IOSH is continuing to make its members’ voices heard in the media, with recent comments on topics as diverse as health and safety charges against the Metropolitan Police to construction safety in the Middle East, reports Paul Marston.
IOSH is continuing to make its members’ voices heard in the media, with recent comments on topics as diverse as health and safety charges against the Metropolitan Police to construction safety in the Middle East, reports Paul Marston.
Our Wiseup2work campaign has achieved heavy coverage throughout the UK, with over 60 local newspapers in England, Scotland and Wales so far covering the launch of the website and SpeakUp competition.
The campaign has been covered in the Birmingham Evening Mail, Leicester Mercury, South Wales Echo, Glasgow Evening Times, Edinburgh Evening News and Lancashire Evening Post.
Wiseup2work is also being featured in trade publications, with articles in the Times Educational Supplement (TES), The Teacher, PR Business and Young People Now.
IOSH President Neil Budworth’s letter in the Daily Telegraph in July responded to the charges brought against the Metropolitan Police over the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes at Stockwell Station. Neil pointed out that IOSH has consistently called for a new offence of corporate manslaughter so that organisations can be punished for gross management failures.
Neil said: “We believe that the law should act as a deterrent to poor health
and safety standards and that courts should be empowered to apply appropriate penalties. For example, remedial orders requiring that systems and culture are improved and that directors and senior managers receive appropriate training, instead of simply imposing huge fines.”
Richard Jones, IOSH’s director of technical affairs, talked to BBC Radio Ulster about what workers and employers can do to look after themselves in the July heatwave. Richard advised that employers need to take a sensible approach in the heat, allowing staff to work flexibly, relaxing the dress code, increasing the availability of cold drinks and providing fans.
IOSH’s Middle East branch has also been hard at work cultivating journalists in the region, and branch secretary Toby Hayward spoke to Emirates Today in a special news investigation on construction site safety. Toby said that updating and clarifying laws is needed to improve the industry’s safety record and also pointed out that obtaining reliable statistics about accidents is difficult in the Middle East.
If you spot anything in the media you think IOSH should be responding to, please contact me on 0116 257 3141 or [email protected]
