by René Lavanchy
Construction workers need to be better protected by bringing their employers under the Government’s licensing scheme, MPs told ministers this week.
The Work and Pensions Select Committee also says that company directors may have to be given legally binding duties to ensure good health and safety in the workplace.
And it criticised the Health and Safety Executive for a “significant drop” in the number of prosecutions it has brought for health and safety violations over the past five years.
The findings come just days after a report for the Government by former trade unionist Rita Donaghy made very similar recommendations.
The HSE and the Department for Work and Pensions said they were still considering the findings. But ministers will now be obliged to accept the findings of the reports or explain why not to Parliament.
“We welcome Rita Donaghy’s report, especially the recommendations to incorporate safety requirements into building regulations and to extend the remit of the Gangmasters Licensing Regulations to include construction. We urge the Government to accept both these recommendations in full,” the committee said.
The Gangmasters Licensing Authority regulates suppliers of contract labour, ensuring that employers use payrolls, offer at least the minimum wage and pay tax and National Insurance. But it only covers agriculture, food processing and shellfish picking.
In her report last week, Ms Donaghy wrote: “We should be putting out the clearest possible signal that… there is a
floor below which a society should not tolerate exploitative practices. I firmly believe that extending the GLA’s remit to construction or making an effective regulation with the same objective would provide that signal.”
Construction union UCATT, which has long campaigned for the GLA to cover building workers, welcomed the committee’s findings.
General secretary Alan Ritchie said: “The select committee’s endorsement of Rita Donaghy’s findings is significant.
It is essential that the Government implement the report’s recommendations at the earliest possible opportunity, in order to cut workplace deaths.”
