A NEW campaign to stop building sites turning into graveyards has been launched by the national GMB Union, after the number of safety inspectors has been slashed in the past six years.

Building industry union leaders have met with Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott and Health and Safety Executive officials to examine ways to cut the death toll.

The HSE has just released figures that show, each week, one construction worker dies in a work-related accident, the rate of deaths is rising, whereas the overall work accident rate is falling and more than a third of all workplace fatalities now occur in construction.

Paul Barnsley, the union's health and safety expert, said: "John Prescott's intervention will be seen as a lifeline by hundreds of thousands of construction workers throughout the country.

"One construction worker is killed in this country every week and we need urgent action now to stop our construction sites turning into graveyards."