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HSE safety plans inadequate warns UCATT Northern Region

Construction union UCATT have warned that a planned blitz of building sites by the Health and Safety executive is no more than a “sticking plaster”.

The HSE recently announced that they will be carrying out a safety blitz of building sites this month. In previous such exercises, despite companies being given advance warnings, up to 30% of sites are so unsafe that they have been issued with immediate improvement or prohibition orders.

UCATT have long campaigned for a much higher level of inspections from the HSE, which is part of a year round safety campaign and not concentrated in just a few weeks of the year. If blitzing does occur then it should be unannounced, rather than allowing companies to temporarily improve their sites before inspectors are present.

John Scott, regional secretary for UCATT Northern region, said: “All safety inspections are to be welcomed. However the general public should not be fooled, this is no more than a very short term sticking plaster. You do not increase long term site safety by making a pre-announced one off inspection.”

Last year 77 workers in Britain were killed on construction sites, a 31 per cent increase on the previous year. The biggest rises in fatalities were in the housebuilding and refurbishment sectors where deaths rose by 61%.

Northern England has had a particularly raw deal with regard to construction safety. Between 1998 and 2004 there were 23 fatalities in Northern England, however only 22% of these deaths resulted in a conviction, despite management failure being a factor in 70% of all construction deaths. Even where there was a conviction companies were only fined on average just £15,542, the lowest level in the country. After a worker is killed the entire process up to conviction now regularly takes at least three years.

John Scott, added: “For too long Northern England has had a raw deal from the HSE. A construction worker in the north should be as well protected as a worker from any other part of the country. If workers are killed or maimed at work their lives should not be considered cheaper than anyone else’s.”