Workplace death toll ‘distorted’

Unite said the number of people killed in work-related incidents last year was about 1,400, more than eight times official statistics.

The report was published ahead of Workers’ Memorial Day today, being marked by events around the UK in memory of people who have died because of work-related accidents or diseases.

Unite general secretary Len McCluskey said: “The Government is hell-bent on reducing health and safety regulations, and standards. It will lead to fewer inspections, less enforcement and more deaths, injuries and ill-health at work. Unite has been very critical of the annual statistics on deaths at work, since these are only the tip of the iceberg, and represent a massive underestimate of the true problem.

“Using the official statistics enables the Government to suggest that UK health and safety is better than everywhere else, and provides an excuse, albeit a very thin excuse, for cutting the health and safety responsibilities of UK employers.”

The TUC called on unions and safety campaigners to make today a day of action to promote health and safety.

The union organisation voiced fears that workplace safety would get worse because of Government policies.

General secretary Brendan Barber said: “The Government says we don’t need any more regulation, that the UK is a safe place to work. If only this were the case. With the UK 20th in a list of 34 developed nations, we’ve hardly got a safety record to be proud of.”

A march in the Prime Minister’s Oxfordshire constituency will remember Altin Balla, a building worker who died in 2008.