Louise Taggart
Co-founder of Families Against Corporate Killers (Fack)
I feel let down by the enforcing authorities, and governments at both Westminster and Holyrood.
What many people don’t realise is that even those 29 deaths investigated and so reported by the HSE - awful enough as they are in themselves - this doesn’t even begin to recognise the full extent of work-related fatalities in Scotland.
When you also count those whose deaths are investigated by the air or marine accident investigation branches, those who die on our roads will working, all those whose deaths are the result of work-related suicide, along with members of the public who die as a result of work-related activities, we are looking at nearer 130 people who die as a result of work-related incidents in Scotland.
READ MORE: Shock over 70% rise in Scottish deaths in the workplace
That’s before we add more than 4000 who die as a result of work related illnesses.
People with Families Against Corporate Killers feel upset and angry at repeatedly reading that a death could and should have been prevented had the employer ensure that proper risk assessments were undertaken; or that adequate training was provided; or that machinery was properly guarded; or that its own written procedures were adhered to; or that a safe system of work was being followed.
But, because health and safety is portrayed as a meddlesome intrusion or tiresome impediment to getting the job done, these fundamentals are far too often ignored and loved ones pay the ultimate price.
READ MORE: Work deaths: Campaign for managers to face life in jail
Consecutive Westminster governments have slashed the budget of the HSE severely curtailing preventative proactive inspections, and ripped up legislation which was there to protect us and our loved ones.
The Scottish Government has this far refused to take control of legislation on culpable homicide which would better enable justice to be obtained by Scottish families, but even more importantly, would serve as a deterrent so the level of fatalities we have seen last year is never repeated. Work should be life-giving. It should never ever be life-ending.
Scottish workplace safety activist Louise Taggart worked as an employment lawyer for 13 years until her brother Michael Adamson, an experienced electrician, died in a preventable electrical incident.
He was electrocuted in August 2005 as he worked on a building site in Dundee. A live cable was wrongly labelled “not in use”.
Her campaign to raise awareness and prevent similar incidents occurring in future led her to become a founder member of campaign group Families Against Corporate Killers (Fack).
She was named the most inspirational health and safety person of 2018 after a poll of Safety and Health Practitioner magazine readers.
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