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Construction union UCATT have said that the annual workplace fatality figures “make grim reading and “should serve as a wake up call to the construction industry and the Health and Safety Executive”
The annual figures for 2007/8 published today reveal that 228 people were killed at work. Of this total, 72 were killed in the construction industry. Construction is by far the most dangerous industry in Britain.
Alan Ritchie, general secretary of UCATT, said: “Everyone of these deaths is an individual tragedy for a family who has lost a loved one. Most of these deaths were entirely preventable. Unfortunately too many people in the construction industry consider that deaths and serious injuries are almost an occupational hazard.”
Mr Ritchie, added: “It is quite clear that the HSE should be taking a far more rigorous approach to inspections, enforcements and prosecutions. The HSE’s laissez faire attitude and belief in self-regulation has been an abject failure.”
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