Lawford Kidd's Blog

The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) has urged politicians to put greater emphasis on good occupational health and wellbeing.

Tragically, 148 people were killed in Britain last year, while more than 12,000 died from diseases caused by what they have done for a living. These statistics are too high and the Government and employers must do more to prevent further failure, says IOSH.

This autumn, IOSH is meeting with politicians at all three of the main political party conferences to make the case that good health and wellbeing at work can boost productivity, morale and profit – and must no longer be the ‘Cinderella’ of workplace management.

A Sunderland firm has been fined for failing to hold statutory insurance that enables employees to claim compensation should they be injured at work.

Section 1 of the Employers' Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969 requires that employers carry insurance against the personal injury of their employees. As well as being insured, employers must make available details of the insurance for staff to see. This requirement applies to most companies; exemptions include public organisations and certain micro companies.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) carried out an investigation after it received information suggesting the firm was uninsured. It found that the company did not hold any Employer's Liability Compulsory Insurance between 9th Feb and 13th December 2012. This meant the firm, which provides and installs solar panels, was not insured against liability for bodily injury or disease sustained by their employees resulting from their work.

Regular safety inspections, a maximum temperature in the workplace and far greater control of carcinogens are just some of the improvements that the TUC is calling for in its new ten point safety manifesto.

The report, Time for change, features ten key recommendations which the TUC believes, if implemented by a future government, could help turn around the UK's poor safety record, and prevent a good many of the 20,000 workplace-related deaths which occur in the UK every year.

The TUC is also hoping its manifesto for change will make the case for good health and safety practice, in a climate where safety laws are increasingly seen by ministers as unnecessary burdens on business, and where spending cuts and changes in regulations are making it more difficult to police employers who play fast and loose with their employees' safety.

An Edinburgh food firm has been fined after a worker seriously injured his hand on an unguarded dough mixer.

Edinburgh Sheriff Court heard that Joseph Burnett had been employed as a factory assistant for almost four months and helped to sort ingredients, make Chinese dumplings to order and package products.

On the day of the incident he was working on an industrial-sized dough mixer, into which ingredients and water are placed. Paddles then rotate to mix the ingredients into dough.

A worker from County Durham had his hand severed while carrying out maintenance on glass cutting machinery a court heard.

The 34-year-old maintenance technician was investigating a fault on a new tilt table with a colleague. He  was on his hands and knees while trying to ascertain the cause of the fault and had activated the emergency stop.

Suspended above his right wrist was a large laminated glass sheet measuring six metres by three metres and weighing around almost a ton. The worker had his right arm extended with a mirror in his hand so he could check the status of a sensor relating to the release of the glass onto the table.