More attention needs to be paid to the quality of jobs, if real inroads are to be made in improving the health of workers, particularly men, an MP has insisted.

The call came days before a further £13m was made available to target 'credit-crunch stress' and support unemployed people with mental-health problems back into work.

Debating the issue of men's health in the House of Commons on 5 March, Labour MP Dr Howard Stoate said that poor quality work among men is linked to low levels of well-being and self-esteem, a sense of powerlessness, and higher incidence of physical and mental illness.

He pointed to a recent skills survey by the Economic and Social Research Council, which showed that between 1992 and 2006 there had been a significant decline in job control across all groups of workers. This decline, he suggested, was partly a result of the growth of IT-based management systems, which forced employees to work in very structured fashions, leaving little room for discretion.
 

Two companies have been fined after a worker fell through a roof and suffered severe injuries.
 

Laing O'Rourke Construction South Ltd was fined £80,000 with £10,000 costs after admitting contravening regulation 6(3) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 as defined by Regulation 3(3)(b).

 

Meanwhile, the site sub-contractor Durable Contracts Ltd was fined £25,000 with £10,000 costs after pleading guilty to contravening Section 3(1) of the Management of Health & Safety at Work Regulations 1999, by not carrying out an appropriate risk assessment for employees working on roofs.

Hockmeyer Motors Ltd,operators of Holdingham Garage, Sleaford, have been fined £15,000 with £9,000 costs in connection with a January 2008 incident in which a school student suffered burns from a fire-ball which melted the plastic print of his t-shirt onto his skin. The fire was caused by brake fluid which ignited after being sprayed onto a running engine by a colleague.

An HSE inspector commented: "This incident left a young man hospitalised, and could have been avoided if the company had assessed the risk associated with such habitual use of the solvent and implemented appropriate risk control measures to reduce identified risks. Work experience pupils are viewed as employees for the purposes of health and safety legislation, yet they are often more vulnerable than a company's trained and qualified employees.
It is therefore imperative that if companies contract to have work experience pupils from local schools they update any risk assessments to take into consideration this particularly vulnerable group of employee."

Coastal  Training Technolgies Kerkenbos 10 -141 6546 BJ Nijmegen The Netherlands Freephone: 0800 169 3084 Ext.: 1724, 1725, 1726 and 1727 Fax: 0808 234 6225

E-mail: info@coastal.co.uk
Web: www.coastaltraining.co.uk

Electrical Safety: Beware The Bite is designed to inform workers about the hazards of an electrical shock at work. The programme examines how electricity can harm you and what steps you should take to protect yourself and others from electrical hazards. It also covers what to do to protect yourself in emergency situations and the steps to take when aiding a victim that needs emergency medical help.