UNIONS paid tribute yesterday to the 144 people who were killed on the job last year and stated that “nobody should be hidden from health and safety at work.”

Events will take place across the country today to mark International Workers’ Memorial Day with campaigners vowing to remember the dead and fight for the living.

Hazards campaign warned that workplace deaths are driven by discrimination based on sex, race and ethnic origin, sexuality, faith and disability,” with the rise of the so-called gig economy leading to “a dangerous inequality at work.”

And TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady slammed “bosses’ complacency” as a TUC report showed that most companies are failing to provide women with appropriate protective clothing to do the job properly.

Tracey Seward, whose husband Mark was killed while working at engineering company AGD in 2015, spoke out on the devastation of losing her husband.

She said: “Mark wasn’t just another employee, he was Daisy’s daddy, a husband, son, brother, uncle and friend.

“My last text message to Mark read: ‘I hope your day has got a little more exciting, I love you, see you later.’

Mark never read this message, he was already dead.”

Her husband was killed when a metal shard from an exploding hydraulic cylinder hit him in the head.

An inquest confirmed that the equipment he was working on was not safe and that there were no proper health and safety procedures at the company.

Despite hoping to be able to tell someone from AGD about the impact of her husband’s death on her family, the judge passed sentence in closed court, fining the company £800,000. Ms Seward found out about the verdict via a text message.

She will tell those gathered at a memorial event today: “I am angry, very angry that Mark could go to work for an employer, for AGD, and be killed because they took so little care of him.

“It is utterly shocking that this can happen even now. That a man who is only doing his best, working for the good and love of his family, can be so badly treated and let down and then AGD his employer can show no remorse or care.

“I wanted to see some kind of guilt or remorse on this person’s face.” But she is determined not to let AGD ruin the rest of their lives and will continue to “speak as a voice for Mark.”

GMB London regional officer Mick Lancaster, who is the brother of Ms Seward, condemned the government for slashing the Health and Safety Executive budget and seeing health and safety as “red tape” that is a burden on business.

“This can be no further from the truth,” he blasted as he said “the real burden is left with the loved ones left behind.”