Online Magzine-December Issue

Employers Can No Longer Get Away With Murder

We are all aware of the onus that rests upon employers with regard to protecting their employees from potential injury within the work place. Employer Liability claims have long been a staple of the personal injury firm’s diet and we feel that we are able to help restore the client to a pre-accident position through compensation and rehabilitation. However, what of the claims arising out of those fatal accidents in the work place where the employer can be found at fault?

It is the case that we are able to obtain the settlement on behalf of the victim’s estate to compensate the beneficiaries for their loss, but will this go any way towards giving those affected closure for their loss?

In the same way that you would expect the perpetrator of a murder or manslaughter to be brought to justice, legislation has been developed to effectively prosecute employers whose negligence results in an employee’s death.  

We are not just talking about isolated individual instances within small workforces but, moreover, the large-scale implications of major incidents such as major shipping and rail disasters that have, on occasions, garbed headlines over the last decade. Implicating director and senior management in gross negligence manslaughter cases has generally remained a fruitless exercise given the sheer quantity of evidence required in securing the conviction. 

The Corporate Manslaughter Bill has attempted to take the onus away from establishing an individual’s specific knowledge of the breach of duty of care, a principle know as ‘the controlling mind’, and has placed emphasis upon making senior management accountable for negligence related deaths. The bill is the result of developments by the Labour government since 1997 with significant support from the trade unions.

We will now see a move from companies facing fines and remedial orders to the disqualification of the perpetrating company’s directors. Supervision orders put in place by the court ensures that appropriate safety reforms are put in place and subsequently followed. The companies may also be required to ensure that the offence is clearly attributed to the offending sector of senior management for the understanding of shareholders and the public alike. Failure to comply with such requirements will result in further fines and more stringent sanctions being applied. 

The bill demonstrates the strength of union pressure on the government in this regard and has highlighted the ability of companies to escape for such scenarios previously unscathed.  This will, in turn, have knock-on effects upon the development of better health and safety legislation enabling employees to work in a safer environment.

The true implications of the bill are yet to be seen, but this is a significant step forward for both workers and the families of those affect by corporate manslaughter. Instances of corporate manslaughter will, of course continue to occur, but with potential here for the development of health and safety law and the increasing sanctions now imposed upon companies in this regard, it is hoped that the there will be a steady decrease in how often they occur.

It does certainly look like employers will no longer be able to get away with murder.