‘Work harder to improve workplace safety’, says CWU

November 6 2017

Last week’s release of the latest annual statistics on health and safety at work should encourage companies in the UK to redouble their efforts to work with unions to bring incidents of accident, injury and work-related illnesses down as low as possible,” said our union’s national health, safety And environment officer Dave Joyce.

While instances of workplace injuries and work-related musculoskeletal conditions continued their downward trend of recent years, there were 137 workplace fatalities over the past 12 months and 92 deaths among the general public as a result of work-related activities, according to the report published by the Health and Safety Executive last week.

Dave Joyce said that the latest figures should “act as a spur to employers to work harder to reduce fatalities and the impact of ill-health and injury on the UK’s workforce,” adding: We cannot rest on numbers like these.‎

 

‘‎There will be long-term improvement by investment in safety and health at work and a collective approach by employers working with unions and their health and safety reps to improve workplace standards,” he explained, and pointed out that poor standards lead to poor health and increased injuries “which is bad for the workforce and employers.”