This May Day [May 1], we commemorate International Workers’ Day - celebrating the social and economic achievements of the labour movement in improving human and labour rights.

May Day has been a bank holiday in the UK since 1978, introduced by a Labour government to acknowledge the importance of the labour movement. Thompsons Solicitors joins fellow trade unionists around the world to pay tribute to working people and to campaign for stronger rights.

For over 100 years, Thompsons Solicitors has worked tirelessly to hold employers to account always shoulder to shoulder with unions protecting workers and championing their health and safety rights.

The May Day celebration follows commemorations held across the UK last week to ‘remember the dead: fight for the living’ on International Workers Memorial Day (IWMD). In 2020/21, an estimated 441,000 people were injured at work, and 142 were killed as a result of a workplace accident, according to the Health and Safety Executive.

Thompsons staff from across our offices attended and spoke at a number of different events organised by local TUC branches and campaign groups such as Asbestos Support Central England and Merseyside Asbestos Victim Support Group.

Reflecting on both events, Gerard Stilliard from Thompsons Solicitors said:

“Too many workers continue to face unnecessary challenges to their health, their wellbeing or their livelihood as a result of uncaring employers driven by profit above all.

“International Workers’ Memorial Day is a moment of reflection on how much more needs to be done to improve health and safety standards in workplaces across the UK.

“On May Day, we stand in solidarity with those who have fallen foul to rogue employment practices – whether that be the 800 sacked employees of P&O or the countless workers who have been cast aside through fire and rehire practices. It is our chance, as members of the trade union and Labour movement to mark our common calling for decency and respect for workers and recommit to our belief in workers’ rights.”