Workplace Update

Health and Safety
The Health & Safety Commission (HSC) has published a consultation document — 'Proposals for a new duty to investigate accidents, dangerous occurrences and diseases'. The HSC proposes to introduce such an explicit duty for employers, therefore ensuring investigation across all industry sectors and uniform investigating practices. The aim is to reduce the number of workplace accidents by employers taking corrective action following the lessons learned from investigations.
www.hse.gov.uk/condocs/
Deadline: 3 September 2001

Towards Inclusion — Civil Rights for Disabled People
Comments on the government's response to 'From Exclusion to Inclusion' — a report by The Disability Rights Task Force, 1999 — were due last week. The task force report recommended government action across all areas of disabled people's lives to give them more protection against discrimination. The government sought views on specific proposals including widening the definition of disability in the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) to include, for example, HIV and cancer, extending the cover of DDA to include, for example, most functions of public authorities and increasing the adjustments employers have to make regarding disabled employees.

Work & Parents
Unpaid maternity leave is to be extended by three months with effect from 2003. This will allow mothers to take up to one year off work in total.

The government also intends to make changes to the parental leave regulations later this year. All parents of children who were under five as of 15 December will be eligible to take parental leave. The government is seeking views on these proposed changes. Responses are due by 8 August.
www.dti.gov.uk/er/review.htm

During the election campaign, Labour also announced that parents will be given a new right to request (but not a statutory right) to work flexible hours when returning to work after the birth of a baby. A task force will be set up to advise on the implementation of the scheme.

EU Information and Consultation Directive
The Directive was accepted at the EU Social Affairs Ministers meeting on 11 June. Under the new rules, business will be obliged to supply more information to their workers about developments within their companies, including planned redundancies. The directive will be phased in — firms with 150 or more staff will have to apply the directive in three years, those with 100 or more staff in five years and those with 50 or more workers in seven years.

Better Value Wales
The national assembly for Wales has published Better Value Wales, The Review of Procurement in the Welsh Public Sector. It proposes to adopt a strategic approach to commercial activities in order to achieve better value for money in the Welsh public sector. The proposed changes will help to unlock significant value for money savings (VFM) and redirect them to front-line services.