Health & Safety

Warwickshire NUT believes that Health & Safety is a significant issue affecting the conditions of members. Warwickshire NUT elect a teacher annually as the Health & Safety Advisor. Our advisor works with the LEA to ensure that teachers Health and Safety is protected. Where possible we will alert the LEA to potential problems. We are also keen to promote policies within the LEA which improve Health and reduce stress.

Tony Souter, our Divisional Health & Safety Officer has a nationally recognised Health & Safety Certificate and is a member of the County Council Health and Safety Committee. He is available for advice on 02476 352117 and nutnwar@aol.com

You have to inform the school. Please also let your local Association Secretary know because the regulations state that we need to inform the employer of bone-fide stafety reps. The Safety Rep may represent all staff if they so wish.

The representative's role is to investigate complaints and potential hazards and make representations to the employer on general matters affecting health, safety and welfare.
They carry out workplace inspections.

The functions are wide but place no legal responsibility other than a general duty of care on the rep.
For further information including rights to consultation, facilities, time off for training etc please contact Warwickshire Division NUT Health & Safety Advisor, Tony Souter nutnwar@aol.com or Divisional Office nutwarwick@ntlworld.com and 01926 745351.


ASBESTOS: A Legacy of Neglect

Front the early 1900s asbestos has been widely used, in one form or another across a range of industries including shipbuilding, rail-ways and construction. The legacy of employers' failures to protect their workers is a significant rise in the number of people suffering from asbestos-related illnesses - 3,000 die every year from asbestos exposure.

This figure will rise dramatically over the next ten to fifteen years and is expected to peak in the early years of this century at around 10,000 deaths a year - 28 every day. Asbestos will be the biggest industrial killer of all time.

Many asbestos-related illnesses take years - in some cases up to fifty years - to develop.

Working for trade unions we won the groundbreaking test cases which proved that employers were responsible for exposing their workforce to asbestos. We also won the first case for a bystander: someone injured by asbestos though not directly working with it.

We have built tip a wealth of knowledge over the years on the best way of recovering compensation for people suffering front asbestos -related diseases.

Pleural Plaques or Pleural Thickening may not be disabling or produce significant physical symptoms but they are the cause of great anxiety. They are evidence of exposure to asbestos and of pathological change caused by it. They can indicate the sufferer is at a small, but nonetheless real, risk of developing a more serious asbestos-related condition.

Some conditions associated with asbestos can also have other causes e.g., Lung Cancer, which is associated with smoking. This doesn't mean though that smokers with lung cancer can't claim.

Anyone diagnosed as having lung cancer who has had significant life time exposure to asbestos should take legal advice immediately. It may be possible to establish that their asbestos exposure is responsible for the development of their condition, and thus to obtain compensation.

It is important to stress that by no means everyone who has been exposed to asbestos dust - even in large quantities - will develop an asbestos- related condition. It is sadly, a lottery.

The Law
As with all injuries or occupational disease an asbestos victim must establish that their condition has been caused by their work and is due to fault on the part of their employers.

Time limits
Legal advice should be sought - ideally through your union -as soon as possible. There are strict time limits within which legal proceedings must be commenced.

Legal proceedings must be commenced within three years of the date when a victim first knew that they were suffering from a condition caused by their work or other asbestos exposure.

If in doubt, seek legal advice.

Compensation: Final settlements or provisional damages ??????

You do not have to be mainly working with computers. It just has to be a necessary part of your job. Our advice is take up your right.