Workplace Hazards – Vitriol, Abuse and Assassination

This Friday, exactly two hundred years ago, the then Prime Minister, Spencer Perceval, was shot in the lobby of the House of Commons, becoming the first and only British Prime Minister to have been assassinated.  Perceval was killed at his place of work, by an angry member of the public. 

Working with the general public frequently puts MPs in dangerous situations.  In 2010, Stephen Timms MP, the current Shadow Employment Minister, was stabbed twice at a constituency surgery by a ‘constituent’ who disagreed with his voting record (Mr Timms spoke to IOSH about the incident last year). 

And in 2000, Councillor Andrew Pennington was killed fending off a samurai sword attack on Nigel Jones MP, again at a constituency surgery. 

While most MPs are politically astute, they don’t all have management experience and very few understand health and safety in the workplace. 

Therefore, when meeting the public, they often do not think of the risks – have I got more than one exit, is there a table or barrier between us, do I have back up staff to help out; indeed, are they trained properly?  IOSH produced a guide to help new MPs settle into their role, which is available here.

And it’s not just the physical hazards.  Having worked for an MP during the expenses scandal, I can assure you many people find it acceptable to verbally assault and intimidate staff (which is why nowadays a lot of offices don’t answer outside lines, and only respond to messages on answer machines). 

And it’s not just on the phone.  Earlier this year, Sir Bob Russell MP called the police to his office after protestors targeted visitors and his constituency staff.  This behaviour would be completely unacceptable in any other workplace, yet the problem persists in politics.  

Louise Mensch, an up and coming MP found this out after being quite forthcoming in her views.  Her comments led one man to threaten the lives of her children via e-mail, telling her she would have to pick which one lived. 

The emotional turmoil such vicious bullying creates is difficult for many MPs and staff to adapt to. 

But why should they accept it?

Most good businesses have policies in place to prevent workplace bullying.  Security at the Palace of Westminster has improved dramatically; making an attempt on a life much less likely, however, outside of the Westminster bubble, bullying and abuse remains a major problem.  It’s completely unacceptable, and it’s time the House authorities, with IOSH’s help, began to address it.

Andrew Baldwin,
IOSH Public Affairs Adviser.
  

IOSH: let’s continue to press all parties to do more to ensure fewer people become victims in the first place

The impressively titled Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill (LASPO for short) returned to the House of Commons last week, after receiving what more than one political commentator suggested was ‘quite a mauling’ from the House of Lords.

Two amendments by Lord Alton of Liverpool exempted mesothelioma and industrial illness cases from the Government’s changes to no win no fee cases, leading to a forceful debate on Tuesday evening. Briefly, the Government wants to alter the current system because, in its words, it “has frequently ended up as something of a racket, allowing risk-free litigation for claimants, inflated profits for legal firms and punitive additional costs for defendants.” But MPs challenged its application to mesothelioma victims who, as Paul Goggins, Labour MP for Whythenshawe and Sale East, put it “expect to be dead within one year of their diagnosis.”

There were a number of passionate pleas from all sides of the House. David Anderson, Labour MP for Blaydon, told the House of the workers he had witnessed being killed at work, through his career as a coal miner. Plaid Cymru MP, Elfyn Llwyd, warned that it was nigh on impossible to make a fraudulent claim here, due to the high degree of medical evidence required. And Tracey Crouch, Conservative MP for Chatham and Aylesford, urged the Government to speed up the process, pointing out that “sufferers often pass away long before their claim has been settled.”

Up against the seething mass of backbenchers was the Justice Minister Jonathon Djanogly who, to borrow a cricketing term, mastered the night-watchman role, carefully protecting the Bill through to 10pm, nurdling away everything that was thrown at him. The Government position was to reject the amendments, arguing that “nothing in our proposals should prevent cases from being taken or those affected from receiving appropriate damages.” However, the backbenchers’ concern remained that it could make the process harder; eat into compensation payments and, as Mark Durkan, Social Democratic and Labour Party MP for Foyle pointed out, force “people whose lives are running out to watch the lawyer’s clock.”

The debate was important and it highlighted the human misery caused by industrial disease. Thought provoking and at times extremely moving, it showed the number of MPs who care deeply and passionately about serious work-related health and safety issues. Members from all sides were agreed that more should be done to compensate victims. From an IOSH point of view, we will continue to press all political parties to do more to ensure fewer people become victims in the first place. By tackling the root cause and reducing exposures, we hope future generations do not find themselves in a situation where they need to seek compensation for contracting fatal occupational diseases.

Andrew Baldwin, Public Affairs Adviser.

IOSH launches Workers' Memorial Day campaign

Some 19th century French writer once wrote “truth makes many appeals, not the least of which is its power to shock.”

In an age where we aren’t supposed to be shocked by anything, I came across this from the TUC website:

Every year, more people are killed at work than in wars.

Strikes fuelled by inadequate health and safety

I think the world’s going mad. On my commute to Leicester last Thursday morning, I stopped to fill up and was horrified to see the queue at a usually quite Sainsbury’s petrol station. Thank goodness my little motor runs on unleaded and not diesel – which they seem to have run out of completely.

Girl power and OSH

Today is International Women’s Day.

To me, as a working mother, any woman that can juggle children and work is a saint. And, if you ask me, International Women’s Day should come more than once a year, women should be appreciated every day of the year.

chal•lenge (noun): a demand for explanation or justification; a calling into question

Politicians love nothing better than issuing a good old-fashioned challenge. They’re not so keen on being challenged, mind (they don’t like it up ‘em Captain Mainwaring, Sir...) – however, nothing makes an MP or Minister more excitable than a giving out a big, fat challenge.

And, low and behold, the Government’s Employment Minister stepped up and did just that at a recent IOSH-sponsored Parliamentary reception to celebrate the record health and safety achievements of the 2012 Olympic construction site.

Chris Grayling told a select audience in Whitehall of an example of a small manufacturing firm in his constituency which, feeling overburdened by health and safety, paid a consultancy every year to update their health and safety procedures. These procedures, according to the Minister, then simply lay on a shelf gathering dust. He questioned whether the system was right if that can be allowed to happen. He then went on to challenge IOSH to help the Government achieve a “common sense” health and safety system.

It's hard to be a good sport when an event goes wrong

I should know about feeling safe, or otherwise, at events; I am an avid concert goer and have enjoyed many a tent-cramped, welly-accessorised, sleep-deficient long weekend festivals in the UK. And yes, there have been times when I felt little safety confidence in the situation I was in, or I heard alarm bells in regards to people’s behaviour, or I got hurt because of safety inefficiencies.

There are two experiences that spring to mind, but there will be more that, in my past events/sports partaking, have raised safety concerns. At a rock concert in 2007, I got caught up in what in the ‘scene’ is known as a “mosh pit”. I was young, excited and intentionally close enough to see it but with no intention of taking part. I tried to steer clear from it but it was still too close, and, by being caught up in it, I was pushed to the floor.

New Year’s resolutions are meant to be broken, Dave – get with the programme...

It all kicked off yesterday. Snuggled cosily in Twitter’s collective bosom between Diane Abbott’s own #tweetgate affair and something to do with So Solid Crew was David Cameron, who went public with the Coalition’s New Year resolutions (with the help of the BBC, we may add).

The Prime Minster felt the need to put to the British people that health and safety is synonymous with monsters and a sea bird popularised in a popular poem. It was a strange day all round...

Christmas 'elf and safety

Well, I certainly wish it could be Christmas every day, but I don’t think my bank balance could quite stretch that far.

Only four days ‘til Christmas (not that I’m counting), but this year we have seen absurd Christmas-related health and safety stories in the press since November.

A very merry Christmas and a happy New Year from the IOSH Media Team

(No elves were injured in the making of this film...)

Love from Shaun, Amy, Ruth, Annalisa and Tim.

Tabloid editors and the art of not saying sorry...

Elton John knows it. And we all know it too: that newspaper editors find “sorry” the hardest word to say...

Let’s take a recent case. On Friday 9 December, the Daily Mail published an article suggesting that people had “died in agony” on 7 July 2007 as a result of health and safety procedures. The article claimed: “Some victims of the 7/7 London bombings were left to die in agony because health and safety protocols meant firemen were unable to go into the train tunnels without official confirmation.”

Ok, so I was wrong...

Not for the first time in my life, I’ve been proved wrong. So, fist-biting-ly/toe-curling-ly wrong, in fact, that I feel the need to get it off my chest and atone for my mistake...

I wrote a blog last week praising Messrs Grayling, Osborne and Co. for listening to Professor Lofstedt and accepting the findings of his report into UK health and safety. (I know, what was I thinking? I put my uncharacteristically good nature at the time down to a cup of espresso). Not a few hours after posting my caffeine-fuelled blog did George Osborne stitch me up like a proverbial whatsit...you know. Mackerel.

Reasons to be cheerful: 1, 2, 3...

Yesterday’s much anticipated report into UK health and safety was published. One the whole, the profession has been pleasantly surprised by its findings. IOSH was name checked in Professor Lofstedt’s report who obviously took on board our opinions and thoughts during the rounds of consultations earlier in the year. Yet, watching and reading events unfolding yesterday, what struck me yesterday were three things...

Monday: judgement day for UK health and safety

There’s a palpable sense of anticipation surrounding the outcome of Monday’s review of health and safety legislation.

A lot’s riding on the content of Professor Lofstedt’s announcement. For IOSH, it feels a bit like waiting to find out whether you got that job you made such a good impression over at the interview. Not that the man tasked with reviewing the UK’s health and safety legislation bears much resemblance to Lord Sugar. But all IOSH can do now – just as other organisations who’ve made their point and put their suggestions across – is sit and wait to hear whether their pitch made enough of an impact to play a part in forming the framework that will shape the future of health and safety in the UK.

Lobbying: don’t tar everyone with the same brush please, Mr Werritty...

Andrew talks in a soft, well-spoken voice as we chat over a cup of tea in a first-floor office looking out above the grounds of IOSH headquarters. His eyes fixed on a ring-stained coaster of a rather unflattering caricature of Gordon Brown with sagging jowls, bulbous red nose and bags under his eyes. (In the interests of political neutrality, Nick Clegg stares out from beneath my cup and I’m sure David Cameron is suffering from a similar fate somewhere else in the building...)

Andrew emphatically shakes his head with disapproval when I, perhaps mischievously, mention the recent Adam Werritty affair and how it’s damaged the image of lobbying.