Member bill for Employment Injuries Council begins life
A member’s bill to set up a body to advise on support for people injured or suffering from disease due to their work, and on work-related hazards, has been introduced to the Scottish Parliament.
The initiative of Labour MSP Mark Griffin (Central Scotland), the Scottish Employment Injuries Advisory Council Bill intends the new council (“SEIAC”) to carry out a similar role for Scotland to that carried out for the rest of the UK by the Industrial Injuries Advisory Council – whose role prior to the devolution of benefits relating to employment injuries would have covered Scotland. Scottish ministers have no power to refer draft regulations to the UK body for consideration.
Under the bill, the SEIAC will have functions to scrutinise legislative proposals relating to employment injuries assistance (“EIA”), investigate and review emerging employment hazards which result in disease or injury, advise on and recommend changes to EIA on an ongoing basis, and commission research in that connection.
According to UK Government figures, nearly 25,000 people in Scotland received industrial injuries disablement benefit in the second quarter of 2022.
An independent body, membership of the SEIAC will comprise a chair plus up to 12 people giving the SEIAC a range of experience in benefit policies, relevant research, Scots law on employment and personal injury, and relevant medical practice, as well as the effects of disability or disease arising from work-related causes. Other than the chair, employers and employees must be represented equally.
When he first consulted on his proposed bill in 2020-21, Mr Griffin described industrial injuries benefit as “highly gendered, reflecting the injury and disease of male dominated industries, and failing to afford entitlement for diseases and conditions acquired in the valuable roles predominantly performed by women”. He believed that workers suffering the ongoing consequences of long Covid could also miss out on support.
He commented: “To secure an employment injuries system fit for purpose, we need a powerful statutory body, independent of government, to investigate and advise on the risks facing workers, and to shape the employment injuries scheme itself.”