EVERY year more people are killed at work than in wars. The next time someone tells you that health and safety law “has gone mad” recite that statistic to them.

In 2014, over 20,000 people in the UK alone died as a result of illnesses and injuries they suffered at work.

Many of these deaths were slow and painful from diseases like cancer and mesothelioma.

Today millions of people around the world will mark International Workers’ Memorial Day. It is a day to remember the dead and fight for the living.

The main focus of this year’s International Workers’ Memorial Day is hazardous substances — which are the cause of the vast majority of workplace deaths. 

Many think of hazardous substances as just being a problem in the chemical industry or manufacturing.

However, they are just as much a problem in offices or shops where cleaners and others have to use cleaning products or hospitals where staff are exposed to bodily fluids.

Restaurants, hairdressers and even call centres all have their share of dangerous substances that employers often ignore or are not even aware of. Dust, including the killer asbestos, is potentially present in over a million workplaces.

A new questionnaire of workers, published by the TUC today, reveals that seven in 10 respondents have been exposed or put at risk from potentially dangerous substances while at work. This has ranged from exposure to asbestos to dangerous chemicals, gases and radiation.

Without stronger regulation and, more importantly, proper enforcement, people will continue to die needlessly from being exposed to hazardous substances.

It is time ministers woke up to this reality and looked at the bigger picture. Health and safety in our workplaces doesn’t just protect workers, it protects those in the wider community.

Whether it is a hospital, school or care home, our elderly and vulnerable relatives, our children and our communities are also protected by measures intended to keep everyone safe from harm.

The Conservative-led government did all it could to weaken health and safety legislation and make it harder for victims, including those who have been to exposed hazardous chemicals, to pursue claims against employers.

Funding for the Health and Safety Executive was effectively slashed by over 40 per cent, amid claims that it was a “burden on business.” And cuts to legal aid and changes to “no win, no fee” rules resulted in workers who won their cases having to use up to a quarter of their damages payout on legal fees.

Then there is the case of the Gangmasters’ Licensing Authority (GLA), set up following the tragic death of 21 Chinese cockle-pickers in 2004.

In June 2013 ministers stripped the GLA of its powers to regulate the forestry sector, land agents and cleaning contractors operating in the food processing industry. And in July 2013 the GLA was banned from carrying out automatic inspections of all companies applying for a new licence.

Both decisions have increased the risk of rogue employers undercutting law-abiding agencies and abusing their workforces.

To add final insult to injury, ministers announced last month that for the first time there will be no workers’ representative on the board of the GLA.

The GLA, which was formed following a long union campaign after the Morecambe Bay tragedy, will have no union voice on its governing body. Instead it will be stuffed full of employers and one academic.

There is a real danger that further cuts and deregulation will destroy the workplace safety culture that has existed in Britain for many decades, with a disastrous effect on workers’ health and safety.

The so-called war on red tape has been a gift to Britain’s worst bosses.

We have produced a list of 10 simple measures which we want to see from the next government. If implemented they would have a huge impact in reducing illness, injuries and deaths at work.  

We want:

• All workplaces inspected regularly by the enforcing authority
• Revised regulations on safety representatives and safety committees to increase coverage and effectiveness
• Occupational health to have the same priority as injury prevention
• New legally binding dust standard
• Removal of exposure to carcinogens in the workplace
• Maximum temperature in the workplace
• Increased protection for vulnerable and atypical workers
• A legal duty on directors which would set out their safety responsibilities and change boardroom attitudes towards company health and safety
• Health and safety to be a significant factor in all public-sector procurement
• British government to adopt, and comply with, all health and safety conventions from the International Labour Organisation.

International Workers’ Memorial Day serves as a timely reminder to workers across the world that they are not alone, that others have suffered at work and have been engaged in a long struggle to improve conditions in the workplace.

It is also a time to reflect on how far we still have to go and the steps we must take to protect the lives of future generations of workers.

• Frances O’Grady is general secretary of the TUC.