Badly managed ‘green’ industries cause human tragedies as readily as their non-green industrial counterparts.
Bert Reeves, 62, was fatally injured when a skip lorry at a waste recycling company reversed over him at a transfer station on 21 June 2007.
Shanley and Sons Ltd was fined £80,000 and ordered to pay costs of £25,000 at a 25 September 2009 hearing in Swindon Crown Court.
The prosecuting team with official health and safety watchdog HSE told the court the site was chaotic and congested with a lack of communication and was rife with dangerous working practices.
Bert’s widow, Frances Reeves, told the court what the firm’s neglect had meant to her family. “Life for me can never be the same. I feel that his death was so preventable. If Shanley’s had taken the time to ensure that safety rules were in place, that the yard was being managed so that people were out of the way when vehicles operated, then Bert would not have been able to have been killed.”
She added: “As a family, we believe that if there is any good that can come of this, it will be that we’ve helped to spread the message that waste and recycling sites are incredibly dangerous places…
“If managers of these sites listen to this message, and act, hopefully we can stop other families from being ripped apart. Nobody should have to go through the things that we’ve been through.”
One Comment
At age 62 Mr Reeves likely had yet another risk factor exacerbated by inadequate ‘green industry’ management. That is, his age.
Mr. Reeves was undoubtedly lucky to have a job at all at age 62 because, at least in the US and even with anti-discriminatory legislation, workplace age discrimination is epidemic. In the US, due to recent devaluation of privatized pension plans that rely on the stock market and falling house prices, many older workers must work longer than they had planned before retirement. Now, more than ever, they are at risk of long lay offs and permanent job loss with only dim prospects of competing against younger workers for jobs and those likely at lower pay.
Even if older workers are lucky enough to get a job, they are likely at greater risk of workplace harm than their younger co-workers. In the US, where the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 mandates protection of the health and safety of all workers, presumably equally. they are at greater risk of fatalities and take longer to return to work after serious injury. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reports these results as trending upward in recent years.
As the baby-boom generation bulges along – much as a big meal plows its way through a python – we may expect an increase in the number of older workers at risk of workplace injury in ‘green’ as well as all other industries based on increasing numbers alone. The baby-boom generation is global yet the world’s governments and international businesses are noticeably unprepared for the predictable effect of this cohort on worker health and safety.
Just transition related to ‘green’ jobs must consider current workforce demographics to be effective.
(More on this idea may be found in reports and materials from a 2009 conference on ‘Healthy Aging for Workers’ at http://www.soeh.org. )