24 April, 2011
Recent administrative and other changes regarding health and safety governance in the UK clearly reflects the policies of the governing Tory, Liberal Democrat coalition. In late March, Employment Minister Chris Grayling announced a shift of emphasis from safety and health monitoring by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in order to ease regulatory burdens on business.
The package of proposed changes includes eliminating unannounced workplace safety inspections and placing more emphasis on high-hazard worksites and those with histories of unsafe conditions. The ruling government will also conduct a review of all existing health and safety regulations with the notion to scrap measures that are not needed and those that place an unnecessary burden on business.
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) disagrees with the new mandate, seen as a means to chop government spending out of the HSE.
“The possibility of an unexpected visit from either the HSE or a local authority safety inspector helps keep employers on their toes,” said TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber. “Even now, workplaces can go decades without ever seeing an inspector.
“If government cuts to HSE funding do result in fewer safety inspections, unscrupulous employers will simply assume they can get away with taking risks, without fear of ever being prosecuted.”
Another change in the UK is a Ministry of Justice proposal for reform of local courts structures regarding who is responsible for legal fees in workplace compensation and other cases. The proposed change, which is under public consultation until June 30, would require plaintiffs that win their cases in courts to carry the burden of paying their own legal fees, regardless of damages.
This “no win, no fee” proposal is seen as means to reduce the number the number of filings against employers by workers who suffer industrial accidents in order to eliminate a so-called “compensation culture” in the UK. The Ministry of Justice’s aim is also to push more cases out of courtrooms and into mediation. The TUC’s Hazards Campaigns sees it as a sham since less than 10% of all workers injured at work receive compensation and, as well, free legal counsel for victims seeking workers’ compensation has been cancelled by the state.
On another note in the UK, this one a milestone, the first company to be convicted of corporate manslaughter under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act of 2007, which became effective in April 2008, occurred on February 15, 2011. Cotswold Geotechnical Ltd., a small geological company, was found guilty by a jury of Winchester Crown Court, Hampshire, in the negligent death of 27-year-old Alexander Wright. In 2008, Wright was working alone in an unsupported 12-foot pit. He died from asphyxia when soil from the collapsed pit buried him. The court fined the company £385,000.