Nicholas Quin: Let’s cut red tape, but don’t put workers’ lives at risk

The Prime Minister, however, has gone further. He has announced that this year should “go down in history not just as Olympics year or Diamond Jubilee year but the year we get a lot of this pointless and time-wasting out of the British economy and British life once and for all”.

In one of his first messages of 2012, the Prime Minister spoke of the need for “a change in the national mindset”. He wants to remove the “albatross around the neck of British business”.

That “albatross” is, apparently, the weight of health and safety laws tying up British businesses. There was no mention from the Prime Minister of our ailing economy, empty order books for businesses up and down the country or our isolation in Europe.

Given the scale of unemployment, it is odd that the rhetoric from Downing Street is targeted at rules designed to protect workers from mistreatment by their employers, and bizarre to use it as an excuse to make it easier for employers to sack their employees.

Instead, he has set his sights on laws and processes designed to keep workers safe at work. In Yorkshire in 2010/11, there were 11,320 reported injuries at work, 24 of them fatal. Nationally, 115,000 injuries were reported.

There is merit to cutting red tape and making it easier for employers to focus on their business. But that can’t be allowed to detract from the safety and protection of workers.

There are 1.2 million people in the UK who have an illness or injury caused by the work, and Brendan Barber, TUC General Secretary, has said that the vast majority of those injuries “could have been prevented if their employer had taken the correct safety precautions”.

Families Against Corporate Killers went further, saying that David Cameron’s speech “is based in fantasy and has no connection with the workplaces that killed people we love and which we know are common across the UK”.

This sweeping attack on the health and safety “monster” ignored the employment rights which have been built up over many years designed to ensure safe working environments and protect people from unnecessary accidents at work.

His attack is ideological, and comes at the same time as his government is cutting legal aid, proposing fees for employment tribunals, leaving two years before workers qualify for unfair dismissal protections and planning for “protected conversations’ in employment disputes”.

The overall direction of travel is clear. But the rhetoric from the Prime Minister is as much rooted in a desire to appeal to the base of his Party as it is to find a scape goat for or distraction from our sluggish economy.

In playing to the gallery, he missed a wider point. Successful businesses up and down the country rely on an engaged, committed and healthy workforce. Mr Cameron needs to do all he can to support those businesses and stimulate growth in the economy.

Health and Safety Executive statistics show that 26.4 million working days were lost to work related injuries and illness in 2010/11 alone.

Cutting back on health and safety requirements and risking more injuries at work risks less productivity through time off related to work illness and injury.

Matching a drive against red tape with such divisive rhetoric could encourage more employers to cut corners and see health and safety as a barrier to their success rather than part of an important formula to get right for long term productivity and success.

Next time the Government blame extra bank holidays for poor economic numbers, they should listen to the Health and Safety Executive, who have calculated that there were 1.2 days per worker in Yorkshire lost to workplace injuries and illness.

And the next time the Prime Minister wheels out a “monster” to slay in front of his backbenchers, he should remember that for the families of people who are injured or killed at work due to the negligence of their employers these matters could be more significant than the Olympics or the Diamond Jubilee, but for completely different reasons.