Safety report misses the goal, says Unite
29 June 2010
Unite has welcomed the publication today (Tuesday 29 June) of
the “Report by the Health and Safety Executive on the control and
management of hazardous substances in semiconductor manufacturers
in GB in 2009”.
The report shows that there are some good features in the way
the industry manages health and safety and deals with the use of
hazardous substances. However, it also reveals continuing failings
in the industry's approach to many aspects of health and
safety.
Although the report shows that some UK semiconductor
manufacturers are addressing health and safety well, there is
clearly much to be done, and the industry in general is still
failing to address the provision and use of occupational health
services, which was the finding of a similar report in 2002.
John Rowse, Unite national officer for the semiconductor sector
said: "In our view, the report was also supposed to highlight
possible risks in the industry and move us forward from the
findings of eight years ago.
"This report was probably more expensive than sending England to
the World Cup but seems to have had the same disappointing result
and clearly missed its goal. It does however, show that a number of
current practices are well below where they should be."
Unite was been particularly concerned that the report gave full
consideration to the early days of semiconductor manufacture prior
to 2002 when the union believes exposure to hazardous substances
was at its greatest. The report has not addressed this
issue.
Unite welcomes the opportunity to develop improvements in the
industry’s approach to health and safety in line with the
recommendations of the report. In particular, Unite sees the
Micro-Electronics Joint Working Group (MEJWG) as a potentially
effective means of agreeing and implementing those improvements. In
order to do so, the MEJWG needs to meet on a regular basis, and
work to a formal action plan.
The first task of the MEJWG, when it meets on 23rd September
2010, is to set up such an action plan and agree a series of dates
for 2011. The MEJWG is the principal forum for discussions between
Unite and the semiconductor industry on health and safety issues
and cancer issues in particular, but it has not met since May 21st,
2008, well over two years ago.
Unite remains concerned about long term cancer risks in the
semiconductor industry, though these were not the subject of this
HSE report.
ENDS
For more info contact: Bud Hudspith, Unite H&S, 07881
588917, bud.hudspith@unitetheunion.org
Notes
The full report is available on-line on the HSE website at:
http://www.hse.gov.uk/engineering/semiconductor-manufacturers-report.pdf
The key findings of the HSE report are:
- In general, satisfactory arrangements were found for current
control of hazardous substances, as well as for general health and
safety issues.
- The key components of H&S management systems were largely
in place and there were some good examples of commitment, giving
HSE some confidence in likely continuing control. However there
were weaknesses in implementation of some aspects in many companies
such that we could not be fully assured of continuing control.
- There were some examples of good, or very good, practice for
controlling exposure to hazardous substances, and there had been a
number of improvements since 2002.
- Utilisation of improved technology and processes, and
improvements in some management arrangements, has led to a reduced
likelihood of exposure to hazardous substances for production
operators since 2002.
- There was a good level of senior management commitment and
awareness with some strong, visible leadership on health and
safety, but there were some instances where this good intent was
not translated into effective and robust control.
- There was insufficient focus on the potential exposure of
people undertaking maintenance, cleaning and other auxiliary
processes, and the possible effect of their work on others.
- ‘Compliance monitoring’ of high hazard situations, particularly
non-production activities, was weak at several sites. There was
widespread use of lagging indicators for monitoring of health and
safety performance, but little use of leading indicators.
- Provision and use of occupational health services had not
improved since 2002 and was often poorly targeted, resulting in
limited contribution to legal compliance and management
information.
- Few companies had satisfactory auditing and review arrangements
for their management system for hazardous substances.
High level, corporate oversight was often largely concentrated on
safety rather than health issues.
