Hazards news, 21 January 2012
Britain: TUC says stand up for safety
The TUC is gearing up for the biggest ever national workplace health and safety event on 28 April. It has designated Workers’ Memorial Day 2012 a ‘Day of activity to defend health and safety’, which is facing an unprecedented attack.
TUC Workers’ Memorial Day 2012 webpage, leaflet [pdf] and poster [pdf] • TUC call for action • Hazards 'remember the dead, fight like hell for the living' images and WMD artwork gallery • Risks 539 • 21 January 2012
Britain: Union concern at increased abuse of shopworkers
The retail union Usdaw has expressed concern at a ‘huge leap’ in abuse of shopworkers. The union was commenting after the British Retail Consortium’s (BRC’s) annual survey of retail crime found the total number of reported incidents of verbal abuse, threats and violence against shopworkers rose by 83 per cent in 2011, driven by a more than three-fold increase in threats and a five-fold increase in incidents of verbal abuse.
Usdaw news release and Freedom from fear campaign • BRC news release and Retail Crime Survey 2011 [pdf] • Risks 539 • 21 January 2012
Korea: Speed-up led worker to set himself on fire
A South Korean Hyundai Motor worker set himself alight after management responded to his request to slow the pace of production by stepping up discipline. The 44-year-old trade unionist, Shin Sung-hun, is in critical condition after his 8 January protest at the engine plant in Ulsan.
Labor Notes • Economic Times • Risks 539 • 21 January 2012
Britain: Cruiseliner tragedy should be a wake-up call
Maritime unions have blamed inadequate safety measures for Europe's worst maritime disaster in a generation. Nautilus International said the 14 January wreck of the massive Costa Concordia cruiseliner should be a wake-up call to the entire industry.
Nautilus UK news release • ITF news release • Morning Star • BBC News Online • Risks 539 • 21 January 2012
Britain: Unite criticises Tory ‘smokescreen’ on unions at work
The Conservative Party should turn its attention to the challenges facing the economy instead of “peddling distortion” about the union role, the union Unite has said. The union was commenting after a failed attempt by Tory MP and former Barclays investment banker Jesse Norman to introduce legislation to reduce facilities and time provided by public sector employers for trade union work.
Unite news release • BBC News Online • Risks 539 • 21 January 2012
Global: Apple supplier audit reveals abuses
Electronic gizmo giant Apple, the company that brought us the Apple Mac, i-phone and i-pad, seems to be adding a far more candid appraisal of problems in its global supply chain to its business portfolio. In January, the firm published its previously closely guarded list of 156 suppliers, after a succession of reports had highlighted safety, labour and environmental abuses in some of the firms.
Apple Supplier Responsibility 2012 Progress Report and Supplier Responsibility website • Financial Post • This American Life • International Campaign for Responsible Technology • Risks 539 • 21 January 2012
Britain: Vibration caused ongoing health problems
A plater who suffered permanent damage to his hands after he was exposed to vibrating tools at work has received a second dose of compensation. The 54-year-old GMB member from Doncaster developed the painful wrist condition carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) and Hand Arm Vibration Syndrome (HAVS) after working with vibrating machinery for 25 years.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 539 • 21 January 2012
Britain: Union protection extends outside of work
A UNISON member who was involved in a car smash and left needing spinal surgery has received compensation with the help of union lawyers. The grandmother-of-four from County Durham, whose name has not been released, suffered a slipped disc after her car was hit from behind by a 4x4 as she was waiting at a roundabout.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 539 • 21 January 2012
Europe: Temp jobs are bad for your health
A study of workers in the European Union has found getting stuck in a series of temporary jobs has a significant negative effect on your health. Researchers from Germany’s Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (RWI) looked at data from 27 European countries, including the UK, to evaluate the impact of temporary employment on health.
Christoph Ehlert and Sandra Schaffner. Health effects of temporary jobs in Europe, Ruhr Economic Papers, Number 295 [pdf] • Risks 539 • 21 January 2012
Britain: Workplace dust contributed to miner’s heart death
A former coal miner died as a result of an industrial disease, an inquest has ruled. Although Thomas Gill died on 24 September last year as a result of a heart condition, the inquest heard a lung condition, caused by more than 30 years of dusty work on the coalface, was a “major factor” in his death.
News and Star. TUC ‘Dust in the workplace’ report [pdf] • Hazards ‘Dust up!’ campaign and report • Risks 539 • 21 January 2012
Britain: Job pressures led to suicide
A Hampshire firefighter who took his own life had been taken on too much work, an inquest has heard. Father-of-three Martin Coles was found hanged in a wooded area in Wickham on 9 August last year.
Portsmouth News • More on work-related suicide • Risks 539 • 21 January 2012
Britain: Unions welcome Grayrigg rail death prosecution
Unions have welcomed a decision by the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) to prosecute Network Rail over the rail crash at Grayrigg in which one passenger died. Margaret Masson, 84, from Glasgow, died after the Virgin train derailed on the West Coast Main Line in Cumbria in February 2007.
ORR news release • ASLEF news release • TSSA news release • BBC News Online • Risks 539 • 21 January 2012
Britain: Suspended sentence after fall death
A man has been given a suspended prison sentence after worker Robert Jozwiak, 44, was killed when he fell through a roof at a disused factory unit in Leicester. Musa Suleman was given a 12 month prison sentence suspended for two years and was also ordered to pay compensation of £13,800 to Mr Jozwiak's family and full costs of £17,337.
HSE news release and Shattered lives webpages • Leicester Mercury • Daily Mirror • Risks 539 • 21 January 2012
Britain: Businessman fined £112k over roof fall death
A Liverpool businessman has been fined £112,000 after a labourer died following a fall from the roof of an industrial unit, just months after another worker was injured in a fall at the same site. John McCleary fell 15 feet while fitting roof panels at the construction site in Toxteth being managed by Taj ul Malook Mann, who failed to report the incident to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
HSE news release and falls webpages • Risks 539 • 21 January 2012
Britain: Steel beam crushing death was preventable
Specialist crane supplier JH Carruthers Ltd has been fined £180,000 after a worker was killed when a large steel beam fell on him at an incinerator in Slough, Berkshire. Colin Dickson, 38, of Motherwell, Lanarkshire, died when the temporary suspension points on a suspended beam he was under failed at the Lakeside Energy from Waste installation in Colnbrook.
HSE news release • Risks 539 • 21 January 2012
Britain: Horrific death of plastics technician was avoidable
An experienced technician at a plastic products factory in Cornwall was killed after he was crushed between the plates on a machine used to make plastic lids. Shaun O'Dwyer, 54, died in the incident on 30 May 2008 at the Curver UK Ltd factory.
HSE news release and guide on safety at injection moulding machines [pdf] • Risks 539 • 21 January 2012
Britain: Social care firm fined for violence risks
A social care organisation has been fined for exposing workers to the risk of violence and aggression. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) launched an investigation at Dimensions (UK) Ltd, a not-for-profit organisation that provides support services for people with learning disabilities, after a support worker was kicked in the eye by a client on 31 December 2009.
HSE news release and health and social care webpages • Risks 539 • 21 January 2012
Britain: Safety fraudsters given jail terms
Health and safety fraudsters are facing lengthy jail terms after being caught in two separate scams. Gurpreet Singh and Parampreet Singh took health and safety tests on behalf of other construction workers to obtain skills cards and eight people were sentenced, five given jail terms, for fraud after more than £500,000 was claimed from two colleges for safety training that did not take place.
Construction Enquirer • BBC News Online • CITB-ConstructionSkills health and safety test • Risks 539 • 21 January 2012
Canada: Red Cross tarnished by asbestos links
A board member of the Canadian Red Cross, criticised for her ties to the asbestos industry, has resigned abruptly from the humanitarian group’s governing body. The departure of Roshi Chadha came days after the organisation had rallied behind the "valued member" of its team, spurring protests from asbestos victims and campaigners around the world.
Montreal Gazette • International Ban Asbestos Secretariat • Risks 539 • 21 January 2012
Hazards news, 14 January 2012
Britain: This time, it’s personal protective equipment
The TUC is investigating the use of personal protective equipment at work, from the tip of your steel toecaps to the top of your hard hat. The union body says it is concerned that workers may not be getting the coverage they require and may even end up paying for the purchase and upkeep of legally required protection at work.
TUC survey on the use of Personal Protective Equipment at work • Risks 538 • 14 January 2012
USA: Arrest warrant on professor after lab death
A university chemistry professor could face a jail term on charges relating to the horrific death of a UCLA laboratory research assistant. Sheri Sangji, 23, suffered severe burns on 29 December 2008 while working with tert-butyllithium (tBuLi), a substance that will spontaneously ignite when exposed to air, dying from her injuries on 16 January 2009.
LA Times. UCLA statement and 6 January 2012 message to staff from the UCLA chancellor. The Pump Handle • Risks 538 • 14 January 2012
Britain: Unpaid overtime equivalent to 1m extra jobs
The two billion hours of unpaid overtime worked last year would be enough to create over a million extra full-time jobs, the TUC has calculated. It says the total amount of unpaid overtime worked last year was 1,968 million hours - worth a record £29.2 billion to the UK economy.
TUC news release • CWU news release • Work Your Proper Hours Day, 24 February 2012 • Risks 538 • 14 January 2012
Britain: Tackle teacher stress or pay, says union
Schools must tackle soaring teacher stress, Scottish teaching union EIS has said. The union was speaking out after revealing the union had settled a six figure out-of-court compensation claim for a member who suffered a stress-related psychiatric injury after the employer failed to act on a series of warnings about excessive workloads.
EIS news release • The Scotsman • Risks 538 • 14 January 2012
Britain: Power station pilots joint safety training
A major energy firm is working with Unite to encourage union safety reps to take a bigger workplace health and safety role. Drax Power Ltd is implementing a programme of joint manager and safety rep training, with the full backing of the union.
Unite news release • Risks 538 • 14 January 2012
Britain: Nuke firm ignored safety warnings
Managers at a major nuclear firm had dismissed safety concerns raised by workers moments before the dangerous job led to a worker suffering a serious injury. The GMB member from Cumbria broke her right ankle after she was ordered to move heavy archive boxes down a flight of three narrow steps at Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant in Seascale in February 2010.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 538 • 14 January 2012
Britain: Cancer strikes 50 years after exposure
A shipyard worker developed a deadly cancer 50 years after being exposed to asbestos in Merseyside’s shipyards. The 80-year-old Unite member from Liverpool was diagnosed with the asbestos related cancer mesothelioma in February 2011.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Merseyside Asbestos Victims Support Group • Risks 538 • 14 January 2012
Britain: Newsagent caused cleaner’s painful trip
A street cleaner has been awarded compensation by the courts after a newsagent failed to dispose of his waste responsibly. The GMB member from Bedfordshire was cleaning outside shop fronts in Luton in January 2004 when her feet became entangled on plastic newspaper strapping which had been dumped in a public rubbish bin.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 538 • 14 January 2012
Britain: Health and safety culture? I wish…
David Cameron’s resolution last week “to kill off the health and safety culture for good” has drawn fresh criticism from unions, safety bodies and corporate killing campaigners. TUC head of safety Hugh Robertson said the prime minister’s comments “represent probably the biggest verbal assault on health and safety by a senior politician for many years, which is saying something, given that only last summer the PM was blaming the English riots on our health and safety culture.”
Strongerunions blog • FACK news release and ‘Sod you’ postcard to David Cameron and Nick Clegg • London Evening Standard. The Guardian. HR Magazine.
The TUC is organising a day of action to defend health and safety on 28 April, International Workers Memorial Day – watch this space • We didn’t vote to die at work campaign • Risks 538 • 14 January 2012
Britain: Cameron is ‘irresponsible and dangerous’
The prime minister’s “repeated attacks” on workplace health and safety measures “are irresponsible and dangerous,” the union representing Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspectors has warned. Commenting after David Cameron’s 5 January resolution to a business audience that his government would ‘kill off’ health and safety, Prospect said two recent reviews commissioned by the government had concluded the existing system worked.
Unite news release and Left Foot Forward blog • Prospect news release • ASLEF news release • BFAWU news release • Morning Star • Risks 538 • 14 January 2012
USA: Official probe into enforcement opt-outs
A US scheme that allows “model” firms to opt-out of official workplace safety inspections is the subject of a top level investigation. A federal task force is conducting a “top-to-bottom review” of the controversial Voluntary Protection Programme (VPP), a top Department of Labor official has confirmed.
CPI news release • In These Times • Risks 538 • 14 January 2012
Britain: Scaffolding industry backs tighter safety regulation
The scaffolding industry is calling for tighter safety regulations. In a move which calls into question government claims that industry sees safety regulations as a “burden”, the National Access and Scaffolding Confederation (NASC) wants an amendment to the Work at Height Regulations to require licensing of scaffolders.
NASC news release • Construction Enquirer • Risks 538 • 14 January 2012
Britain: Poorly trained scaffolder suffered devastating injuries
A poorly trained and supervised scaffolder from Manchester will never walk again after being crushed by metal tubes that fell from a crane. David Collins, a 31-year-old father of two who worked for Bury firm Spectra Scaffolding, suffered severe injuries to his head, back and leg and is now paraplegic.
HSE news release • Construction Enquirer • Risks 538 • 14 January 2012
Britain: Men arrested on suspicion of manslaughter
Two men have been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter following a death at a Holmfirth construction site. Mark James Taylor, 36, from Leeming Bar, North Yorkshire, is thought to have been killed while using a Green Piling Ltd pile-driving machine on the construction site on 18 April 2011.
Huddersfield Daily Examiner • Construction Enquirer • Risks 538 • 14 January 2012
Britain: Campaign call after rise in betting shop violence
A campaign is being launched to tackle violence against betting shop workers, after a rise in robberies and assaults at bookmakers in the west of Scotland. Community’s Scottish regional organiser, John Paul McHugh, said: “The union believes that until betting shops completely remove the operation of lone-person working and beef up all other measures, we will not deal with the vulnerability of workers in betting shops.”
BBC News Online • Community betting shop ‘No single staffing’ campaign • Risks 538 • 14 January 2012
Global: Conflict and downturn encourage child labour
Worsening global security and the economic downturn has led to a marked increase in child labour worldwide, a study has found. Research by the risk analysis firm Maplecroft concluded 76 countries now pose ‘extreme’ child labour ‘complicity risks’ for companies operating worldwide.
Maplecroft news release • Risks 538 • 14 January 2012
Britain: Palletways fined after neck broken fiasco
A logistics firm has been fined after a forklift driver broke his neck and was then walked around the workplace in search of a first aider, who eventually drove him to the wrong hospital. Palletways (UK) Ltd employee Barry Hill, 60, suffered the injury when a computer cabinet he was loading onto a trailer fell on him.
HSE news release and guide, Rider-operated lift trucks: Operator training [pdf] • Risks 538 • 14 January 2012
Britain: Gas exposed Palletways workers hospitalised
A total of 23 workers at Palletways warehouse in Livingston, Scotland, were hospitalised with breathing difficulties after a container of denatonium benzoate - which is used to make inedible liquids, such as anti-freeze, bitter – leaked after being punctured by a forklift.
BBC News Online • 14 January 2012
Britain: Metal firm worker crushed by 1.5 tonne weight
Palletways (UK) Ltd’s has been prosecuted for safety failings after a maintenance engineer was crushed by a 1.5 tonne weight that landed on his back. The worker suffered a broken shoulder, two cracked ribs and the tops of three vertebrae were snapped off when he was trapped between the counterweight of a large zinc galvanizing machine and a junction box.
HSE news release • The Star • BBC News Online • Risks 538 • 14 January 2012
Britain: Chocolate giant fined over broken finger
High street chocolate chain Thorntons has been fined after a worker broke her finger while operating a wrapping machine. Ellen Yardley, 37, was attempted to clean part of a foil wrapping machine that had become covered in caramel when the cloth she was using became tangled in rotating parts and her right hand was dragged into the machine.
HSE news release • Risks 538 • 14 January 2012
Britain: Two-thirds of nurses face work abuse
Six in 10 nurses have been verbally abused over the last two years while working in the community, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has warned. Eleven per cent have also been victims of physical abuse, RCN found.
Morning Star • Risks 538 • 14 January 2012
Global: ILO workplace stress prevention checkpoints
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has produced a manual of “easy-to-apply checkpoints for identifying stressors in working life and mitigating their harmful effects.” According to ILO the negative impacts of stress “can lead to poor work performance, high accident and injury rates, and low productivity.”
Stress Prevention at Work Checkpoints. Practical improvements for stress prevention in the workplace, ILO, January 2012 [full text pdf] • Developing a workplace stress prevention programme • Risks 538 • 14 January 2012
Hazards news, 7 January 2012
Britain: TUC slams Cameron move ‘to kill off safety’
A claim by the prime minister that UK businesses are in a “stranglehold” of health and safety ‘red tape’ and compensation claims has been dismissed as “out of touch” by the TUC. David Cameron, speaking to a business audience on 5 January, said the government was “waging war against the excessive health and safety culture that has become an albatross around the neck of British businesses.”
Prime Minister’s Office news release • BBC video clip of David Cameron’s comments on the safety ‘monster’ • London Evening Standard • Maidenhead Advertiser • Risks 537 • 7 January 2012
Britain: You want the truth, prime minister?
The TUC has said the prime minister’s resolution “to kill of the health and safety culture for good” exposes how he is more interested in listening to unfounded business grumbles than evidence that millions are hurting and tens of thousands die each year because their workplaces were not safe enough.
TUC news release • We didn’t vote to die at work campaign • Risks 537 • 7 January 2012
Russia: 53 oil workers die as oil rig capsizes
The sinking of an oil rig on 18 December in icy seas off the Russian coast claimed 53 lives, officials have confirmed. A total of 67 people were on board when the Kolskaya rig capsized under tow in icy seas off the country’s east coast. Russian media have questioned why so many people had been on the rig, when regulations stipulated that only the captain and a small crew were allowed to be there while it was being towed. ICEM news report • BBC News Online • Risks 537 • 7 January 2012
Britain: Governors can’t manage schools asbestos
Responsibility for the management of asbestos in state-funding schools must not be transferred to school governors, trade union campaign group has warned. The Joint Union Asbestos Committee (JUAC) is calling on the government to abandon its plans to make the governors of all state-funded schools responsible for the health and safety of their pupils and staff.
NUT news release • Asbestos in Schools • Risks 537 • 7 January 2012
Britain: Union safe case gets a promising reception
MPs have heard that work is set to get more dangerous as government cuts in the official safety watchdog’s resources continue. The warning came at a reception in parliament in December 2011, organised by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspectors’ union Prospect.
Prospect news release • Risks 537 • 7 January 2012
Global: Call for action on media killings
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has urged the United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon to take drastic action against the governments of the most dangerous countries for media. The call came as the global union body revealed 106 journalists and media personnel were killed at work in 2011.
IFJ news release • NUJ news release • INSI • Risks 537 • 7 January 2012
Britain: Disability is a health and safety issue
Health and safety can play a “strong role” in ensuring fair treatment of workers with disabilities, according to the union UNISON. A new guide from the public sector union says seven million people of working age – almost 20 per cent of the working age population - have a limiting long term illness, impairment or disability.
UNISON health and safety guide to disability [pdf] • Usdaw ‘Talking about mental health’ briefing and poster • TUC disability and health and safety webpages • Risks 537 • 7 January 2012
Britain: Union alert on sexual assaults on health workers
The public sector union UNISON has called for extra vigilance by employers to avoid health workers being put at risk of sexual assaults by patients. The call comes after a 58-year-old care assistant received compensation after she was sexually assaulted at James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough when she was helping a patient in the shower.
Thompsons Solicitors news releases on the UNISON call for vigilance and assault compensation case • Risks 537 • 7 January 2012
Australia: Unions ‘speak up for health and safety’
Australian unions have launched a nationwide awareness campaign to inform workers of their rights and employers of their obligations under newly harmonised health and safety laws. Announcing the ‘Speak Up’ campaign, Michael Borowick, assistant secretary of the union federation ACTU, said. “They have an iron-clad right, under law, to elect their own health and safety representatives,” adding: “These reps act as watchdogs within the workplace, making employers comply with the law well before regulators have to become involved.”
ACTU news release and Speak Up website • Canberra Times • Nine News • Risks 537 • 7 January 2012
Britain: Injured workers need safety insured
A welder whose hands have been left permanently damaged by his work has lost half of his compensation because the firms responsible have folded and their insurers could not be traced. Unite says its member’s plight highlights why an Employer’s Liability Insurance Bureau (ELIB) is necessary.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 537 • 7 January 2012
Britain: Redundancy threat follows injury claim
A worker who suffered permanent damage to his hand at work was threatened with redundancy when he pursued a claim for compensation. A few months after initiating a compensation claim, GMB member Craig Dunwell was forced to sign a letter abandoning his compensation claim when his employer threatened to make him redundant. Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 537 • 7 January 2012
Britain: Print fumes caused occupational asthma
A printer who developed asthma when he was exposed to dangerous fumes at work has received compensation. Unite member Jason MaCann, 35, was diagnosed with the condition after he was exposed to isocyanates used in laminating machines at FFP Packaging in Northampton.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 537 • 7 January 2012
Britain: Civil servant gets payout after office fall
A civil servant has received £8,000 in compensation after needing surgery following a fall in the workplace. PCS union member Marilyn McKenzie, 58, needed an operation on her left knee after she tripped over the lid of a socket hatch embedded into the floor at her offices at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in Sheffield.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 537 • 7 January 2012
Britain: Panel finds safety reps are ‘crucial’ offshore
Safety reps are ‘crucial’ to ensuring safety offshore and should have more support from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), a government-commissioned report has concluded. A panel headed by Professor Geoffrey Maitland of Imperial College, London concluded “workforce safety representatives have a crucial role to play.”
DECC news release • Offshore oil and gas in the UK – an independent review of the regulatory regime, December 2011 [pdf] • Risks 537 • 7 January 2012
Britain: Occupational health is a victim of the NHS cuts
The coalition government’s pledge to protect the NHS has been questioned after four out of five doctors said they had seen patient care suffer as a result of health service cuts during 2011 – and occupational health is one of the key casualties.
The Guardian • Risks 537 • 7 January 2012
Britain: Government accused of mine rescue ‘complacency’
A Labour MP has accused the government of “serious complacency and a total lack of understanding of mining”. Shadow Welsh secretary Peter Hain accused Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, of a “disgraceful” government response to his call for state aid for mining rescue services after four men died in the flooded Gleision valley colliery on 14 September 2011.
The Guardian • BBC News Online • Risks 537 • 7 January 2012
Britain: Global firm fined over factory worker's death
A global manufacturer has been fined £180,000 after a worker was killed at an Andrex factory in Barrow-in-Furness. Christopher Massey was struck by a piece of machinery while working on a night shift at the Kimberly-Clark plant on 8 November 2007.
HSE news release • Risks 537 • 7 January 2012
Britain: HSE warning on hiring self-employed workers
Firms hiring self-employed contractors must be vigilant as they may not have the competence to do the job, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has warned. The warning came after Roger Jary, a 79-year-old self-employed maintenance contractor, died while carrying out minor repairs on a rented bungalow for an estate agent.
HSE news release • BBC News Online • Risks 537 • 7 January 2012
Britain: Workers buried in giant cement mixer
One worker died and another suffered severe shock after being buried under tons of limestone dust in a giant cement mixer. Hanson Quarry Products Europe Ltd and Robert Alan Taylor, who was then trading as Quarry Maintenance Service Engineers, were both prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) at Taunton Crown Court.
HSE news release • Risks 537 • 7 January 2012
Britain: Steel giant prosecuted after workers are crushed
A global steel firm has been fined after two workers suffered major injuries when a warehouse door, weighing over 300 kilograms, collapsed on them. The employees at Corus, now Tata Steel UK Ltd, were trying to repair a roller shutter door at its plant in Workington when the door and a supporting pillar gave way.
HSE news release • Construction Enquirer • Risks 537 • 7 January 2012
Britain: Farmers fined after worker is run over by tractor
Three farming brothers have been fined after a farmworker was severely injured when he was run over by a tractor with a faulty handbrake. Derek Benney, Richard Benney and Roger Benney, of FH Benney and Sons, were prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) following the incident at Higher Nansloe Farm near Helston in September 2010.
HSE news release and agricultural maintenance webpages • Western Morning News • Risks 537 • 7 January 2012
Global: Workers’ Memorial Day 2012
It’s time to start preparing for Workers’ Memorial Day, Saturday 28 April. In December, TUC called on “unions, trades councils, and others to make 28 April 2012 a 'Day of activity to defend health and safety'”. Now, Hazards magazine has produced a series of new ‘remember the dead, fight like hell for the living’ images for union reps to use in the campaign.
Hazards ‘remember the dead, fight like hell for the living’ images and WMD artwork gallery • TUC call for action • TUC Workers' Memorial Day webpages • Risks 537 • 7 January 2012
