Health and Safety Officers Report 2016/17
Again In 2016 the Branch monitored Caerphilly’s Safety Policy’s expressly keeping track of invasive policies such as a redrafting of the substance misuse policy to include cause monitoring for drug and alcohol misuse and an effort to introduce dash board camera’s with audio capability under an Occupational Road Risk Policy - both of which we were not prepared to except at present and have been rejected by the Branch as unnecessary.
2016 continued to bring an increase in mental health related cases with more challenges for stewards. Most Branch officers have now undertaken mental health awareness training and on the 10th October (Mental health awareness day)the Branch organised an awareness raising event. Theresult was a surprisingly large engagement fromstaff highlighting a clearneed for more focus and better supportive future proof policies with mental health considerations at their core. This should be a concern to all Health and Safety Officers.
On March 24th2016 Branches across the UK marked International Workers Memorial Day. The Branch Safety Committee agreed to mark the day by helping members of the retired members group replace six dead conifer trees at the Senghenydd mining disaster memorial garden on the site of the Universal Colliery where in 1913, 440 men and boys lost their lives in the largest mining disaster in British history. Officers visited the site and helped plant the conifers, later sharing the event on Unisons first webinar covering International Workers Memorial Day. This webinar was well populated and serves as a reminder of the bitter cost paid by manybefore improvements to Safety have been adopted. Thankfully through hard fought for campaigns such as the Corporate Manslaughter Act passed in 2007, workers can hold employers to account where Safety issues arise.
UNISON successfully campaigned for that Actmaking it easier to prosecute companies where failings are identified and it was poignant that 2016 saw the 50th anniversary of the Aberfan disaster, where 116 children and 28 adults died when a coal tip slid down and engulfed a school and several houses. Nobody was prosecuted for the disaster despite the official enquiry identifying that the National Coal Board had been guilty of extreme negligence.
UNISON and the TUCcontinue to campaign for the introduction of tougher legislation covering individual director accountability despite this being a major challengein light of the unprecedented changes to the political arena, and a post Brexit landscape threatening Health and safety law in the UK.The legal effect of the European Communities Act 1972 (the ECA) is that when the membership of the European Community eventually ends, much of the EU-derived employment legislation will automatically end too and it is unclear how this transition will be managed. Triggering Article 50 will start an unstoppable two year countdown which could also lead to the repeal of many of these rights: that is directly at odds with the scrutiny and oversight task.
This Branch has also had to raise concerns at the Corporate Health and Safety JCC that Heads of Service were conspicuous by their absence in attending this important committee and have asked that the attendance list be reviewed to reflect cross Authority interests. Following this concern attendance has improved and we welcome this and hope it continues.
Juan-Antonio Garcia