Work caused thousands to be made ill and injured in North West last year

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has released official figures for 2013/14 (1) showing that ‘15 people lost their lives while at work across the North West in 2013/14 and 9,432 suffered injury. That compares to 14 deaths and 9,401 injuries in the region the previous year.’ Statistics also showed the scale of workplace illness. Across the North West, some 120,000 people were estimated to have been made ill through their work over the same period.

Hilda Palmer, Co-ordinator at GMHC and Facilitator of Families Against Corporate Killers said:
“No-one should die, be injured or made ill, simply for going to work to earn a living for themselves and their family. This is unacceptable as almost every injury and illness can be prevented by good management of health and safety yet the HSE reports 120,000 people have been made ill, and the number of deaths and injuries has risen over the last year in NW. No family should have faced Christmas or the rest of their lives without someone they love because they were killed by negligence at work, or face hardship because a bread winner has a work injury or illness.

“David Cameron responds to the Paris attacks which killed 16 people by saying money is no object to tackle terrorism. Yet his response to the far greater number of preventable deaths injuries and illness at work every year, is completely the opposite. Over four years, Cameron has waged an unrelenting attack on the protective H&S laws and their enforcement which keep workers and healthy. He has slashed the HSE’s budget by 44%, made a New Year’s resolution to ‘kill off health and safety culture’; blamed it for the riots and ‘ broken Britain’; called it ‘an albatross, a millstone’ around employers necks, and lied about good health and safety being useless red tape and a ‘burden on business’. The families of the 15 people killed at work, the 9,432 inured and the 120,000 made ill, know only too painfully that the burden has fallen on them and it could have, and should have, been prevented.

“In the 21st Century Britain, one of the richest countries in the world, there is no excuse for such a terrible annual toll on workers which is even higher than the official HSE figures reveal. If terrorism took such a toll every year, imagine what would be said or done? In this General Election year, it is time for all parties to commit to investing in better regulation and enforcement of health and safety, to working with trade unions and workers to stop all this totally unnecessary suffering which will also be good for business and the economy.”