Implement hard-hitting construction deaths report in full before next General Election

13.07.09

GMB General Secretary Paul Kenny has welcomed the publication of ‘One Death Too Many’, the Government report into construction fatalities. The inquiry, which was conducted by Rita Donaghy, former Chair of Acas, recommends a range of measures to improve health and safety performance in the construction industry in order to reduce the number of workers killed unnecessarily.

Paul Kenny, GMB General Secretary said, “The level of work-related deaths in construction may be falling, but they are still unacceptably high. GMB therefore call upon the Government to implement the report in full before the next General Election.

GMB policy is that company directors, in what ever industry, who tolerate dangerous working conditions and kill their workers through neglect, should be jailed. Rita Donaghy’s report goes some way to hardening up on directors’ responsibility for workers deaths and that is to be welcomed. This is a hard-hitting piece of work that pulls no punches and makes it crystal clear that a number of key changes are needed to improve safety and health in construction.

The recommendations that Rita has made - formal duties on directors; extending the Gangmasters’ Licensing Authority’s remit to include construction; the development of better joint working with trade unions, and an increase in resource for the HSE - are all longstanding trade unions campaigns, and their implementation will have a genuinely transformative effect.”