A trade union official who played a leading role in highlighting accidents in the building industry has been dropped from the board of the Health and Safety Authority. Mr Eric Fleming, secretary of SIPTU's Dublin construction branch, was a member of the outgoing board and publicly criticised employers and the authority during the past two years.
The branch has 7,000 members, and its chairman, Mr Michael Finnegan, criticised the Minister of State for Labour Affairs, Mr Tom Kitt, for not reappointing Mr Fleming. "There is tremendous anger amongst building workers," Mr Finnegan said yesterday. "In 1998 there were 22 deaths in the building industry, and Eric Fleming was the only man on the Health and Safety Authority who had day-to-day contact with building workers.
"We believe the Construction Industry Federation lobbied very hard to have Eric removed because he brought safety in the industry to the fore, and kept it to the fore," Mr Finnegan added. "Fianna Fail has always said it was the party that supported the building industry, and now we know which part of the industry they support."
Mr Fleming said he was surprised at not being renominated. Mr Kitt had written thanking him for his services, particularly in relation to the problems of the building industry.
Mr Kitt said there was "not one ounce of truth" in Mr Finnegan's allegations. He said he had left nominees of his predecessors on a number of bodies in place. In the case of the authority he had a limited number of choices.
He paid tribute to Mr Fleming's work and said: "My door is always open to hear his views." He pointed out that the Irish Congress of Trade Unions could have included Mr Fleming in its three nominees to the board but had not done so.
The director-general of the CIF, Mr Liam Kelleher, described the claim that there was a campaign to block Mr Fleming's reappointment as rubbish. "We would like to have had a ministerial nominee on the board as well," he said.
The row is untimely as it coincides with two major pay disputes in the industry. One involves 300 crane-drivers and the other covers 55,000 workers.
The new chairman of the authority is Mr Frank Cuneen, chairman of Zeneca Ireland Ltd and a member of IBEC's health and safety committee. The other ministerial nominees are: a risk management consultant, Mr Joe Hegarty; an animal offal processor, Mr Seamus Daly; the former FAS regional director, Ms Mary Dorgan, who is taking up a management position with Waterford Glass; and Mr Fergus McCafferty, a principal officer in Mr Kitt's Department.