'Preventable accidents'
The T&G union says 235 workers died at work in the UK
in 2004 - an increase of 4% on 2003 - with 30,000
suffering major injuries.
Other surveys suggest 70% of those deaths are preventable. Considering the number of actual horrific murders in the UK aren't that much higher than that, the amount of news space given to deaths at work is shockingly negligible. But then, it would swim against the tide of profit to try and make work a safe enjoyable place to be rather than a, well, gulag based ont he threat of poverty.
Via BBC.
1 comment:
It[the Labour Party] first promised to introduce an offence of corporate killing at the 1997 Labour Party conference.(1) It promised again in a Home Office consultation paper in 2000,(2) and again in the Queen’s speech at the end of that year. Nothing happened, but the promise was repeated in Labour’s 2001 manifesto. In May 2003 the Home Office promised it would publish a draft bill in the autumn.(3) In autumn 2003, it promised the bill would materialise in the spring.(4) In February 2004 it promised it would be produced in April.(5) In April, it promised the bill would be published during the current parliamentary session.(6) In September, Tony Blair promised that the April promise would be kept.(7) Two weeks later, the Home Secretary said it would come out in the autumn.(8) Autumn, and the parliamentary session, came and went. In the Queen’s speech at the end of November, the government promised to publish the bill before Christmas. Soon afterwards, it promised the Home Affairs select committee that the bill would appear on December 21st. On December 17th, it confessed that this wasn’t going to happen, but promised the bill would be published during the current parliamentary session. (9) Astonishingly, this promise has been kept. But as the draft bill has to go out to consultation, it cannot be passed during the life of this government, which means that the manifesto promise has been broken. Altogether that makes 12 broken promises.-- George Monibot
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