Figures revealed by the BBC show that the number of people killed at work in Kent has risen from one in 2010 to four in 2011. Over 700 were seriously injured in the county at the same time.
This comes at the same time as the Tories, UKIP and even more disreputable outfits such as the BNP, are calling for a cut in so-called red tape, giving bosses even greater power to run their companies as little dictatorships, with no regard for the health and wellbeing of their staff.
Red tape over the last couple of centuries is responsible for, among other things, the fact that drivers cannot work so long that they are in danger of falling asleep at the wheel on a motorway. It limits the work that children are able to do to that which does not endanger them (unfortunately for the libertarian right, you can no longer send your child up a chimney to clean it). It means that there is a statutory minimum temperature and that decent working conditions need to be maintained. In general it benefits society at large and, in more fly-by night firms, transfers the cost from the worker to the business, although more reasonable businesses recognise that attention to health and safety often pays in the longer term by cutting sick absence. It ensures that disadvantaged groups are treated with a degree of respect, rather than being thrown on to the dole (again at great cost to society). What’s not to like?
One resolution to 2012 across Kent should be that all workplaces need to be sufficiently unionised to ensure that health and safety and anti-discrimination red tape is adhered to.
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