THOSE killed or injured in workplace accidents will be remembered in Hartlepool next week.

The community is being encouraged to come together for a service of remembrance on Friday, April 28.

The annual Workers Memorial Day event will be held in and around the Hartlepool Art Gallery, based at Christ Church on Church Square from 11.45am.

A lone piper will play in the square prior to the service, which begins at 12.30pm and will be followed by wreath-laying.

Organised by the Hartlepool Trades Union Council, it will feature a number of speakers and focus upon “inequalities in occupational health and safety”.

The town has hosted a Workers Memorial Day service and wreath-laying ceremony since 1999.

Edwin Jeffries, President of HTUC, said: “This is an extremely important event as it is the only day of the year when employees who have died, been injured or made ill through their work whilst trying to earn an honest living are publicly remembered.

“Each year, more people are killed by work than in wars. Most do not die of mystery ailments or in tragic accidents, they die because of a health and safety failure.

“Every year, over two million people worldwide are killed by their or someone else’s work – that’s about 5,000 a day.

“It is only with enforceable and enforced legislation and employers working with trade unions to improve health and safety in all workplaces that we can ever hope to reduce the number of workplace accidents, injuries, diseases and deaths that, in the majority of cases, are avoidable.”

All are welcome to attend the remembrance service. For more information, call Edwin Jeffries on 07813-073186 or email ejeffries73@gmail.com.