Posted By el nino El Nino has made a point recently of mentioning Workers Memorial Day to people who are not in the safety business to see if they have ever heard of it. I'm sure you can guess the replies for yourselves. I believe there is good reason to try and make this day and bank holiday. Anyone agree? El Nino

Posted By el nino Lumpy Your first question is argumentative. El Nino fights in the safety corner - those who may propose a bank holiday for the 11/11 need to fight their corners. I may well give them my vote. Generally speaking people have to work, people built this country. Normal people. Working people. It is these people who are still getting killed and injured each year. One loss of life is too many. Cost to industry - bah! Think of the benefits. The increase in health and safety awareness alone would make it worthwhile. El Nino

Posted By el nino Philip Nicely put ........ but my feeling is that the bank holiday approach would be a very forceful way to get the message across. When did Workers Memorial Day start up - 1989 I think, and still most people outside of our business I encounter profess ignorance of it. That would suggest that something drastic needs to be done to raise awareness. And the UK could lead the way! El Nino

Posted By Robert. If it went European then the UK would need more time off, the French would say Non on vous Nelly, the Dutch would say Nay lad, the spanish would say Que manyana and the eastern Europeans would be well up for it cos they've never ad it so good. So it could work as there would be no EU production whatsoever hence no accidents. But the colour of the wrist band-well there would have to be a referendum on that, eventually, in which case Tony wouldnt allow it, so there would be no time off for us Brits, so whats the point?

Posted By Lilian McCartney Any day off is a good day! Isn't May Day meant to be workers day? Somewhere in the depths of my mind I thought that the 1st May was Labour/Workers day but has changed to the first Monday (presumably to enable a long weekend waiting in the bank holiday car queues!)

Posted By Mike Craven Surely the best way those of us who deeply care about workplace safety and want to make a difference can honour those who have died at work is to continue to seek to make the workplace a healthier and safer place to be? Working with management and trade union/employee representatives, lobying politicians, spreading the positive messages about Health & Safety, and seeking to improve working conditions are all far better than giving people a day off. El Nino's ideas are caring and commendable, but my view is that, even if you name the day and give the addional bank holiday for a specific reason, people will soon forget why the day was given as a holiday; many will not even give it any consideration at all, but will simply accept it as another holiday. The reference has been made to May-day and, when I started work some 25 years ago, I do recall going on "May-day" parades and rallies and listening to trade union and labour movement speakers. I accept that this still occurs in some areas - although in some cases the events appear to have been hijacked by anarchists and trouble-causers - but in the past, it was quite common for workers to take part in the May-day celebrations. The reasons for the other bank and public holidays are also easily forgotten. For example, my own wife, a lifelong Roman Catholic was whingeing the other week because she felt that having to take the children to church on Good Friday b"ggered-up her plans for the long-weekend! Yes, let's not forget those who have been killed at work and those still working at risk, But let's try and do something positive about it if we want to make a lasting memorial!! Mike

Posted By Rob T More accidents happen at home than at work! I think the extra day off suggested is very dangerous and as such we should work an extra day over one of the existing bank holidays to show our safety commitment!

Posted By Robert. Typical for the North West to have greater hazards than anyone else and have a ribbon to prove it.

Posted By Cr8r I don't usually agree with you, El Nino, but you have a good point here. This is just the sort of thing that would raise the status to the whole working community. Anything less would be pointless. (As for the self employed - I can't feel sorry for you - everyone knows you can take as many days off as you want and you probably earn much more than me anyway.) Whenever I tell people how many deaths there were in the UK alone each year, they are incredulous. They usually say something like "yeah but that's not now is it? That was in the old days, no one gets killed any more do they?" Then you tell them about the injured and the illnesses. Individually, we can spread the word in our own areas, but a public day off would raise the profile to everyone. Good on you El.