INTERNATIONAL Workers Memorial Day will be commemorated on Thursday primarily by trade unions across Scotland. Most of us spend a significant part of our lives at work but IWMD calls for action are too often marginalised and quickly forgotten. However, the global and national pain, suffering and economic damage resulting from occupationally-caused and occupationally-related illnesses and injury each and every year remains enormous and is not inevitable.

The International Labour Organisation and others estimate there are almost two million global deaths each year from work-related causes – 6,000 deaths every day – with approximately 340 million occupational injuries and 160 million workers contracting occupational diseases. Most work deaths were due to respiratory and cardio-vascular diseases frequently linked to long working hours and accounting for 750,000 deaths. Work-related air pollution caused 450,000 deaths. The damage done usually falls disproportionately on precarious, unorganised, low paid and vulnerable workers.

Many occupational diseases identified by the ILO remain unrecognised or rarely if ever recorded in Scotland but they do occur. Under-reporting and non-reporting of workplace injuries, diseases and deaths is substantial including workplace covid deaths and workplace long covid illnesses.

The under-reported official figures are bad enough. Scotland’s HSE in 2021 noted an estimated 115,000 workers suffering work-related ill-health each year, around 800 workplace cancer deaths and 1600 new workplace cancer registrations. There were an estimated 53,000 new cases of work-related ill health (59% of cases stress-related and 24% of cases due to musculoskeletal disease) and 41,000 workplace injuries and 17 work fatalities. Just 302 enforcement notices were issued. This starkly reveals HSE failures to protect Scottish workers from negligent employers who ignore information and advice.

The IWMD theme this year is “Make occupational health and safety a fundamental right at work. ” This right in practice is still lacking for many Scottish workers who have to rely on the UK Parliament for health and safety laws and the UK Government for workplace inspection and most enforcement. This is done by the poorly led, under-staffed and under-funded UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and local authority inspectors who enforce laws in some workplaces.

The Covid pandemic starkly exposed the shortcomings of the reserved powers and structures when failures were often hidden by reference to ‘better and self-regulation’: code for ineffective action and de facto deregulation. HSE leaders are strong on rhetoric and management-speak but weak on action.

For example HSE’s 2021/2 Business Plan talked about “Our end-to-end approach combines strategic planning with evidenced objectives and business insight, using blended interventions (communication, inspection and partnership activity) that focus on enhancing end-user behaviours” and “enabling business to better manage risk for themselves”. The leaders even congratulated themselves for going missing in the pandemic by stating: “Our resilience, flexibility and determination to deliver on our mission, values and business plans during these testing times continues to be an inspiration.”

The Scottish Government, again often strong on rhetoric but weak in action, has failed to seize available opportunities creatively to indirectly improve workplace health and safety. The Covid pandemic illustrated how public health regulation could have been used to improve worker health and safety. Over two years ago, researchers, NGOs and trade unions called for good PPE, effective ventilation, social distancing, vaccination priorities for health, social care and other key workers linking public health to workplace health and safety measures. Yet Holyrood’s use of public health powers on these topics frequently proved too little and too late.

The Scottish Government could immediately reduce occupational disease and injury burdens using public procurement and contracts that build in meaningful and effective health and safety practice for employers. Scotland’s Fair Work Convention has already missed several opportunities to promote better working conditions. The Convention touches on workplace health and safety and the value of trade unions having an effective health and safety voice but its proposals to address problems have been bland and bureaucratic and will have minimal impacts.

The Scottish Just Transition Commission in its 2021 report should have been a major driver for safe and healthy green jobs addressing poor health and safety in construction, the waste management and energy industries. However, the report does not specifically mention worker health and safety.

So here are five practical steps the Scottish Government could take. First, introduce an NHS Scotland-based and Scotland-wide occupational health service advocated by Scottish Hazards. Second, a Scottish Toxics Use Reduction Act. And third, a Scottish Employment Injuries Advisory Council and a Liability for NHS Charges (Treatment of Industrial Disease) Scotland Act ensuring those already affected by occupational injury and disease are quickly compensated and bad employers identified.

There should also be a joined-up strategy on fair work, public procurement contracts and green jobs with worker health and safety integrated at its centre and more effective and active engagement with SEPA and Public Health Scotland.

And finally, we should strengthen, expand, apply and extend trade union safety reps and roving safety reps schemes as evidence shows these reps are very effective. Not one of these proposal depends on Westminster approval. They will all help to reduce the personal, economic and social damage done to Scottish workers from a much weakened health, safety, public health and environmental set-up in the UK post-Brexit.

Professor Andrew Watterson is public health researcher in the faculty of health sciences at Stirling University.

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