NASUWT: Bankers smile in wine bars as cost cuts risk lives
The NASUWT, the largest teachers union, is warning that Coalition Government cuts are putting the lives of workers in danger and is also risking the safety of teachers and pupils.
Brian Cookson, Treasurer of the NASUWT, will propose a motion today at the 2010 TUC Congress that calls for a campaign against any attack on health and safety standards.
Mr Cookson will say:
“All our fingers were collectively burned by the bankers’ crisis and now we are all expected to pay a huge price for their greed whilst they smile in the wine bars.
“The Government and employers have an unequivocal priority to protect all workers from accidents, assaults and abuse but instead are hell bent on deregulation, putting profit before peoples’ lives.
“Sweeping aside Health and Safety legislation to allow schools to be set up in abandoned factories and the rooms above pubs and chip shops places pupils, employees and the public at huge risk.
“What is needed is better enforcement of existing Health and Safety regulations. We must preserve and build on the vital role of the Health and Safety Executive and resist the draconian programme of cuts planned by this outrageous Coalition Government.”
Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, the largest teachers’ union, said:
“The Coalition Government’s attitude on this issue can be summed up by the fact that its chief health and safety advisor, Lord Young, believes that ‘people occasionally get killed, it’s unfortunate but its part of life.’
“This is a shocking thing for Lord Young to say and leaves little room for optimism as we await the results of his health and safety review.
“The issue of employee safety affects all workers in all sectors. “We are seeing cost cutting meaning less health and safety inspections and this is putting workers in danger. “Cost concerns must never come before the health and safety of workers.”
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