There are 20 safety partnership agreements in place across the UK and the TUC want to double that number by the end of next year. The first partnerships were launched last year and include Legal and General and white collar union MSF and Tesco and the shop workers union, Usdaw. Revitalise' TUC general secretary John Monks said his union was particularly concerned by accidents in the construction and rail industry. According to government figures, accidents at work kill about 400 people each year in the UK, with 25 million working days lost annually through stress and illness. The numbers of workers suffering from stress has grown to 500,000 a year.
Back problems are the most common work-related ailment and falls are the biggest killer.
The government launched a 44-point action plan last June to tackle the huge cost to industry of health and safety problems.