There are many shocking features of modern Britain: child destitution, the inexcusable lack of access for people with disabilities and the treatment of refugees and migrants, to name just a few. Yet one of the most overlooked issues remains the treatment of people in the workplace. Rather than support them, it seems the coalition is determined to launch a concerted attack on measures to protect them.
Last year, 152 people lost their lives at work. However, Lord Young’s review of health and safety laws, published last month, did not start from the shocking human reality behind this terrible statistic. Instead, it took as its starting point David Cameron’s alarmist perspective that “businesses are drowned in red tape, confusion and the fear of being sued for even minor accidents”.
The Young Report sets out proposals designed to water down risk-assessments and existing requirements to report workplace accidents at a time when a shocking number of people are skilled at work and many others are injured. His reasoning was set out in an interview in The Times: “People occasionally get killed. It’s unfortunate, but it’s part of life.”
Construction union UCATT has raised the much-overlooked problem of gangmasters who have moved into the construction industry. One of the proudest achievements of the last Labour Government was the Gangmasters Licensing Act 2004, which regulated agriculture and related industries. But it did not go far enough. As a consequence, it seems that gangmasters are operating in the construction industry where the workforce is self-employed and highly mobile with many migrant workers who are vulnerable to exploitation.
This leaves the way open for gangmasters to force people in my constituency and across the north-west of England to work 15-hour days, seven days a week. They are denied the national minimum wage and threatened and bullied if they dare complain. This has the effect of depressing wages and reducing tax revenue. It creates tensions in the community and exploits the vulnerable. Surely, there is a clear-cut case for action from the Government?
I raised this at Prime Ministers’ Questions two weeks ago, only to be told that the coalition has no intention of extending regulation to the construction industry. My colleague David Hamilton, the Labour MP for Midlothian, put forward a Private Member’s Bill which was designed to crack down on gangmasters in the construction industry. It was allowed to fall after the Government opposed it.
This is not just a case of ministerial inaction. It is part of a concerted attack on working people, disguised as a crackdown on red tape and bureaucracy.
The legacy of the 1970s and 1980s has left the role of the trade unions workplace democracy much reduced. Many convenors find themselves defending an increasingly narrow remit to protect jobs and pay and do not have the support or power to play a wider, proactive role.
Meanwhile the right has run a longstanding and effective campaign seeking to portray health and safety as a debate characterised by inflated compensation claims – labelled by the Prime Minister as a “compensation culture” – and over-zealous bureaucrats engaged in various activities, such as trying to stop children from playing conkers.
The view from the real world is entirely different. The recent case of the trapped Chilean miners should serve as a compelling reminder of what happens when private companies are not subjected to proper scrutiny and regulation by government.
It is time for those of us who believe that it is an unacceptable feature of modern British society that so many are killed or injured at work, are grossly and unjustly exploited, and work long hours for shockingly low pay, to get off the back foot and make the case for workplace rights. Jim Sheridan’s parliamentary group on health and safety has published a pamphlet that serves as a useful starting point.
For too long, the debate has been dominated by those seeking to undermine workers’ rights. There is a small and committed group of parliamentarians who have fought over many years to advance working people’s rights. They need your support.
Lisa Nandy is Labour MP for Wigan
