TRADE UNION NEWS

April 2000

According to the Trade Union Technical Bureau for Health and Safety, European working life in the 1990s underwent profound changes and new forms of work organisation emerged. Expressions such as down-sizing, lean production, just-in-time, flexible hours, teleworking, outsourcing, contingent work, casualisation, internationalisation and multi-skilling becoming used t describe different aspects of these changes. He overall trend being towards the dissolution of known rules and limits and the removal of job security.

However, too little is known about the health effects of these organisational changes and their impacts upon the mental and physical well-being of workers. Along with academic studies, knowledge based upon workplace experience is needed to help identify the problems arising from these organisational changes in order to give visibility to many ignored or underestimated health effects. Such an approach is required in order to integrate workers’ needs more closely into the political agenda and in order to ensure a more systematic inclusion of working aspects in collective bargaining.

In order to help address these issues, TUTB and SALTSA are undertaking a joint conference in Brussels in September 2000.

The conference has the following aims:

• To bridge academic, professional and cultural gaps in a common quest for applicable knowledge.
• To identify workers’ needs in order to counter negative effects and properly negotiate the new trends.
• To establish contacts and networks for fruitful future co-operation across national, academic and organisational boundaries.
• To identify vital research needs for the years to come.

The conference is open to researchers and experts specialising in health issues related to working life, union officials and other interested persons. It will be organised around the following plenary sessions:

• Labour market and work organisation trends and their consequences for workers’ health.
• The many aspects of casual employment and enforced flexibility.
• The impact of changes in work on prevention policies.
• Perspectives for the future: towards a new prevention model and the need for a trade union strategy.

In addition, three parallel workshops will consider: road transport, health and hospital professions and metal industry.

TUTB was founded by the European Trade Union Confederation to promote high standards of health and safety in European workplaces. SALTSA is the Swedish Joint Programme for Working Life Research in a European Perspective. It was established in 1997 to initiate research and development on labour market and employment, work organisation and work environment against the background of Sweden’s new situation as a member of the European Union.

For further details contact:

• Laurent Vogel. TUTB. Bd du Roi Albert 11, 5 bte 5, B-1210 Brussells. Tel +32 2 224 05 65. Fax +32 2 224 05 61. E-mail lvogel@etuc.org

• Anders Schaerstrom. SACO Box 2206, SE-103 15 Stockholm.

The GMB has produced a brochure dealing with the risks faced by employees working in the furniture industry. The union represents workers in a wide range of occupations including wood machinists, upholsterers, French polishers, cabinet makers and joiners. Amongst the hazards outlined are machinery hazards, manual handling, dusts and noise.

Machinery hazards presents a significant during use and HSE statistics reveal that accidents involving contact with machinery account for 25% of all fatal injuries and 50% of all injuries within the industry.

Wood dusts consist of tiny particles of wood produced during the processing and handling of wood, chipboard, hardboard etc. Exposure to high levels of wood dust can cause: asthma and breathing problems, skin damage such as dermatitis, cancer of the nose and explosions and fires.

According to the T&G the ban on white asbestos is not the end of the story. While the union welcomes the ban, it warns that asbestos in buildings still poses a deadly treat to health. The T&G legal department hears every day from members in poor health who have been exposed to asbestos, claims National Construction Secretary Bob Blackman.

As estimated six million tonnes of asbestos are known to remain in the structure of UK buildings and this figure does not include asbestos that was added for insulation or sound proofing. In the last year the T&G has won £1.8 million compensation for members whose health has been wrecked and the union wants an obligation on owners and employers to ensure workers are aware of asbestos and are properly protected.

According to Bob Blackman: "We estimate that 200 workers come into contact weekly with asbestos. It will probably kill them over the next 20 years. Tougher penalties are needed against those who break asbestos laws".

According to RAAW, the long campaign for safety representatives in agriculture is a step nearer with a major breakthrough on how training will be handled.

Agriculture is the most dangerous industry in the UK, with at least one death every week and thousands of serious injuries. In order to help bring a safety culture to isolated farms and their workers the union has been pushing for roving safety representatives to be allowed onto farms to offer advice and support to members and their employers. A pilot scheme has been running for some time and the HSE has consultants evaluating the work of the safety representatives on volunteer farms.

However, matters came to a head over training recently with the HSE wanting to offer the representatives three days of training and the union wishing the training to be under its own control and to last ten days. After a strongly worded intervention by RAAW National Secretary Barry Leathwood, the HSE agreed to a compromise where its three day offer becomes part of a ten-day package for new safety representatives. Now the scheme has been cleared, the union is looking for members who would like to become safety representatives.

Back

Mike Everley