The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act of 2007 has serious implications for all employers. It allows the law to really come down on businesses that are not ensuring the safety and security of their staff which leads to the death of a worker. The act allows both companies and individual senior managers to be prosecuted with resulting heavy fines or imprisonment for convictions.
The number of cases brought since its introduction are increasing each year and another 56 cases are currently pending :
• 2009 : 7
• 2010 : 26
• 2011 : 45
• 2012 : 63
To avoid prosecution a company must be able to show they have taken the required action with respect to health & safety of their employees and customers and this applies no matter how large or small the company is.
A lawyer from Pinsent Masons pointed out that in most large companies, directors and senior managers will be fairly well-insulated from the operational decisions that might have gone wrong and caused a fatality. However, he warned that the weakest link in the present economic climate will be where their senior people have dictated a down sizing, or cost-cutting programme in cases where they knew, or ought to have known, that the cuts would adversely impact safety.
He concluded: This is an important message for senior people with positions of responsibility, in order to protect themselves and their organisations from the most serious prosecutions arising from fatalities.
Corporate Manslaughter and Security Services
A key area for the potential implications of this law is the use of own personnel for locking / unlocking of premises and response to burglar or other alarm activations out of normal hours. The reason for this is that it is usually one of the few times when an employee is in lone worker situation.Any worker doing these tasks should have received the required security training and suitable additional health and safety systems should be in place for lone worker operation. In the event that a lone worker was injured, tripped, fell or was subject to an attack by an intruder that resulted in their death, then the Health & Safety Executive would expect answers to some very probing questions.
But if a business is responsible, then how does the law find out exactly who was responsible? The new legislation makes it very clear who shoulders the responsibility in a case of corporate manslaughter or homicide, and that is the directors and senior managers.
What is the answer, and how can you take real steps towards guaranteeing the security of your employees? The answer is to use professionals who know what they are doing, have the correct systems and procedures in place and allow you to perform the task in a cost effective way.
The Government are taking corporate responsibility seriously, and so should you.