TUC urges protection for safety whistleblowers

Hundreds of workers are sacked each year for refusing to work in unsafe offices and factories, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) has claimed.

An article in the spring edition of the health and safety magazine, ‘Hazards’, stated that, since 1999, 1,500 'whistleblowers' had been sacked from their jobs after raising safety concerns with their employers.

Under the 1996 Employment Rights Act, workers have the right to refuse to carry out dangerous work, the TUC said. However, the union claimed that because the penalty for unfairly dismissing someone on safety grounds could be as little as £3,800, many employers were opting to sack 'whistleblowers' rather than carry out improvements.

The TUC also said that employers could choose to ignore safety representatives’ requests, because they had no legal duty to respond.

Statistics from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) showed that fatal injuries at work increased by 4% in 2003/04 to 235. The number of major injuries reported to employers also increased to 30,666, up 9% on the previous year.

However, TUC General Secretary, Brendan Barber, said: "The problem is far worse than official statistics show. Unionised workers get advice and representation so are far more likely to get their job back where employers do the wrong thing. Workers who aren’t in a union, and casual and migrant workers stand little chance of redress."

He added: "It shouldn’t be a firing offence to object to unsafe work. Workers should not be placed in the situation where they are forced to choose between risking their job or risking their personal health and safety. We need a legal system that protects safety whistleblowers, not rewards them with their cards."

The TUC and Hazards have called on the government to make several improvements to the system, including the introduction of 'roving' safety representatives, to help improve workplace safety; the allocation of more resources to the HSE to enable them to carry out more inspections; and the introduction of provisional improvement and prohibition notices against employers who do not adhere to safe working practices.

The editor of Hazards, Rory O'Neill, said: "Giving union safety reps more rights in more workplaces is the ultimate win-win. It provides skilled, trained on-the-ground union safety advisers at absolutely no cost to the Government, complementing the work of the Health and Safety Executive and saving lives in the process."

(KMcA/SP)