TRADE UNION NEWS

March 2000

UNISON is extremely concerned by incidents of needle and other sharps (needlestick) injuries among its members. Those affected include: nursing staff, operating department assistants, porters carrying overfilled or badly designed sharps containers, laundry workers, janitors, cleaners and waste disposal workers dealing with poorly disposed of needles.

In a 1996 study by the National Audit Office, needlestick injuries were the most reported type of accident in hospitals and the union estimates that there are more than 100,000 needlestick injuries in hospitals throughout the UK each year.

More than 20 different pathogens have been transmitted from patients to workers via needles which have been in contact with blood and other body fluids. Of these, 3 are of a particular risk: Hepatitis B and C (which can lead to liver disease) and HIV (which can lead to AIDS). Whilst there is a vaccine to prevent Hepatitis B, there is no vaccine for Hepatitis C or HIV.

A surveillance scheme carried out between 1997 and 1999 by the Public Health Laboratory Service revealed that there were 477 exposures to bloodborne viruses in 200 hospitals, although being a voluntary scheme the union considers this to be a conservative estimate given significant under reporting. Under RIDDOR a needlestick injury is reportable where the employee, as a result of the injury, is off work for more than 3 days. Additionally, the needlestick accidents are reportable under RIDDOR where an infection is caused or where there is a release of a known hazardous pathogen or substance.

UNISON point out that the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration require employers to provide safer needles and only to use conventional needles as a last resort where clinically necessary. A "safer needle" device incorporates engineering controls to prevent needlestick injuries, before, during or after use through built-in safety features. Examples include: needles that retract into the syringe after use, those that have a protective shield over the needle, those that lock and break to prevent re-use, and others that do not use needles at all. The common feature being that they all reduce the risk of needlestick injuries.

UNISON has launched a national campaign calling for similar legislation in Britain to that in America. The campaign includes writing to Government Ministers and the production of a poster, leaflet and question and answer briefing aimed at health workers. The campaign will then widen out to include waste disposal and issues of public health.

From an economic viewpoint, the potential costs of compensation to the NHS are massive. A GP who developed a needle phobia after a needlestick injury was, for example, awarded £465,000 in compensation despite not being infected by the injury. UNISON are dealing with an increasing number of claims, which exceeded 100 in 1999, and in addition the costs of long term treatment for infected staff, and the replacement of staff, need to be considered. UNISON are also holding discussions with manufacturers concerning the need to produce safer needles at a lower price.

UCATT have recently settled a spate of injury claims related to the use of ladders at work. Seven cases have been successfully concluded in the past three months, reflecting the fact that falls are the most common form of injury in construction. The following is a brief outline of the cases:

• £10,000 for a local authority employee who fell from a ladder while it was being footed by another workman. He suffered a wedge compression fracture to the lower spine.
• £14,000 for an employee who injured his back and hands when he fell from a ladder found to have defective rubber ends.
• £17,500 for an employee who fractured his heel when his ladder slipped from under him when he was employed as a painter and decorator,
• £20,000 for an employee who fractured his ankle when his ladder slipped while working as a painter and decorator for a local authority.
• £20,003 for an employed hod carrier who grabbed a ladder as he slipped on an uneven scaffold board only to find that the ladder gave way because it was not lashed. He suffered injuries to the face, right wrist and left knee.
• £44,106 for a carpenter employed with a health trust whose step ladder slipped while he was freeing a jammed sash window.
• £97,500 for a joiner employed by a local authority whose extension ladder gave way as he was replacing a window and who fractured his right leg and still has persistent pain in his knee.

UCATT stresses to its members that they should never take any chances with ladders and should refuse to go up an improperly maintained or secured ladder.

In a surprise development, employers and producers have backed the RAAW union’s call for all gangmasters to be registered. RAAW National Secretary Barry Leathwood and Trade Group Chair Don Pollard, who made a major study of gangmasters last year, insisted at a recent joint meeting with Agriculture Minister Joyce Quin that registration should be the next step forward.

The union has campaigned for many years for a registration scheme to tackle the abuse, often involving threats and violence, suffered by casual workers in the industry. A registration scheme would allow law-abiding gangmasters to be listed and allow farmers and producers an instant check on their practices. However; the rest of the industry, including the NFU, have long resisted registration and a voluntary code of practice was set up by the NFU last year. Yet, at the recent joint meeting, the NFU representatives strongly backed registration and admitted that the voluntary code was not working effectively. Support for registration also came from the Fresh Produce Consortium whose members supply fruit and vegetables to supermarket chains. A working party will now look at how a registration scheme would work in practice and the RAAW is to put its ideas forward to the Minister. The supermarkets will set up their own code of practice for suppliers and this will include the main points of the NFU’s voluntary code. However; civil servants in the Ministry of Agriculture are seen as providing the main sticking point for a statutory scheme, as they claim that registration will not work and will not cure many of the problems associated with gang labour.

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Mike Everley