SIPTU has established a dedicated safety, health and welfare unit to tackle the problem of accidents in the workplace. It will provide advice to workers and local trade union officials.
SIPTU, the State's largest union, said that in the five years to 1997 industrial accidents had increased by 18 per cent. In construction, accidents had increased by 14 per cent between 1996 and last year.
It said in the manufacturing sector there were 4,400 accidents last year in a sector with 256,000 employees. Some 10 years earlier, there were 2,722 accidents, when the sector had 208,000 employees. This indicated the ratio of accidents had risen from 1,268 accidents per 100,000 employees in 1987 to 1,719 per 100,000 last year.
SIPTU said the cost of workplace injuries was now reported to be some £2.6 billion each year, with the numbers of deaths unacceptably high. The problem appeared to be getting worse, particularly in the construction industry.
On Monday, two building workers on a site in Newbridge, Co Kildare, were killed when they were trapped in a 12-foot trench. Their deaths brought to 14 the number of fatal accidents on building sites since the beginning of the year.
SIPTU yesterday released the text of a letter written by its vice-president, Mr Des Geraghty, to the Minister of State for Labour, Mr Tom Kitt. The letter proposes a levy of 0.3 per cent on the tender for all building projects to finance the selection of Construction Workers Safety Auditors (CWSAs).
Mr Geraghty proposes that the CWSAs would have legislative powers to issue corrective instructions, up to and including halting of work, where there is thought to be an imminent safety risk.
The letter says: "This proposal is put forward against the chronically bad and horrific record of health and safety within the construction industry, where workers are needlessly and senselessly killed and injured each year. The industry is recognised as having a lot of hazards, with extremely serious risks for workers' safety and health." The letter was written before the incident in Co Kildare.
SIPTU's new unit will be headed by Mr Sylvester Cronin, a Co Kerry man who has been an industrial engineering official with SIPTU for 16 years. He said yesterday the unit was a first step towards redressing the increasing numbers of work-related accidents.
Mr Cronin added: "I am optimistic that, with the right political will in co-operation with the Health and Safety Authority, together we will drive down the carnage and help create a much higher awareness in the workplace of the measures needed to cut these preventable accident rates."