Workers Memorial Day
The next item of business is a members’ business debate on motion S4M-05930, in the name of John Pentland, on workers memorial day 2013. The debate will be concluded without any question being put.
I ask people who are leaving the public gallery to do so quietly, as Parliament is still in session.
Motion debated,
That the Parliament welcomes International Workers’ Memorial Day on 28 April 2013, an annual day of global action to defend and promote health and safety rights and to “Remember the dead; Fight for the living”; applauds the numerous events being organised to remember those who have died in or been made ill by the workplace; supports the proposal for a steelworkers memorial to be erected at Ravenscraig; understands that, in the UK, over 20,000 people die prematurely every year as a result of injuries or accidents caused by their work and that, worldwide, there are two million people, more than are killed in wars; notes what it considers the important role of trade unions, with research suggesting that, without union involvement, workplace injury and illness increases significantly; understands that many trade unionists were included in the Consulting Association blacklist because they had expressed health and safety concerns; expresses deep concern over so-called low-risk workplaces, which will no longer receive unannounced inspections despite reportedly accounting for almost half of workplace deaths, and hopes that this annual day will continue to grow in stature and observance and thereby further the cause of workers’ rights and safety.
12:32
I thank everyone who is attending the debate, who signed the motion, who contributed to the shoes exhibition and who went out of their way to support me—the hazards campaign, families against corporate killers, the Scottish Trades Union Congress and the GMB and Community trade unions—in my first members’ business debate, which is on international workers memorial day. I also welcome Bill Kidd’s motion, and his sponsorship of the hazards exhibition.
I was moved to read the poem “Empty Shoes” by health and safety campaigner Wendy Lawrence, which starts:
“No more footsteps on the path as you come home
I just sit here with my grief—so all alone
No key is turned by you in our front door
No sound of walking to me across our floor
I’ve cried so much my eyes are red and sore
Empty shoes, no more you—just empty shoes.”
Wendy wrote that after reading about yet another avoidable death that had been caused by work. That spurred me to organise the exhibit that will be on display in the public lobby from today until next week’s debate on blacklisting—many people who are blacklisted have merely raised health and safety concerns. We all know that statistics do not have the same emotional power as poems do to describe the depth of grief that is suffered by the families and friends of victims. However, they show the enormity of the issue.
The International Labour Organization estimates that, globally, one worker dies every 15 seconds, that more than 2.3 million deaths a year are due to occupational accidents or diseases, that 160 million workers suffer work-related illnesses and that more than 300 million people are injured in workplace accidents. For the economists, that adds up to 4 per cent of global gross domestic product lost at a cost of £1 trillion.
In the United Kingdom, there were 173 worker deaths last year, which was down from double that figure 20 years ago. However, that figure does not include members of the public who were killed or injured in workplaces. The number of non-fatal accidents at work has also fallen considerably over the past 10 years, from about 1 million to 600,000. As well as deaths at work, UK Government figures show that at least 20,000 people died from work-related injuries and illnesses such as occupational cancers, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cardiovascular disorders and through work-related road traffic accidents. However, estimates of underreporting suggest that the real figure may be as high as 50,000.
In Scotland, although the figures for workplace illness and injury dropped, the number of fatalities rose to 20. Not for the first time, the Scottish rate is higher than the UK rate, which may be because construction and agriculture are larger parts of our economy and have higher accident rates; agriculture itself accounts for two thirds of worker deaths. However, neither explanations, nor the falling trends, are cause for complacency—any death is one too many. If we could address the Scottish situation by getting health and safety devolved to the Scottish Parliament, I believe that that is what we should do.
Historically, health and safety improvements have not come from above. Workers in industries such as the steel industry have had to contend with poor safety regimes and have fought, through their unions, to get improvements. My background is in the steel industry, which plays a central role in my constituency, so I am well aware of the steelworkers’ struggle. I look forward to the creation of a steelworkers memorial at Ravenscraig to mark the lives and health that have been lost as a result of the steel industry. My best wishes go to North Lanarkshire Trades Union Council for its event at 12 o’clock on Sunday in the Summerlee museum of Scottish industrial life, and to the dozen or more other events throughout Scotland.
While we “Remember the dead”, we must still “fight for the living.” In the UK, despite its figures suggesting that low-risk workplaces account for more than half of workplace deaths, the Government has withdrawn unannounced health and safety inspections and workers are still pressured by their employers to meet unattainable targets, with the upshot that safety standards can be ignored. Let us thank our union safety reps for the crucial work that they undertake, often in difficult circumstances, to resist such pressures.
Let us also remember that this is international workers memorial day. As the disaster in Bangladesh reminds us, there is still much more that we can do. We should oppose cheap goods being produced at the cost of people’s lives and wellbeing, and we should insist on multinationals taking preventative action, rather than just paying lip service after the event. That is why we need an international workers memorial day.
I close with the closing lines of “Empty Shoes”:
“To honour your great sacrifice
I hope your workmates unionise
And do it soon before another dies
In remembrance of you—no more empty shoes.”
To allow me to call all the members who have indicated that they would like to speak, we must have speeches of less than four minutes, please.
12:39
I draw members’ attention to my entry in the register of members’ interests. I thank the Presiding Officer for her latitude in calling me to speak in the debate, as I must apologise to members because I will need to leave before the end of the debate for a meeting with representatives of the Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians.
Speaking in this place is always a privilege, but on occasions such as this it is also an honour. I thank my colleague John Pentland for lodging the motion for debate and for ensuring that members of the Scottish Parliament have the opportunity to honour the workers throughout this country and around the world who have had their lives taken from them over the course of the past year and in the further past.
I add my voice in support of all the families who have witnessed their loved ones leave for work in the morning, but have looked in vain to welcome them home again. On the occasion of international workers memorial day, we also acknowledge all the workers who have been injured at work or who have been left with debilitating or limiting conditions. As many members will, I will mark the day by laying a wreath at my local event at the People’s Palace in Glasgow. I encourage all members to look out for the events that will take place in their areas this weekend.
Workers memorial day is a campaigning opportunity as well as a time of solemn remembrance, but physical memorials are important. In the next couple of weeks, Glasgow will mark the unveiling of the firefighters heritage trail, which will include 12 memorial stones placed to mark sites such as the Cheapside Street fire, in which 19 firefighters were lost in 1960, and the fire at James Watt Street, also in Anderston, in which 22 workers—most of them women—were lost when an upholstery warehouse caught fire in 1968. As someone who lives close to the memorial stones that stand in remembrance of the 2004 explosion at ICL Plastics in Maryhill, I am reminded of that tragedy—in which nine workers were killed—almost every day.
As I mentioned, workers memorial day, which falls just before the workers gala day or May day, is a chance to remember, but it is also a focal point for campaigning and activism. I pay tribute to everyone in Scotland and around the world who is involved in the struggle to ensure that in every workplace the world over, the imbalance that exists between the employers and the employed is tilted back a tiny bit—if not in favour of working people, at least slightly less against them.
Every year in the UK, hundreds of people die at work—the figures vary depending on whether we take into account accidents, injuries and conditions resulting from work. John Pentland was quite right to highlight the scandal of blacklisting—many of those who are blacklisted are workers who have raised health and safety concerns. However, the coalition Government is currently rolling back not just years, but centuries of progress on workers’ rights and health and safety enforcement. It is disappointing that no member of the Westminster coalition parties has remained for the debate.
At a recent hearing on health and safety that was held by the Health and Sport Committee, of which I am a member, we heard that the rates of death and injury at work remain higher in Scotland than they are in other parts of the United Kingdom, as John Pentland correctly identified. Regarding which powers this Parliament could assume to assist that situation—if that was considered to be the way to drive down those rates—I believe that we should look at enforcement powers and avoid any situation in which we might create a race to the bottom on regulation.
Finally, I encourage members to speak to the representatives of the Scottish hazards campaign group and families against corporate killing, who are in Parliament today. Ask them about 16-year-old Cameron who, weeks into his first job, was killed in an accident involving an industrial lathe; or about 17-year-old Steven, who was killed after a fall of 30 feet while at work in a water treatment plant; or about 18-year-old Lewis, who was killed after being burnt in a garage fire.
I add my voice to the call to
“Remember the dead; fight for the living.”
12:43
I congratulate John Pentland on securing this important members’ business debate. I also thank him for his kind efforts in helping with the potential postponement of the debate—which, happily, we did not have to do—to aid the SNP group’s tribute meeting to our colleague Brian Adam. John Pentland put in a great effort on that, which is much appreciated. I also appreciate his gift of a purple memorial ribbon, which demonstrates our support for international workers memorial day to the world.
I want to put on record our friend Brian Adam’s dedication to ensuring that workers on the rigs and vessels that serve the oil and gas industry in the North Sea were represented whenever health and safety issues were raised. As a long-time trade union activist, Brian Adam knew the value and necessity of the work of unions and of the Scottish hazards campaign in keeping such issues to the fore.
On 2 December 1984, the Bhopal gas disaster at the Union Carbide site in India killed thousands of people. It continues to affect the lives of many hundreds more in that area who are still campaigning for redress for what took place in that disgraceful episode when business was more important than workers. The Governments of both India and the United States of America have been shown to have collaborated in allowing Dow Chemical, which now owns Union Carbide, to escape facing up to the liabilities that have affected the individuals and community of Bhopal.
We have all heard about the recent explosion at a Texas fertiliser plant: a full 29 years after Bhopal, we are still seeing a failure on an international scale to address safety issues. The Texas factory was last inspected in 1985—just after the Bhopal disaster—by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration of the United States. That is a full 28 years without a health and safety inspection. As a result of that failing, 14 people died and almost 200 were injured.
What is the UK Government’s reaction to the lessons? It has cut the Health and Safety Executive’s budget by 35 per cent and announced an end to proactive unannounced visits by the Health and Safety Executive to factories and other industrial sites. That is an utterly unacceptable slap in the face to all workers in the industries that are affected by a slap-dash charge to increase profits at the risk of workers’ lives and limbs.
For the past three years, the Scottish Government has ordered that flags on public buildings be flown at half-mast as a sign of respect for those who have been killed at work. Meanwhile, the minister in Westminster, Chris Grayling, is failing in his duty to show respect to the living.
I encourage everyone, as Drew Smith said, to stop by the Scottish hazards campaign’s families against corporate killing exhibit that I am sponsoring this week outside the members’ block. I and the people who are staffing the stall are delighted by the response so far, but let us all make a final push, please, to give it all the support that we can in support of international workers memorial day.
12:47
International workers memorial day originated in Canada in 1985, and was introduced to the UK by hazards campaigner Tommy Harte. In my area, my former council colleague and past trade union convener at British Leyland, Jimmy Swan, brought it to our county. I congratulate John Pentland for securing the debate.
As we have heard, the event’s motto is
“Remember the dead; fight for the living.”
Too tragically, every year, we must mourn the dead. Internationally, a staggering 2 million of our fellow global citizens die at, or as the result of, their work. Each year, families are left without fathers or mothers, and tragically—this is particularly relevant where child labour exists—mothers and fathers are left without sons or daughters.
Around the world each year, more than 2 million men and women die as a result of work-related accidents and diseases. Workers suffer approximately 270 million accidents each year, and fall victim to 160 million incidents of work-related illnesses. Hazardous substances kill 440,000 workers annually, and asbestos still claims 100,000 lives. As has been mentioned, one worker dies every 15 seconds worldwide, which is 6,000 workers every day. More people die at work than at war. Those are truly shocking and appalling statistics.
The Trades Union Congress estimates that in the UK more than 20,000 people die prematurely every year as a result of injuries or accidents that are caused by their work. More than 2 million people suffer some form of occupational ill health—and all that at a time when, according to the trade union Prospect, there are only three occupational health physicians and 18 occupational health inspectors left in the HSE—down from 60 of each in the early 1990s. All in all, the HSE has lost hundreds of staff and, as Bill Kidd mentioned, proactive investigations have been cut dramatically.
The HSE cuts are built on nothing more than myth and dogma. Health and safety is seen by right-wing politicians, think tanks and free-market disciples as a burden on business that must be slain; David Cameron has vowed to do something about the “health and safety monster”. The Conservatives are doing something about it—they are actively and rapidly destroying the Health and Safety Executive and are making our building sites, factories, chemical works and other workplaces less safe and more dangerous. Make no mistake—people will die as a consequence and others will suffer injury and disease. Of course, that is another price that workers must pay for dogma. I am actually pleased that none of the members from the UK coalition parties is present for the debate, because I do not think that I could stomach it if they were here.
In the past year, I have followed the investigation by the Scottish Affairs Select Committee at Westminster into construction industry blacklisting and have campaigned on the issue in Parliament. The investigation is a direct result of concerns about Scotland’s poor health and safety record in comparison with that of the rest of the UK. It transpired during the committee’s inquiry that trade unions believe that the figures were worse because health and safety representatives had systematically been denied employment and been drummed out of the Scottish construction industry. That is a scandal, but I will not dwell too much on it today; I will cover it in my members’ business debate next week.
No family should experience the loss of a loved one simply from their going to work. On Sunday, a number of us will, I am sure, join many in mourning the dead but, the day after, we must continue the fight for the living.
12:51
There is hardly a community in Scotland that has not over the years been affected by death that has been caused at work. It is not just the deaths that have happened in the workplace that blight lives but, as John Pentland eloquently said, the disease and illness that is also caused.
I thank John Pentland for bringing the debate to Parliament, because it is timely, given the incident in Bangladesh, which reminds us of what workers have to suffer in many parts of the world.
To return to the Scottish dimension, over the generations steel workers suffered and died or their health was blighted, while coal miners in many communities in Scotland suffered greatly because of the conditions in their workplaces. However, the legacy is not only industrial; over the years, many agricultural workers in rural areas in Scotland suffered because of carelessness, thoughtlessness and—to be frank—disregard for their wellbeing.
Unfortunately, that is not an historical issue for Scotland and the United Kingdom. As Bill Kidd, Neil Findlay and others have said, the cuts to the Health and Safety Executive show, to be frank, a blatant disregard for the wellbeing of people who are doing nothing but simply trying to do an honest day’s work.
We can look at deaths and injuries in all our communities over the past few years. Wanda Lustig, who is a Polish worker, was injured while working for a Dunblane farming company. Her life has been ruined because of the injury that she sustained at work and her employer has now been fined.
There are also tragic deaths. Patricia Ferguson will, no doubt, talk about the Stockline disaster, which affected families in my area in Renfrewshire. Also, prosecutions were reported in the news this week in relation to the capsizing of the Flying Phantom tugboat, which affected a family in Houston in Renfrewshire, which is part of my constituency, as well as other families in Greenock and Gourock. Every one of those events shows carelessness and disregard for workers because they were, in a sense, an afterthought.
I am pleased that my colleague Neil Findlay has been doing so much work on blacklisting, but it is a disgrace that when workers attempt to protect themselves and their fellow workers, they are blacklisted as a result of doing nothing other than saying that their health and safety should be paramount when they do their day’s work. Those blacklists existed in secrecy and families were denied an income coming into the house because people had done something that most of us would think was the decent and right thing to do.
As a socialist and a trade unionist, I do not think that my responsibilities simply stop at my community, my workplace, Scotland or, indeed, the United Kingdom. The tragedy in Bangladesh reminds us that my family and other families in Scotland have benefited on the back of the turmoil and tragedy of workers who are producing cheap clothing. It is a disgrace that Bhopal is still an issue and that it will continue to be an issue for many years. Workers in many countries scramble about waste sites trying to earn a day’s living, with no regard for their health, which shows that there remains a problem.
Our duty is to workers in Scotland, in Britain and internationally. We need to stand by them. It is a disgrace that profits still matter more than lives.
If I am to be able to call everyone who wants to speak, I need people to keep to under four minutes.
12:55
This is a very sad day for the Scottish Parliament.
I congratulate John Pentland on securing the debate and I commend him for raising the issue. I have no hesitation in wearing the memorial ribbon.
Workers memorial day was created in Canada in the 1980s and is now an international day of remembrance for workers who have been killed in incidents at work or by diseases that were caused by work. The need for such a day is revealed in the ILO’s figures, which show that more than 2 million women and men die every year as a result of work-related accidents and diseases. One worker dies every 15 seconds, world wide—that is 6,000 workers dying every single day. More people die while at work than while fighting in wars.
Hazardous substances kill 440,000 workers annually, and asbestos alone claims 100,000 lives. I refer members to my entry in the register of members’ interests; I am an honorary member of Clydeside Action on Asbestos.
The purpose of workers memorial day is twofold: to remember those who have died or been injured or made ill at work, and to ensure that that loss and suffering is used to reinvigorate the campaign for healthier and safer work for workers, for their families and for their children, who will become tomorrow’s workers.
The most recent figures for Scotland showed that 20 people in Scotland died at their work. There is also the problem of illnesses that people contract at work, but which do not emerge until years later. The prime example is asbestos-related diseases, such as mesothelioma, which can develop 20, 30 or even 40 years after the initial exposure to asbestos. That is why I wear the badge of Clydeside Action on Asbestos.
According to figures from the Health and Safety Executive, more than 2,000 people every year in the United Kingdom are diagnosed with mesothelioma, and a further 2,000 cases of lung cancer are likely to have been caused by asbestos exposure. The number of people who are diagnosed with fatal conditions is set to rise, and it is estimated that 1.5 million workplaces still contain asbestos.
This Parliament has a good track record in supporting people with asbestos-related diseases. We legislated to overturn the disgraceful House of Lords decision in 2007 that blocked people who have pleural plaques from seeking compensation from negligent employers—successive Westminster Governments have failed to do that. It is appropriate that in debating workers memorial day we remember people who contracted asbestos-related diseases as a result of their employers’ negligence. The issue has scarred many communities, not just in the former industrial heartlands in the west, but throughout Scotland. Asbestos-related diseases are still with us and will remain so for years. It is important to use events such as workers memorial day to reiterate the need for greater health and safety in the workplace.
Health and safety legislation should be applied as quickly as possible. Members will be aware of this week’s news about the Flying Phantom—the tug that sank in the Clyde in December 2007, with the loss of three lives. The loss of the tug was a tragedy for all concerned; three people lost their lives and their families were left devastated. It was not until Monday past, more than five years later, that it was announced that the companies involved will face prosecution under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. I know that the Crown Office spent a considerable time investigating the Flying Phantom tragedy, but the families have had to wait for a long time to see the case being brought.
Too many families suffer the horror of a loved one going to work but never returning. It is important that health and safety at work legislation be taken seriously. Health and safety in the workplace is not an optional extra but a fundamental right for all workers.
The motto of international workers memorial day is:
“Remember the dead; fight for the living”.
We have done that in this debate.
I am conscious of time, Presiding Officer.
You need to come to a conclusion.
The Parliament needs the powers to ensure that we can do something, when we see what has been happening at Westminster.
There are two other members who I would like to call after Patricia Ferguson, but I can give them only three minutes each.
12:59
I congratulate John Pentland on securing this debate on such an important issue and on his comprehensive explanation of the issues and campaign. That workers are safe at work should of course be a fundamental right. Workers and their families should expect no less.
Colleagues will know—and I make no apology for speaking about it again—about the dreadful tragedy that took place at the Stockline factory in my then constituency almost nine years ago but which for the families connected to it has repercussions to this day. At Stockline, the simple act of flicking a switch to turn on a light created a spark that ignited combustible gases leaking from a pipe that was buried underground and was therefore incapable of being inspected. It was an entirely unavoidable accident.
I am able to summarise quickly for the chamber the cause of the disaster at Stockline, but it took several years before the families bereaved by the disaster knew the truth of the story. In fact, it took more than three years for the criminal prosecution to begin—a criminal prosecution that resulted in what in my view was a paltry fine of £200,000. It was a further year before the public inquiry began.
Of course we know that the Stockline situation is not unique and that other families have also been bereaved because of workplace accidents. As Stuart McMillan said, they often wait a long time before inquiries can help them begin to understand what happened to their family members.
What Stockline told me is that health and safety legislation can help to prevent accidents and must be our priority. If devolving it to the Scottish Parliament, as John Pentland suggested, is a way of making sure that our disproportionately bad record in health and safety can be ameliorated, I support it.
We also know that, when accidents happen, we have to find a way to make sure that the families affected are dealt with in a courteous and sensitive way and that their concerns are addressed at a much earlier stage. That is why I am proposing a member’s bill on fatal accident inquiries, which will give families the right to be heard when decisions are made on whether a fatal accident inquiry is to take place. It also suggests that, where possible, the inquiry can run concurrently with a criminal case and that the sheriff can make recommendations that are binding.
Those measures would help to demonstrate that we remember and honour the dead but that we also fight for the living. I very much hope that colleagues will support the bill when I bring it forward in the very near future.
13:02
I, too, thank John Pentland for ensuring that we have this debate today. I also thank families against corporate killers and the thousands of trade union representatives for the hard work that they do to keep the issue of safety at work on our agenda and on employers’ agendas too.
Health and safety is not a burden on industry. A good health and safety regime is a sign of company values; it is something to be proud of. It is not just about protection for workers, companies and public sector organisations. As others have said, when something goes wrong, it can impact on neighbouring communities, lives can be put at risk and there can be a detrimental impact on the local environment.
The legionnaire’s outbreak in Edinburgh saw local communities hit and lives lost. I am told that, due to council cutbacks by the previous council leadership, vital time was lost in getting the investigation going and that cuts to and pressures on the Health and Safety Executive also had an impact. We need to learn the lessons of that experience. We need expertise across the country that is capable of instant mobilisation as soon as incidents occur. It is vital that evidence is not lost, that there is accountability and that lessons can be learned.
Again close to home in Edinburgh, we still do not have transparency about what happened on the fateful night when firefighter Ewan Williamson lost his life fighting the fire in the Balmoral bar. That was nearly four years ago. Although I welcome the fact that the Crown Office has now instituted legal proceedings, Ewan Williamson’s family and his Fire Brigades Union colleagues are still waiting for a proper inquiry to establish the facts, learn lessons and make sure that FBU members who put their lives on the line for us every day are supported by knowing what happened.
Yesterday, a new report by the Inspectorate of Prosecution in Scotland raised important concerns. It praised the high standards and work of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service health and safety division but expressed worries about the length of time that it takes to conclude cases. It says that we need more accountability and we need action.
I think that we need to look at the issue of staff turnover—and the loss of valuable expertise and knowledge—which is increasingly a concern throughout the public sector in Scotland. I hope that the minister will comment on that. There is something that the Scottish Government could do now, which is to consider Patricia Ferguson’s member’s bill and ensure that we speed up the process of fatal accident inquiries, that vital lessons are learned and that we do not have to wait years before there is accountability. The forthcoming procurement bill is an opportunity to ensure that the health and safety track record of companies is part of the procurement process.
On Sunday, we will commemorate international workers memorial day. As citizens, we all need to make a stand and demand that our Governments, companies and public sector organisations do all that they can to promote effective health and safety regimes. As other members have said, yesterday’s tragic deaths in Dhaka show that we all—as citizens and as consumers—need to ask that our companies have a duty of care to their employees, not just in Scotland and the United Kingdom but throughout the globe.
13:06
Thank you for making time for us, Presiding Officer.
I pay tribute to John Pentland for securing the debate and to all the other parliamentarians, in the chamber and elsewhere, who prioritise their work commitments for this vitally important aspect of all our lives.
Fifty years ago this month, I joined the GMB; I joined the Labour Party at the same time. One of the things that influenced me was reading a publication that I found on my father’s bookshelf about the match girls’ strike, the phossy jaw that was experienced by those women all those years ago and how, by forming a women’s general union, they campaigned for their protection. I found that aspirational and inspirational. I liked the idea that other people would fight for my rights and that I would help to fight for other people’s rights. That feeling has lasted until today and it is one of the reasons why I carry on with the important work that we all do.
It is a major credit to trade unions throughout the world that they have fought so hard to ensure that legislation has been put in place to protect workers. That is critical. If we did not have those trade unions, we would not have the legislation today.
The trade unions have also provided legal assistance that has ensured compensation and established case law to support those affected by industrial injury and disease. There have been landmark cases, such as those fighting for victims of asbestosis, pneumoconiosis and all the other diseases and injuries that happen. When my father worked in the Carron ironworks, his finger was chopped off. It was not a disaster for the community but it was a disaster for the Miller family. Mum had to go out to work because there was no sick pay or financial support at all for my father. That was a very long time ago.
Let us remember those affected by Piper Alpha, one of the worst disasters in the North Sea, when so many lost their lives. Let us remember, too, those who work so hard to support the survivors and the victims’ families. Throughout the world, people have to pick up the pieces. I knew families in Dalgety Bay affected by that awful disaster. I know the lasting impact of such a disaster on the union officials who represent the victims and their families, and on the lawyers, medical teams and all the families and friends who are left to cope. My husband was one such union official and, to this day, many years after Piper Alpha, the tears well up in his eyes. We have to remember that many people are affected by disasters.
My role as a former GMB full-time official meant that I represented many members in schools and colleges. Worryingly, I found that a huge number of home workers, particularly in the garment industry, were vulnerable to exploitation and have very much been victims.
I conclude by saying that I remember the disasters in the coalmining communities, such as those at the Donibristle, Valleyfield and Michael collieries. We do well to pay tribute and to remember them each year, and I hope that it will become a bigger remembrance across Scotland.
13:10
I, like others, congratulate John Pentland on securing time for this important debate about a significant day that I hope will become increasingly embedded within Scottish consciousness. There have been many worthwhile speeches from members.
The Scottish Government first formally recognised international workers memorial day in 2010, when flags on Government buildings were lowered. A number of members have referred to memorial sites within their constituencies and the plans for the memorial on the Ravenscraig site. Only a few weeks ago, I passed the memorial for the Stockline disaster. Such memorials are important in ensuring that tragedies are not forgotten by communities or by individuals.
In my constituency in Falkirk, a new workers memorial is planned for the high street, which will make it much more visible and bring it right to the heart of the community from the location of the present plaque within Falkirk Council’s municipal buildings. The new memorial has involved a tremendous amount of work that has been led by Duncan McCallum, who works diligently on behalf of the National Union of Journalists.
Although responsibility for workplace health and safety is reserved to the UK Government, the Scottish Government is doing what it can within its existing powers to encourage continuous improvement in occupational health and safety. We recognise the importance of safe, healthy working environments and, equally, the importance of partnership working in addressing those issues.
The Scottish centre for healthy working lives, which is funded by the Scottish Government, provides free and confidential advice to employers and employees. The centre has developed a range of partnerships with organisations, including with the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents on managing occupational road risk; with Scottish Business in the Community on training for mentally healthy workplaces; and with the STUC to train trade union representatives. It also runs initiatives in partnership with organisations such as the Scottish Chambers of Commerce and the Federation of Small Businesses in Scotland in order to reach smaller and medium-sized enterprises and look at what they can do to improve the work environment for their employees.
John Pentland is absolutely right to highlight the significant role that trade unions play in minimising occupational health and safety risks and the incidents that can result from them. Just last week, the First Minister, when he was addressing the STUC, stated:
“Trade unions are important partners for the Scottish Government and we value our relationship with them very highly indeed. Strong trade unions mean strong workplaces and a strong economy ... and I believe the trade union movement can and will continue to play an important and valuable role in Scotland in the years to come.”
The First Minister also stressed that we are totally opposed to blacklisting and to the compiling of blacklists, which some companies have undertaken, and he outlined steps to ensure that blacklisting is not taking place on public contracts in Scotland. On behalf of the Scottish Government and its agencies, the First Minister also invited the unions to work with us on developing guidance for public bodies on addressing the issue in future procurement processes and public contracts.
As Neil Findlay mentioned, the Scottish Affairs Committee at Westminster is continuing to conduct an inquiry into blacklisting, and I am aware that Mr Findlay is bringing to the chamber a debate on that issue next week. We welcome that inquiry and will continue to work with the committee following the findings of its interim report, which was published last Tuesday.
I share John Pentland’s concerns, which have been reflected in other members’ contributions, about the UK Government’s changes to health and safety regulations. Such changes run the risk of sending out the wrong signal to less scrupulous employers, who may unfortunately see them as an opportunity to abrogate their responsibilities for the health and safety of their workforce.
I wrote to the UK Government on that very issue to caution against any moves that could increase the risk to workers. That followed similar correspondence from my predecessor Shona Robison, who expressed concerns about the reduction in the Health and Safety Executive’s budget and in proactive inspections, and the proposed introduction of fee-for-fault charges. I remain concerned about the significant cuts that the UK Government is making to the Health and Safety Executive’s budget, and I believe that the reduction in proactive inspections could result in an increased risk of injury and death among workers.
This Government’s view is that now is not the time to put at risk the hard-won improvements in Scotland’s health and safety record. The latest HSE statistics for Scotland, for 2011-12, show a welcome downward trend in workplace injuries over the past five years. The prevalence rate of work-related illness has also fallen from 3 per cent to 2.5 per cent.
Sadly, there has been a small increase in fatal injuries at work, which highlights the need to redouble our efforts in this area. We should acknowledge what lies behind the numbers, as 1.7 million working days are lost due to workplace injury and ill health. The economic cost is around £1 billion, but the human cost cannot be calculated.
Minister, I must ask you to close.
There are still too many tragic stories of broken lives, unnecessary suffering and families who have lost loved ones. International workers memorial day allows us the opportunity to remember those who have lost their lives or their livelihoods because of unsafe workplaces or practices. It provides us with an opportunity to remember the dead, and to fight for the living.
Thank you very much, minister. I thank members for their discipline in keeping the debate to time on this sad day for the Parliament.
13:18
Meeting suspended.
14:30
On resuming—