Workplace safety figures underreported
A new report by The Centre for Crime and Justice Studies (CCJS) at King’s College London has revealed that up to 80% of
workplace fatalities are not reported in the headline figures released by the HSE and are instead buried in other categories.
The report, which was compiled by Prof. Steve Tombs and Dr. David Whyte, estimated that people were more likely to die from an injury at work than be killed in a homicide.
The authors also argue that the political expediency of down-playing figures and the disparity between workplace ‘crime’ and other forms of crime have shifted the burden onto the employee and the public rather than the employer and regulator.
Rebecca Roberts and Will McMahon, Centre for Crime and Justice Studies said:
“In our view, ‘organisational violence’ in the form of safety crimes is clearly worthy of greater acknowledgement owing to the harm caused and the contexts within which they occur. Such crimes are ‘socially mediated’ in the sense that they are brought about by particular institutional and organisational operations which place human life and physical safety at risk”
In 2006-2007, HSE headline figures for workplace fatalities were 241, but the report found that the figures didn’t include the number of deaths caused to the public while in workplaces and “significant” numbers of road-traffic incidents involving “work-vehicles”. Including these figures takes the total at least 1400. As the report makes clear:
“In other words, to obtain a more accurate figure of officially recorded occupational fatalities, we need to apply a multiplier of between five and six to the HSE’s headline figure.”
Liberal Democrat Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, Jenny Willott said:
"It is deeply worrying that fatal accidents at work are being brushed under the carpet. This report suggests that health and safety inspections and investigations simply aren’t carried out often enough, which has had devastating consequences.”
The report found that two-thirds of workplace injuries involve violations by management of criminal law by neglect or corner cutting:
“While we cannot quantify it with any degree of certainty, what we can be certain of is that safety crimes constitute a significant violent crime problem indicated by the data presented in this briefing.”
The authors argue that the increasing decriminalisation of “safety crimes” is due to political reasons. They highlight the continuing under investment in the HSE, which has led to a drop in the number of inspectors, workplace inspections and morale at the department. The second trend they discovered was a commitment to take the cost to business as more important than the need for regulation.
Regulatory Impact Assessments (RIA’s), which came into force after 1999 set the agenda:
“RIAs aim to measure the costs and benefits of…all proposed policy and legislative reforms. However, their emergence and inclusion at the heart of the government’s burdens on business agenda is a clear indication that the primary function of RIAs in practice has been to pre-empt and minimise legislative and regulatory cost impacts upon business. The effect has been a disciplinary one: to formalise a pro business/deregulation frame of reference for policy making across government.”
The report makes clear that the increasing trend towards deregulation will not only lower recorded incidents, lower prosecutions but it will also lead to an increasing number of workplace fatalities and injuries. The HSE is demoralized and unsure of its role in this era of cost cutting and needs a new impetus and a substantial increase in funds if this work-place crisis is to be averted.
Updated on 23/06/2008