Health and Safety
________________________________________________________________________________
Your employer MUST provide and maintain a healthy and safe workplace and work process. Workers have a right to workplaces and work processes where all risks to health and safety are controlled. It is your employer who has the primary responsibility for your health, safety and welfare at work.
Work in meatworks, and associated workplaces, has always been physically hard, dangerous and skilful. Without the strength of organized labour, the AMIEU, it would undoubtedly be more dangerous. Workers' compensation is a dramatic understatement of the level of work related injuries and illnesses, but they are the only statistics available. The number of workers' compensation claims implies that a worker in the Meat Processing Industry has almost 1 chance in 5 of experiencing a serious (that is, entailing a fatality, permanent disability, or temporary disability resulting in 10 days or more time lost from work), compensated, work-related injury/disease over the course of a working year.
Assuming your whole working life is in the Meat Industry, on the basis of probability, there is a 99.96% chance that you will experience a serious, compensated, work-related injury or disease over the course of your working life. (Probability will depend on the occupation and age of a worker and while some workers will actually avoid an injury/disease over the course of their working lives, others will experience more than one).
The meat processing industry is the worst performing industry with respect to occupational health and safety. For example in Victoria:
- Highest claims frequency rate - 3.65 claims per $1m remuneration;
- Second highest claims cost rate - $101,593 per $1m remuneration;
- Meat is 1.8% of the manufacturing industry, yet accounts for 7.5% of all compensation claims and 8.5% of all costs.
Given the number of injuries that occur in the Meat Industry it is obvious that too many employers in our industry don't control the risks to health and safety. Obviously we need Health and Safety Representatives.
Health and Safety Representatives should be elected to represent you
Workplaces with active workers Health and Safety Representatives are healthier and safer than workplaces where there are no HSR. This is not surprising as workers' representatives know the workplace far better than management and are aware of what really goes on. They also act as a channel for individual workers to raise their concerns.
There are numerous studies around the world that show this. In Ireland a study showed that "the strongest relationship with safety compliance is the presence of a safety representative". Safety Representatives have also been shown to have a major effect in changing the safety culture in Australia, and unionised workplaces in Australian are three times more likely to have a Safety Committee, and twice as likely to have undergone a management safety audit in the previous year than non-unionised workplaces. Research in Britain concluded that 'Health and safety committee representatives provide a diverse channel for reporting events and hazards." It added "union backing, even if it is just knowledge that additional support is available if required, is invaluable".
Unionised Workplaces are Safer Workplaces
Organised workplaces are safer workplaces. The most effective tool in organising good health and safety representatives is trade unions. In Canada a study by the Canadian Ministries of Labour found that union supported health and safety committees have 'a significant impact on reducing injury rates', while a report by the Ontario Workplace Health and Safety Agency found '78-79% of unionised workplaces reported high compliance with health and safety legislation with only 54-61% of non-unionised workplaces reporting such compliance.' In 1995, the World Bank said "Trade unions can play an important role in enforcing health and safety standards. Individual workers may find it too costly to obtain information on health and safety risks on their own, and they usually want to avoid antagonizing their employers by insisting that standards be respected.' In the USA, a 1991 study found that unions dramatically increased enforcement of the Occupational Safety and Health Act in the manufacturing sector. We know that trade union health and safety representatives make a difference because trade union involvement:
- The Union provides training so participants know health and safety reps rights, hazard identification, risk assessment and control as well as keeping up to date with developments in research and laws
- Provides back up with information about risks and controls
- Assists HSR in negotiations when needed
- Makes workers more confident
- Helps develop a more positive safety culture in the organisation.
Unions often realise the risks long before management. Many risks were first identified by unions, sometimes after management ignored or hid early warnings. It was unions that highlighted the dangers of asbestos and campaigned for a ban many years before the government introduced one. If action had been taken then, it could have prevented many of the 3,000 annual deaths that are caused by asbestos. Unions also unearthed the risks posed by many hazardous chemicals such as carbon disulphide and vinyl chloride monomer. Unions were the first to raise major concerns over Repetitive Strain Injuries, over levels of violence in the workplace, and the effects of passive smoking. When unions first raised the most of these risks, employers and the media argued it was nonsense. Unions were right.
Where is the proof for this?
There is a wealth of evidence that has been produced over the past 10 years. In 1995 a group of researchers analysed the relationship between worker representation and industrial injuries in British manufacturing. It found that those employers who had trade union health and safety committees had half the injury rate of those employers who managed safety without unions or joint arrangements. A study of 1998 showed that where there is a union presence the workplace injury rate is 24% lower than where there is no union presence.
It is also a simple fact that consultation with the workforce can have a considerable effect in changing the safety culture in a workplace. A research paper by the Health and Safety Laboratory (in Britain) gives a number of case studies that showed that involving the workforce lead to real benefits. In one case there was a drop in accidents from 1.2 to 0.1 per 100,000 work hours. Where workers have safety representatives, and safety committees they know that they have a voice. That makes them more willing to raise issues. Unions also help make their members more aware of safety issues in the workplace.
Health and Safety Representative Support Officer
In 2004 WorkSafe Victoria has recognised the key role of active Health and Safety Representatives in making workplaces safer and healthier. The Minister, Rob Hulls, has initiated funding for Support Officers for Health & Safety Representatives. The government has recognised that Unions best provide the support for HSR. The AMIEU is one of the Unions who have been provided with funding for a HSR Support Officer.
AMIEU Commitment to Health and Safety
Occupational health and safety (OH&S) is a fundamental and longstanding pursuit of the AMIEU on behalf of its members. For example:
· There has been a full time health and safety/compensation officer for more than 30 years.
· The AMIEU has fought for recognition of zoonotic diseases as preventable work related diseases. The Western Region Health Clinic was set up by the AMIEU to specialise in Meat Industry injuries and illnesses.
· The AMIEU was actively involved in debating and developing the legislation for health and safety that is the 1983 Bill and eventually the 1985 OHS Act.
· The AMIEU worked on the development of the National Guidelines for the Health and Safety for the Meat Industry, published in 1995.
· The AMIEU has provided training on health and safety in our industry for representatives since 1986. Our training is WorkSafe approved.
· The AMIEU supports members who are injured with workers' compensation claims including disputes about WorkCover.
Now the AMIEU has an Officer who is available full time to support Health and Safety Representatives in the Meat Industry. The HSR Support Officer is Evert Van Der Steeg (EJ). Contact on 0409 803047.
