British Clergy Want Health & Safety Law Protection

In Britain, clergy are seeking to get legislation to protect their safety in the work place. Today's London Telegraph reports that the Church of England succeeded in 2005 in preventing clergy from being covered by the health and safety laws that protect other employees. Clergy are treated as "office holders" rather than employees. However Unite, the union that represents priests, says that things such as faulty wiring, toppled gravestones and tiles falling off roofs are placing clergy in harms way, as is a lack of security at many vicarages. The government's Department for Business, Innovation and Skills is looking into whether health and safety legislation should be expanded to include clergy.