Posted By Nigel Bryson Yesterday the Government announced that they will hold a formal consultation on officially recognising the 28th April as Workers Memorial Day. This would - they say - become 'an annual focal point for the importance of healthy and safe workplaces'. One idea is to establish a Worker's Memorial Garden. What do you think should be done to make the most appropriate use of this Day? Nigel

Posted By Mike DF This would be a good day to raise awareness inside and outside of the workplace. Perhaps the red tops could take time off from printing bonkers-conkers stories and present the truth. I found the list of dead on the HSE site pretty hard hitting. Inside the workplace it would be an ideal day for H&S training, refresher or otherwise

Posted By Robert Bradford Having just become aware of the consultation I am promoting within my own organisation for workforce responses. I was surprised that the memorial day is not noted in the IOSH diary. Just wondered if there was a reason for this apparent omission. any views?

Posted By Jinxy While in principle I think this a good idea. The word "Memorial" for me conjures up visions of doom & gloom, I realise that its only words, the word commemoration, for me, would be better. It should be a day of remembering those who sadly have losts their lives, coupled with what steps have been taken(or ongoing) to prevent such tragedies occuring in the future. Maybe some media coverage of how H&S has evolved over the last 40-50 years (and hopefully still is). Im not sure about a Memorial Garden, where would this sited? would it be accessable to all who may take some solice from it, sadly I doubt it.

Posted By Ron Hunter The ILO refer to this as "Global Health and Safety Day" (a name I personally prefer). The event was first established in Canada by TUs (1984) with the date established in 1985 to coincide with the coming into force of their Workers Compensation Laws. The "memorial" aspect and the date has since been picked up by TUs across the globe: Scotland in '93, rest of UK in '99.

Posted By mike esbester Hi all, I'm glad to see that there has at least been some discussion here about the consultation. I'm very much in favour of some official way of marking Worker's Memorial Day - under whatever name is deemed most appropriate - as a means of bringing occupational safety and health to the forefront. As several of you have already commented, it is far to easy to dismiss the serious implications and messages by concentrating on tabloid 'health and safety gone mad' stories. If you haven't already done so, I'd urge you all to write in to the Government and make your views known - this is our chance to influence what actually happens on April 28 in the future. As an historian of safety, I think that some of the ideas that you've expressed here have mileage - particularly noting the changes over the last 50 years (I'd go further, and say 100 or 150 years). The only danger is, of course, that we concentrate on how bad it was in the past to the point that the present seems 'fine by comparison', and we lose the drive to improve things still further. Mike