141st APHA Annual Meeting

In This section

283320
Experience in great britain: Employer practices that discourage injury/illness reporting and intervention strategies for curtailing these practices

Tuesday, November 5, 2013 : 5:10 PM - 5:30 PM

Bud Hudspith , UNITE, Unite the Union, London WC1X8TN, United Kingdom
Unite the Union is the largest union in Britain, with 1.5 million members in every type of workplace. Our members have experienced employers' prize and reward schemes in their workplaces that are tied to no or low injury reports. Our members have also experienced 'inquisitions' and disciplinary actions when they report job injuries and illnesses. Other employer schemes that our members are familiar with involve the identification of workers' so-called "unsafe acts" and the shifting of focus away from addressing hazards: designing out hazards, implementing engineering controls, addressing ergonomic hazards and reducing work organization hazards (including understaffing, production pressures and extended working hours). All of these employer schemes and actions discourage workers from reporting occupational injuries and illnesses. This presentation will describe experiences in Great Britain with employer practices that discourage injury reporting, compare these experiences with those in the United States, and discuss interventions and campaigns in Great Britain to identify, end and prevent these practices.

Learning Areas:
Occupational health and safety

Learning Objectives:
Analyze the similarities and differences between employer practices that discourage injury and illness reporting in Great Britain and the United States Discuss interventions in Great Britain to curtail retaliatory employer practices.

Keywords: Occupational Surveillance, Occupational Injury and Death

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am National Health and Safety Advisor for Unite the Union in Great Britain, Britain's biggest union with 1.5 million members in every type of workplace. I have studied and developed presentations on employer practices that discourage the reporting of occupational injuries and illnesses and helped to design interventions and campaigns to address these practices.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.