Unite, the UK’s largest construction union, is calling for a
radical new approach to regulations and safety laws, following
the Grenfell Tower fire.
Unite has three key demands: an overhaul of building regulations,
the end of attacks on existing regulations and the implementation
of a licensing regime across the industry.
Unite’s national construction committee is calling for an urgent
review of the existing building regulations which must place
safety first rather than profit at its core. As well as a
complete prohibition on flammable materials in buildings, Unite
supports the installation of sprinklers in all new social housing
and public buildings.
Unite further supports the retrofitting of sprinklers in existing
buildings at the earliest possible opportunity.
Unite is calling for the introduction of a licensing system to be
introduced across all construction trades. This would be in line
with the existing gas engineers licence scheme operated by Gas
Safe, which means that it is illegal for non-licensed
practitioners to undertake such work.
In addition, all construction companies should be registered in
order to undertake public sector contracts.
Unite also supports the scrapping of both the government’s Red
Tape Initiative which is seeking ‘easy wins’ to scrap European
Union regulations as part of the Brexit process and the
government’s current one in three out policy on the introduction
of new regulations.
Since forming a government in 2010, various Conservative
ministers have continuously attacked and weakened safety laws.
The government is cutting the HSE’s budget, by 46 per cent by
2020 compared to the funding it received in 2010.
Unite national officer for construction Bernard McAulay
said: “Unite has repeatedly warned that attacks on safety
laws and the weakening of the building regulations could have
catastrophic consequences. Sadly those concerns have been shown
to be entirely correct.
“We call on all politicians of all parties to take responsibility
and act in the best interests of the industry, workforce, tenants
and the public.
“We now need to have a major sea change in the way that we view
regulations. Rather than a knee jerk reaction to cutting red tape
we should be educating people to understand that properly
enforced laws and building regulations are essential in ensuring
safety.
“In particular, we need to professionalise the construction
industry by introducing a licensing and company registration
system so only fully accredited workers and bona fide
construction companies can undertake construction work on all
future public sector contracts, especially involving safety
critical work.”
ENDS
