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No To Casualisation

The following text is taken from a leaflet produced by the Simon Jones Memorial Campaign.

Simon Jones was killed on 24th April 1998, aged 24, on his first day as a casual worker at a Shoreham dock -another victim of our growing casual labour economy. He was sent to work unloading cargo inside a ship - one of the most dangerous jobs in the country - with only a few minutes 'training'. Within two hours of starting work he was crushed by the grab of a crane.

The growth of casualisation, where people are forced into low paid jobs with little or no training, no job security, no sick pay and no holiday pay means bigger profits for companies - and more deaths and injuries for the people working for them.

Simon Jones was taking a year out from Sussex University when he was killed. The harassment Simon got from the dole made him take any job on offer for fear of having his benefit stopped. Are dole offices going to start checking that jobs are safe before harassing claimants into taking anything on offer, however crap the pay and unsafe the working conditions?

Simon got the job through an employment agency, Personnel Selection, who should by law have checked that the job was safe for him - they didn't. Throughout the country, employment agencies make huge profits by providing cheap labour to companies who prefer employing casual labour to employing a well trained, decently paid workforce. Is anyone going to do something about these agencies' profiteering off the backs of low paid workers forced into jobs that can cause them injury or death?

The government-run Health and Safety Executive is meant to ensure that people's working conditions are safe. But last year only one in 20 serious injuries at work (that's things like being blinded or losing a limb) were even investigated by them, leaving 48,000 uninvestigated. This government claims to be 'tough on crime', but when it comes to big business making profits at the expense of people's health it seems to be a very different story. Is anyone going to make sure that the Health and Safety Executive do their job instead of letting cost-cutting employers maim their employees and not even get investigated?

This government is busy creating a low pay economy where millions of people will be forced to take crappy jobs like the one Simon did or lose their benefit. We think this profits-before-people set up needs to be challenged before more people like Simon get killed. That's what we're trying to do. That's what we want you to help us do. That's what Simon would be doing if he was still around.

From the beginning, the memorial campaign set up in Simon's name has been committed to direct action to ensure that politicians don't get away with brushing his death, like so many others, under the carpet. Simon wrote for SchNews, the direct action movement's weekly newsletter, and was involved in supporting direct action in support of the Liverpool dockers' strike against the casualisation of their port. He knew that if you sat back and waited for politicians to put things right you'd have a long wait. It is not a lesson this campaign is about to forget.

• 1st September 1998. On what would have been Simon's 25th birthday, 30 protesters occupy the Shoreham dock owned by Euromin where Simon was killed. Two 80 foot towers are taken and banners reading 'Simon Jones RIP' and 'Casualisation Kills' are unfurled. A wreath is laid by the dockside and leaflets are handed out to sympathetic dock workers. Euromin are forced to close the docks down for the day, sending all their casual workers home on full pay.

• 3rd September 1998. The Brighton office of Personnel Selection, the employment agency that employed Simon on the day he died, is occupied. A banner reading 'Murderers' is hung from the window. Leaflets are handed out asking 'Why should agencies like this take half your wages when you're doing all the work?'. The office is shut down for the day, and again workers are sent home on full pay.

• 20th September 1998. In a highly unusual move - and as a direct result of these actions - a government minister is forced to admit on the BBC that the government's plans for protecting people at work are "not enough". Discussing the government's intention to spend an extra £4.5m on health and safety inspectors, environment minister Michael Meacher says "I would be the first to say I think these significant increases are not enough". He goes on to say that "I am absolutely outraged that penalties that perhaps are as little as £2,500, which I certainly believe are derisory and insulting, are sometimes awarded in the case of death or serious injury".

Two actions are enough to get the government to admit that the money they plan to spend on health and safety enforcement will not be enough and that dodgy companies aren't being fined enough for endangering their workers' lives. With your support, we want to build a campaign to force the government to draw the obvious conclusion - fine companies who break the law serious money and use the cash to enforce proper health and safety at work.

Will they do it? Only if we make them. Every MP has been written to about Simon's death. Every official body involved has been lobbied. But, as always, it will be direct action that will make the difference. Join us in making sure there aren't more deaths like Simon's in the future.