claim.
UCATT has an ongoing campaign to rectify this injustice. On 20th February 2008 UCATT General Secretary Alan Ritchie launched a ‘postcard’ campaign outside of the Ministry of Justice. UCATT is now distributing 100,000 postcards to be completed and returned to Rt Hon Jack Straw MP Secretary of State and Lord Chancellor, Ministry of Justice.
Following the national launch UCATT has been organising a series of regional launches, bringing together local MPs and asbestos groups who support the campaign.
The postcards contain a call to reverse the House of Lords decision; they contain a section for the sender to place their address with a request for a written reply on the government’s intentions. The postcards are pre-paid. YOU CAN DOWNLOAD A POSTCARD HERE.
This is an important issue for the Labour Government. UCATT believes urgent action is needed as the Scottish parliament has already started the legislative process to overturn the House of Lords decision. Failure to act will create a postcode lottery on what is a serious health issue.
Directors Duties
UCATT is pushing for both improvements on the implementation of current legislation on corporate manslaughter, as well as pushing for new laws on Directors Duties.
Despite the fact that the amount of workers killed on site has risen by 25 per cent, convictions for companies responsible for construction deaths have fallen by nearly three-quarters. A UCATT commissioned report Levels of Convictions and Sentencing Following Prosecutions Arising from Deaths of Workers and Members of the Public in the Construction Sector was undertaken by the Centre for Corporate Accountability. The report found that in a six-year period from 1998 to 2004, Health and Safety Executive prosecutions for construction deaths plummeted from 42 per cent to just 11 per cent. It also discovered that it often takes over three years following the death of a construction worker before a company is brought to trial and convicted. The comprehensive study covered the deaths of 504 construction workers.
Alan Ritchie, general secretary of UCATT, said: “The failure of the HSE to prosecute companies who kill their workers is profoundly shocking. The HSE are clearly failing to follow their own rules and guidelines on prosecutions. Serious questions must be asked about why the HSE is so spectacularly failing to prosecute more companies.”
UCATT believes that deaths will only be reduced if bosses fear being sent to prison for ignoring health and safety advice. They should face a maximum term of 14 years, the same as committing the offence of causing death by dangerous driving.
A UCATT motion was overwhelmingly carried at last year’s Labour Party Conference calling for the Corporate Manslaughter Bill to contain provision for individual directors to be sent to prison, if they were proved negligent in a workers death. The Government failed to include such clauses in the Bill. UCATT are continuing to support the change to this Bill for the safety and well being of our members.
False Self-Employment
False self-employment is a huge problem in our industry. Many workers are registered by contractors as being self-employed when they should not be. This is good for the contractor. They do not have to pay national insurance contributions and can avoid many of the responsibilities they would have to have for their employees. This is not beneficial for the worker.
Having self-employed status means losing many rights that employed staff are entitled to by law. You have no rights to sick pay. You cannot take paid holiday. Health and safety also tends to deteriorate where workers are not directly employed and training almost definitely goes out the window.
That is why UCATT supports the withdrawal of the offset concession from employers who misclassify their workers. The Inland Revenue has been advising employers for a decade on employment status. By now they should have it right.
Supporting members who feel they have been forced in to false self-employment is one of UCATT’s top priorities. For more information on this please refer to the “Rights on Site - Employment Rights” section on the website.
Defend Council Housing
UCATT is an affiliate and supporter of the Defend Council Housing campaign. Decent, affordable and democratically accountable public housing is a cornerstone of society. We do not solely support the campaign because local authority DLOs directly employ thousands of our members, but also because many of our members are council tenants themselves. These members often have children who will need their to be public sector housing investment to improve existing properties and build new council homes. Politically the move away from direct provision of public housing is an attack on the welfare state.
That is why UCATT is a leading advocate of the “fourth option”. The fourth option is an alternative to the three government options of stock transfer, PFI or ALMO. Instead it seeks for the government to stop taking money out of council housing which would leave more than enough to fund improvements.
If there was an “investment allowance” funded by the £1.5 billion rent taken from tenants’ and £0.55 billion taken from “right to buy” receipts, councils could borrow funds for housing improvements.
For two years running the Labour Party conference has supported this direct investment. It is now time the Government listened to the party to ensure that all social tenants benefit from a decent, warm home with modern facilities.
Following the passing of pro direct investments resolutions for three consecutive years the Labour Party Sustainable Communities Commission established a sub-group on social housing. This sub-group has made substantial progress in exploring the future role and funding of social housing, and the part that affordable housing plays in creating sustainable, mixed communities. The group has taken written and verbal evidence from a number of sources, including UCATT, representing a full range priorities and viewpoints, on the problems that exist and potential directions which policy can take in order to solve them.