Unite criticises the HSE’s draft manufacturing strategy
31 August 2011
Unite, the UK’s largest union, has responded to the Health and
Safety Executive’s (HSE) draft manufacturing strategy by
criticising the government's policy on health and safety that lies
behind it.
Tony Burke, Unite’s assistant general secretary and head of
manufacturing, said: “Unite cannot support a strategy which
oversees a reduction in health and safety standards and which, we
believe, puts manufacturing workers, many of them Unite members, at
greater risk. This strategy is built on the back of cuts to the HSE
and will lead to fewer inspections, less enforcement, and more
deaths, injuries and ill health at work.”
“Unite is fundamentally at odds with the Tory-led government's
approach to health and safety. This is just another example of
government cuts affecting working people – in this case their
health and safety. Unite will fight these cuts and will continue to
defend the health and safety of people at work.”
ENDS
For further information contact Bud Hudspith, Unite health and
safety adviser, on 07881 588917 or Ashraf Choudhury in the Unite
press office on 020 3371 2061 or 07980 224761
