The harsh economic climate, austerity-related job cuts and job loss fears amongst those still in work are having a considerable impact on the health and well-being of workers, according to a TUC safety survey.
The harsh economic climate, austerity-related job cuts and job loss fears amongst those still in work are having a considerable impact on the health and well-being of workers, according to a TUC safety survey.
The top safety concerns cited this year by union safety reps in the TUC's tenth biennial survey were stress, bullying and harassment, problems relating to heavy workloads and overwork, and violence and intimidation.
The TUC believes that many of these growing concerns are down to the increasing fears of insecurity and unease being felt throughout the UK workforce as spending cuts and austerity economics hit hard.
Safety reps in the TUC survey also raised concerns about a decline in the number of safety inspections. The TUC fears this situation will only get worse as cuts to the budgets of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and local authorities mean that in future there will be fewer HSE and council safety inspectors to check up on employers.
Of the 1,875 safety reps who responded to the TUC survey, 45% said that their workplace had never had a visit from a safety inspector while 10% of safety reps hadn't seen a safety inspector in their workplace for more than three years.
In the construction sector, well-known for its poor safety records, 41 per cent said their building sites had received a safety inspection in the last 12 months.
The TUC survey also found that 53% of safety reps said that their employer had made some attempt at safety improvements because of the possibility of an inspection, in comparison to 61% in 2010.
Commenting on the survey, TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: "Fears about how austerity is affecting peoples' jobs and their families is having a real impact on the health and well-being of UK workers.
"As jobs are cut, so the workload of those left behind increases. As the workloads rise so do the stress levels of over-worked employees, which lead to a greater risk of bullying and harassment as stressed-out supervisors take out their frustrations on staff.
"Government spending cuts are also having a big effect on the likelihood of workplaces receiving visits from HSE or council safety inspectors. A growing number of employers now seem content to let safety standards slip, so confident are they that an inspector is unlikely to call and hold their workplace safety policies to account."
The TUC biennial survey of safety reps can be found at www.tuc.org.uk/focus_on_health_and_safety/
