We all have a right to be safe at work, yet around three million workers die every year from work-related accidents or occupational diseases. This isn’t just something that affects workers in other countries; it happens here also. Last year 26 people died in Scotland due to workplace accidents – an increase on the 18 deaths reported in 2024.

Research also shows Scotland’s rate of fatal injury has increased from 0.65 to 0.93, meaning there is nearly one death for every 100,000 Scottish workers. Proportionally, more workers die from workplace accidents in Scotland than in any other nation or region in the UK.

That is why health and safety should never be a bureaucratic afterthought, nor a box to be ticked when it is convenient.

Despite it being used as a political football by those on the right of politics – that somehow protecting workers in their workplace is a barrier to economic growth – we should always remember that to be safe and secure at work is a fundamental right.

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That is why we remember the dead and fight for the living.

For the STUC, that principle has been reinforced time and again by bitter experience. During the pandemic, workers in health, social care, education, construction, hospitality and more were failed by an astonishing lack of PPE; by unusable or inappropriate equipment; and by a wider system that too often treated their........

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