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Directors nationwide are at risk of imprisonment unless they are familiar with the new Corporate Man |
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Written by admin
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Saturday, 19 April 2008 |
The new act resolves problems in the present law in which organisations can only be convicted of manslaughter if a senior manager or director is personally responsible. Directors and managers responsible for Health and Safety of employees will have now have committed an offence if it there is a management failure, or if there is a gross breach of the duty for an employees safety, which results in a person’s death.
If a company does not take the necessary steps to prevent the potential death of an employee, directors will be punishable with an unlimited fine and possible imprisonment. Courts are now able to make orders requiring businesses to take the correct steps to remedy any management failure concerned.
In 2006/7, 241 people were killed at work. One example of manslaughter at work was the 2003 case in which a 17 year-old man started work as a roofing contractor. Given no training, and with no experience working at height, he fell through a skylight to his death, in only his second week on the job. An inquest into his death resulted in unlawful killing, and in 2007 the owner of the company was prosecuted with gross negligence manslaughter. He is currently awaiting prosecution.
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