Hansard

I, too, congratulate Karen Gillon on securing today's debate. Health and safety does not normally reach out and grab people as a subject that they want to discuss. It is seen as a bit of an anorak subject. However, the fact is that health and safety is, ultimately, an issue of life or death. Unsafe working conditions affect our quality of life in the workplace and beyond.

I will say a bit more about trade unions. Trade unions, as we know them, grew from the need to improve pay and conditions, especially concerning issues of health and safety and the quality of workers' lives. To understand the issues that we face today, it is important that we remember the origins of the trade union movement and, in particular, the role that women played in that process.

In 1888, Clementina Black gave a speech on female labour at a Fabian Society meeting in London. In the audience was Annie Besant, who was appalled to hear of the plight of the workers at the Bryant & May match factory. Their pay and conditions involved their working 14 hours a day for an absolute pittance and they did not necessarily get their full wages, as they were fined for heinous crimes such as dropping the matches or going to the toilet without permission. If they were late, they were docked half a day's pay. However, worse than that, they also suffered ill health and death through working with yellow phosphorous—a substance that was, at the time, banned in the United States and Sweden. Yellow phosphorous was not, however, banned by the British Government, as that would have created a restraint on free trade. Basically, it was an example of the familiar rule of putting profits before people, which Karen Gillon touched on.

Annie Besant wrote an article entitled "White Slavery in London", which caused the management of Bryant & May to try to make their workers say that they were all happy and that everything was fine. When they did not, the organiser was sacked, a strike took place and the Matchgirls Union was formed. The Times said that the women had been egged on by

"pests of the modern industrialised world".

It is just as well that those pests existed, as the match girls won improvements in their working conditions, although it was not until 1901—following a visit to the factory by MPs and journalists—that Bryant & May stopped using yellow phosphorous.

The match girls are an early example of workers forming into organised labour to win improvements at work. We have to ask ourselves whether we still face such horrendous conditions and hazards to health. I think that we do. We face issues such as repetitive strain injury, sexual harassment, bullying and stress, which Donald Gorrie mentioned. Those are some of the modern health hazards at work, and they are faced particularly by women.

Of course, the match girls are not the only workers who have been fined. For example, petrol station workers are fined if someone drives off without paying. Further, it is regarded as a heinous crime if workers in some factories and call centres go to the toilet without permission. Conditions can still be outrageous in many workplaces because the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 may not always be adhered to. Modern issues such as stress must also be considered in the context of working conditions.

I want to talk briefly about sexual harassment because it can really blight women's lives at work. Sexual harassment can involve verbal or physical advances, offensive, sexually explicit remarks and the display of pornographic and offensive literature and pictures. Sexual harassment can also interfere with performance and security, affect promotion opportunities and cause stress-related illness. Sexual harassment is not a modern phenomenon. I wanted to give a lovely quote by Isabella Ford from 1893. Sadly, I do not have time to do so because I have only one minute left.

Many of 19th century Britain's attitudes are still with us in the new millennium. Trade unions have historically been the workers' champions in fighting the profit-before-people rule, promoting health and safety and securing that as a sensible approach to industrial relations. I inform Phil Gallie that a happy, healthy, well-trained work force and team will yield more profit for employers than a sick, stressed set of individuals. However, the challenge is to persuade employers of that.

In the new millennium we are fighting the same fight as in the previous one. Trade unions are battling for health and safety standards and women are still striving for equality. We should commend the trade unions and the STUC for their work in the field of health and safety. We should also commend the STUC women's committee and Rozanne Foyer for the work that they do for women. We acknowledge that pests can win over profits and achieve decent standards of health and safety for 21st century workers—if we shout about it.