SELBY has the highest rate of workplace deaths in the UK with 5.45 workers in every 100,000 killed at work, latest figures show.

The Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL), speaking out to mark International Workers’ Memorial Day tomorrow, said it was remembering those who died but also fighting for the rights of bereaved families.

It said the number of work-related deaths in Selby was up from 3.33 deaths per 100,000 workers in the previous year, 2014/15, compared with a national rate of 0.46 people in every 100,000. Industries with the highest rate of deaths included agriculture and construction.

APIL president Neil Sugarman said:“Imagine that your partner goes to work one day and doesn’t return home, ever, because he or she was killed as a result of an employer’s failure to do what he is legally obliged to do to protect his employees.”

He said that under the current law, it was ‘cheaper for negligent employers to kill workers than it is to maim them, and the law should change.