With the ever increasing deaths of the NHS doctors and Nurses, and the general public servants like bus drivers and posties, just what has become of the pillar of society, “The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974” ?

It is the primary Law of the Land.

The Tory government are riding roughshod over the law for political gain.

Have the tories silenced the “ Health and Safety Executive” ?, are they to just another Tory quango?

Your getting mixed a bit up here, the law of the land was passed to protect employees from employers taking advantage of them making them take risks without protection from harm while working, you have a choice to decide for your self what is safe for you to do, if you find that you can't do your work safely you can refuse to do it, the law protects you for doing so

Nothing political here wonder how you go on in a war situation

^ No mix up Snowie,

The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 was introduced by the Labour government, opposed by the tories, to govern the health and safety aspects of the workplace, by law.

It puts a legal requirement on the Employer to provide a safe workplace for the Employees.

It also puts a legal requirement on Employees to work safely within the workplace.

There are ever increasing numbers of fatalities amongst the workforce in the public sector/services.

Clearly these workplaces are no longer safe as defined by the Health and Safety at Work Act.

If these hospitals and public service workplaces were construction sites say, with this number of employee fatalities, the Health and Safety Executive would have them closed down and initiate criminal neglect proceedings against the Employer, if culpable.

But it is quiet, has it been silenced?

The Personal Protective Equipment Act 1992 covers required employee protective gear working in hazardous locations.

Whether criminal prosecutions come out of this remains to be seen, but I expect the claims solicitors are already assembling their teams.

But would you be happy for someone to refuse to save your life because they didn't have the correct PPE ?

While I understand where your coming from you do realise you do have a choice you can refuse to do the work if you think you are in an area where your health is at risk, I've been in a position where I refused to drill through an area of roofing because I was unsure of the material as no one would commit to what it was, the job got done some one else chose to do it, nothing came of it.

if your in a position where you at risk grow some nads and tell them

Not forgetting a duty to persons other than your own.

The just-in-time supply chain coming home to roost. Minimise inventory and increase efficiency. Or as some posters on here would say, 'leanness'. It works great for car manufacturing, not so much healthcare.

It shows what happens when you take a system that works for all the biggest private companies in the world and you get public sector employees involved!! I know you Socialists think if we keep the red flag flying all the ills of the world will suddenly evaporate but we see what happens when you get public servant mentality matched with a crisis - chaos!!

Thank goodness Corbyn didn't get elected this would have been the tip of the iceberg. Guarantee if you had put Apple's supply chain gurus in charge you would not have had this chaos - same as Brexit put people used to commercial dealing and the we would have been done by now.

You know they don't like the cold hard facts of reality!

Sal's cold hard facts of reality are not going into lockdown and sacrificing thousands for the sake of the economy. I'll give his cold hard facts of reality a miss, thanks.