The trade union GMB on the new corporate manslaughter law.
The latest official figures for deaths at work (2006/7) were up from the previous year to 241 from 212. Provisional figures for the first three quarters of 2007 show 210 deaths with the HSE extrapolating the final figures at between 215 -225 for the full year.
Sunday, April 6 saw the coming into legislation of the Corporate Manslaughter and Homicide Act. GMB welcomes this improvement to the protection of UK workers, but see this as very much a first step. This Act acknowledges that there is a need to be able to prosecute negligent employers, as corporate entities, and GMB welcomes this. However, GMB also feel that the Act does not go far enough in that there is still no scope under this legislation for individual directors and board members to be prosecuted.
What they say
John McClean GMB National Health & Safety Officer, in response to the incoming Act, said: โGMB welcomed the Act when given royal assent last summer. At the time GMB stated that the Act did not go far enough in that individual directors would not be prosecuted, just the organisations they ran. Employers who kill their employees can rely on GMB to put the new Act to the test. Guidance from the Health and Safety Commission has highlighted the need for employers to have proper systems in place, and while this should be of some help, until there is a real threat of individual director prosecution unfortunately GMB cannot see the industrial death rate falling.โ
