International Workers’ Memorial Day, 28 April, is an important day in the trade union health and safety calendar. Today, workers across the globe will remember those who have died or have been seriously injured or made ill due to a workplace accident or occupational exposure.
Latest statistics from the Health and Safety Executive show that health and social care has one of the highest rates of work-related ill health across all sectors, including work related stress and musculoskeletal disorders in the UK. And although not reported in these statistics – which is in itself cause for serious concern - we know that there have been deaths from exposure to asbestos and fatal car accidents when driving home after long night shifts.
And then there’s COVID-19… the scale of health care worker deaths and the ongoing individual suffering from Long Covid is something we have not seen in the last century.
Reflection, remembrance and ongoing support for workers made sick by work are important, and today is also an opportunity for the RCN, as the world’s largest nursing union, to reaffirm our commitment to protecting the health and safety of our members. The UK Safety Representatives’ Committee working with the Trade Union Committee and the RCN’s Health, Safety and Wellbeing team, will do everything in its power to prevent members becoming ill or injured from workplace hazards.
The theme of this year’s Workers’ Memorial Day is ‘organising for safer workplaces’. Health and safety is a good issue to organise around because:
- concerns can be clearly and successfully challenged in line with health and safety legislation
- health and safety failures can cause deep concern for members
- successful challenging breaches of health and safety legislation can send a strong message back to the employer that unsafe conditions won’t be tolerated
- and, most importantly, good health and safety practice, informed by members, can prevent workers becoming sick, injured or worse.
We know our members and RCN reps have successfully come together and organised around health and safety to gain improvements. Community nurses in Wales ensured members had safety equipment when going out in the ice and snow; an ITU nurse in Scotland ensured hydration stations were installed in all areas; and nursing staff in the South West of England gained improvements to the lighting in their hospital car park. These are all fantastic examples of the differences we can make using health and safety as a lever for change.
I’m sure there are many more examples out there of improvements – no matter how small if you’ve got together to improve your working environment, let the committee and health and safety team know by emailing us via HSWTeam@rcn.org.uk.
If you are passionate about improving health and safety in the workplace, have you thought about becoming an RCN Safety Representative? You’ll receive training and support to carry out your role and you don’t need to be a health and safety geek, working in nursing, you are already an expert on the health and safety issues you and our members face. You can find out more about the role here.
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