Simon Jones - what is this government busy with?
reports@indymedia.org.uk | 02.09.2000 06:10
About 200 people joined in the protest celebrating Simon's 27th birdthday if he hadn't been killed on his first day as a casual worker at Shoreham.
He was sent to work unloading cargo inside a ship - one of the most dangerous jobs in the country - with only a few minutes "training". Within hours of starting work his head was almost severed by the grab of a crane.
The growth of casualisation, where people are forced into low paid jobs with little or no training, no job security, no sick pay and no holiday pay means bigger profits for companies - and more deaths and injuries for the people working for them.
Simon got the job through an employment agency, Personell Selection, who should by law have checked that the job was
safe for him - they didn't.
Throughout the country, employment agencies make huge profits by providing cheap labour for companies who prefer employing casual labour to employing a well trained, decently paid workforce.
The government run Health and Safety Executive is meant to
ensure that people's working conditions are safe. But last year only one in 20 serious injuries at work (that's things like being blinded or losing a limb) were even investigated by them, leaving 48,000 uninvestigated. This government claims to be 'tough on crime', but when it comes to big business making profits at the expense of people's health it seems to be another story. This government is busy creating a low pay economy where millions of people will be forced to take crappy jobs like the one Simon did or lose their benefit.
Nothing has happened 5 months after the CPS were ordered to reconsider their decision not to prosecute anyone for Simon's death.
The growth of casualisation, where people are forced into low paid jobs with little or no training, no job security, no sick pay and no holiday pay means bigger profits for companies - and more deaths and injuries for the people working for them.
Simon got the job through an employment agency, Personell Selection, who should by law have checked that the job was
safe for him - they didn't.
Throughout the country, employment agencies make huge profits by providing cheap labour for companies who prefer employing casual labour to employing a well trained, decently paid workforce.
The government run Health and Safety Executive is meant to
ensure that people's working conditions are safe. But last year only one in 20 serious injuries at work (that's things like being blinded or losing a limb) were even investigated by them, leaving 48,000 uninvestigated. This government claims to be 'tough on crime', but when it comes to big business making profits at the expense of people's health it seems to be another story. This government is busy creating a low pay economy where millions of people will be forced to take crappy jobs like the one Simon did or lose their benefit.
Nothing has happened 5 months after the CPS were ordered to reconsider their decision not to prosecute anyone for Simon's death.
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The importance of unions
11.11.2000 12:19
Trade unions are often maligned but they still remain the only way that workers can negotiate with employers on OHS issues with any equality of power. Casualisation of the workforce has to reduce workers' ability to redress the economic and power differential.
I whole heartedly support the Simon Jones Campaign and hope that employers will be forced to take a more responsible view of employees' safety, health and well-being.
Dr Helen Lingard,
Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning,
University of Melbourne,
Australia.
helen lingard
e-mail:
hlingard@architecture.unimelb.edu.au