focus on health and safety || the environment and the workplace

International Centre for Trade Union Rights

The environment and the workplaceAuthor(s): ALAN DALTONSource: International Union Rights, Vol. 6, No. 4, Focus on health and safety (1999), pp. 10-11Published by: International Centre for Trade Union RightsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41935804 .

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OPINION □ HEALTH & SAFETY - THE ENVIRONMENT

The environment and

the workplace

ALAN DALTON is a British based activist. He was TGWU

health and safety co-ordinator, is a Board member of the

Environment Agency, Hazards Campaign activist and author

of Safely, Health and Environmental Hazards at the

Workplace , Casseil (1998).

MANY the demonstrate

spread groups

of and

at global the

people

World capitalism concerned

Trade Organisa- plan about

to the spread of global capitalism plan to demonstrate at the World Trade Organisa-

tion (WTO) meeting, in Seattle in late November 1999. One of the more surprising collaborations is that (The Guardian , 6th October 1999) of the US Steelworkers Union and environmentalists. And if UK trade unionists think that what goes on at the WTO does not affect them they only have to think 'asbestos'. Now killing more people each year than are killed on the roads, 3,500 (mainly from cancer), it was first described as an "evil" dust over 100 years ago, in the 1898 Annual Report to Parliament of HM Factory Inspector. At long last, after many years of trade union and community campaigning, the Labour government has introduced law to ban the use and import of all asbestos. But, if the Canadian government's complaint to the WTO, against the French ban of 1997 succeeds then the UK ban will be over- turned!

Employers Can employers be trusted to reduce environmental hazards at the workplace? Apparently not, as a recent1 survey of the UK's top companies clearly shows. The respected pressure group Business in the Environment (BiE) surveyed the Financial Times top 100 UK companies. 77 of the 100 replied and they found that: ■ Nearly all (97%) had a written environmental policy. ■ Nearly all (96%) had a Board member responsi- ble for the environment. ■ Over half (58%) had an employee involvement programme on environmental issues. ■ Less than half (48%) had an environmental management system. ■ Less than one in three (29%) had an internal audit of their environmental activities.

However, when BiE surveyed the 250 next largest UK companies, only 48 bothered to reply. This shows that environmental awareness is limit- ed to the very large UK companies.

Commenting on the results, the British environment minister Michael Meacher said, "I am keen to move towards some kind of (company) league table, adding that this would continue the government's policy of "naming and shaming" to encourage companies to be greener without leg- islation.

Another possibility is to involve trade unions, and the estimated 200,000 trade union safety representatives, in environmental issues as well as health and safety. It should be remembered that 20 years ago, before the 1977 Safety Representa- tive and Safety Committee Regulations (that became law in October 1978), management thought that health and safety was their preroga-

tive alone. The only role for trade unions in those days was after the accident or ill-health occurred in gaining some compensation for the injured employees.

That has all changed now and most management and even the last Tory government admit- ted that trade union safety reps had played an important role in reducing workplace accidents and ill-health. However with regard to the environment the International Labour Organisation 0LO) notes that, "Some employers still argue that the environment is an exclusive management responsibility."2 To try and counter this ideology the ILO has produced3 a very useful guide for trade unionists, and others, to reducing workplace environmental hazards.

Safety reps are keen But do trade union safety reps want environmental rights? Three recent surveys suggest they do. In fact, the 1998 British TUC survey shows that safety reps are already involved in environmental issues, despite their lack of legal rights and a lack of environmental guidance and training materials in most trade unions. ■ The 1995 Hazards survey4 of 450 safety reps, representing nearly 250,000 employees found that nine out of ten (92%) would like the legal right to be involved in environmental issues. ■ A 1997 survey5 of over 1,000 TGWU safety reps found that 3 in 4 (75%) would like the legal right to be involved in environmental issues. ■ The 1988 TUC survey6 of almost 6,000 trade union safety reps found that one in three (35%) were consulted on environmental issues.

In October 1998 at a TUC conference on sustainable development7, Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, was asked by Alan Dalton, then TGWU health and safety co-ordinator, whether he would extend the current legal rights of health and safety representatives to similar rights (eg. time off for: training, doing environmental audits and inspection environmental incidents etc.). He replied, "I am quite prepared to look at it", although he did caution that people like

INTERNATIONAL union rights Page 1 0 Volume 6 Issue 4 1999



this page pic: trade union demonstration against the victimisation off a safety rep

previous page pic: demonstration against asbestos in Leeds, UK, 1999

'Swampy' might join trade unions if this were the case!

At the September 1997 TUC, the Environment Minister Michael Meacher first proposed the for- mation of a Trade Unions and Sustainable Devel- opment Committee (TUSDAC). TUSDAC is co- chaired by Michael Meacher and John Edmonds, the general secretary of the British union GMB and it is attended by senior officers of all the major trade unions. Its terms of reference are8: ■ To direct trade union input into the policy process to enable constructive dialogue with government on sustainable development and other related environmental issues. ■ To provide a trade union perspective on the employment consequences of climate change, and responses to it. ■ To help mobilise the trade union movement to become more involved in the move towards better environmental practice at the workplace, by building on existing initiatives and activities, and through the dissemination of information and experience.

At the March 1999 TUSDAC meeting it was agreed that a retired Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspector, with a knowledge of trade unions, should produce a paper entitled, "Getting Environmental Issues into the Workplace", which would include reviewing ways in which the trade unions/workers could be better consulted about environmental issues. S/he is due to report to TUSDAC this autumn. It might be asked what does an HSE inspector know about the environment? But hopefully this report will move for- ward the desires of safety reps for some legal rights on environmental issues.

Conclusion In June 1999 the European Region of the World Health Organisation (WHO) organised the 3rd Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health, in London. This important WHO conference was attended by 51 European health, envi-

ronment and transport ministers and put health firmly at the top9 of Europe's environment agenda.

At an important, parallel, conference for Non- governmental organisations (NGOs) and others, called the Health Planet Forum and supported by the EC and UK-government, the TUC was asked to organise a seminar entitled, Unions and Sustainable Development. It failed to do so, to the anger of a few UNISON safety reps who turned-up at the special request of their general secretary. What does this say to government, employers, and the international trade union/ environmental community?

But it is not all doom and gloom! Just published10 is a report, that I produced and edit- ed, on trade union involvement in Environmental Management Systems (EMS). Although early days, it is clear that there are great possibilities for trade union safety representatives to influence their workplace environment; for the benefit of all.

The TUC, and the trade unions, must take environmental issues seriously if they are to gain the respect of their members, management, the Lab- our government and the EC and WHO. It also offers one major way of arresting the decline in trade union membership and recruiting some young blood into trade unions.

Notes: 1. Turning the tables on green slackers, Roger Cowe, The Guardian, page 25, 22nd June 1999. 2. Encyclopaedia of Occupational Health and Safety , 4th edition, ILO, 1998. 3. Environmental Business Management, 2nd edition, Klaus North, ILO, 1997. 4. 21st Century Safety Rep, Hazards 52, pages 8-9, 1995. 5. T&G reps stand up for safety, T&G Health and Safety Record 3, page 13, 1997. 6. 1998 TUC Survey of Safety Reps , Peter Kirby, TUC, 1998. 7. Environment, Sustainable Development and Multi- stakeholders: the implications of Kyoto, TUC, 27th October 1998. 8. Finding common cause on the environment, Environment Information Bulletin 89, pages 11-13, May 1999. 9. Health tops Europe's environment agenda, Sarah Boseley, The Guardian, I4thjune 1999. 10. Workplace Pollution Reduction, free to TGWU members and £5 to others from: Gareth Richards, Education Department, TGWU, 16 Palace Street, London, SW1E 5JD.

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