UCATT calls for urgent action and answers following leaked Crossrail safety report

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Construction union UCATT is calling for both Crossrail and its main contractors to undertake urgent action after a leaked safety report revealed a “culture of spying and fear” and that workers were “afraid to report accidents due to the likelihood of being laid off”.

Steve Murphy, General Secretary of UCATT, said: "This is a devastating report which shows the appalling state of industrial relations at Crossrail. This is clearly having a massive impact on safety and is placing workers in danger. "Crossrail and its major contractors need to provide urgent answers about how this climate of fear has arisen. The client and the contractors need to sit down with UCATT in order to ensure that morale and confidence is restored on the project to improve safety.”

Safety concerns on Crossrail have increased following the death of Rene Tkacik on the project last month. In 2013 there were a total of 39 reportable accidents on Crossrail with an accident frequency rate of 0.48 accidents for every 100,000 hours worked. The accident rate on Crossrail is over four times the accident rate on the Olympic Park which was 0.11 accidents for every 100,000 hours worked when that project was at its peak.

Mr Murphy added: "The most disturbing part of the report is that it describes how workers are fearful of reporting accidents because they believe that if they do so they will be laid off. This demonstrates widespread problems throughout the construction industry where blacklisting and in particular the fear of blacklisting remains a real and credible fear for construction workers.”