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DEADLY BUSINESS
DEADLY BUSINESS
NEWS ARCHIVE 2005
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News archive 2006
News archive 2002-4
USA:
BP’s deadly crimes could go to trial
A BP report into the March fire that killed 15 at its Texas City refinery
has acknowledged there were serious lapses in management’s safety
approach. In a separate move, the government safety watchdog OSHA has
said it is referring the case to the Department of Justice (DoJ), which
will decide whether to bring a criminal prosecution against BP or BP bosses.
Risks 237, 17 December 2005
Global:
Shipbreaking yards may have killed thousands
Thousands of workers involved in the shipbreaking industry could have
died over the past two decades due to accidents or exposure to toxic waste
on the ships, according to a new report. ‘End of life - The human
cost of breaking ships’, published this week by Greenpeace and the
International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), says steps must be taken
to ensure that established safety guidelines are observed.
Risks 237, 17 December 2005
Trinidad:
Unions threaten a national strike for safety law
Unions in Trinidad and Tobago are warning a national strike is a real
possibility if the government fails to enact a safety law already agreed
by both parliament and the president. The warning came from the country’s
most powerful unions after their members marched through the streets of
Port of Spain calling on the government to implement the Occupational
Safety and Health Act (OSHA).
Risks 237, 17 December 2005
Britain:
TUC backs more penalties for dangerous firms
The TUC has welcomed a Health and Safety Commission (HSC) consultation
on possible new penalties for workplace health and safety offences. A
TUC response to the consultation notes: “The current regime is often
viewed as having little preventive impact due to the both the falling
level of enforcement activity and the low levels of fines imposed by the
courts.”
Risks 237, 17 December 2005
China:
Deadly coal mine disasters continue
The death toll from the 27 November colliery blast in China’s Heilongjiang
province has risen to 171. At least two officials connected with the mine
have been arrested for dereliction of duty, with confirmation of the death
toll coming as a spate of new disasters hit the country’s notoriously
hazardous coal mines.
Risks 236, 10 December 2005
Britain:
Employers’ solicitors compromise tragedy investigations
Investigations by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) into work-related
deaths and injuries are being compromised by the presence of employer
solicitors at interviews of employees by HSE inspectors, the Centre for
Corporate Accountability (CCA) has told the Law Society.
Risks 236, 10 December 2005
Britain:
HSC to call for explicit safety duties on directors
Company directors should be subject to explicit
new legal safety duties, the Health and Safety Commission (HSC) has decided.
A 6 December meeting of HSC, the body that advises the government on health
and safety, backed the position argued by unions and safety campaigners
and will now be recommending there are positive legal duties on directors
to ensure their organisations comply with safety law.
Risks 236, 10 December 2005
Britain:
No-one to be charged over 31 Paddington rail deaths
No individuals will face charges over the 1999
Ladbroke Grove rail crash which claimed 31 lives. The Crown Prosecution
Service (CPS) said there was “insufficient evidence” to provide
a realistic prospect of conviction of any individuals.
Risks 236, 10 December 2005
Britain:
TGWU demands killing law after rail bosses let off
The failure to prosecute rail executives over the
Ladbroke Grove rail crash, which killed 31 people, has highlighted the
need for a new Corporate Manslaughter Bill according to the union TGWU.
Risks 236, 10 December 2005
USA:
Deadly BP buries more bad news
In the US the day before a national holiday is known by the media as “take
out the trash day”, a good day to bury bad news. BP, mired in controversy
over its recent safety record, chose last weekend’s Thanksgiving
break, the biggest holiday in the US calendar, to release two highly critical
reports.
Risks 235, 3 December 2005
China:
At least 146 die in mine blast
A blast which ripped through a colliery in north-east China is now known
to have claimed 146 lives. Officials say the expect the death toll to
rise to 151.
Risks 235, 3 December 2005
Britain:
Balfour fined £60k for roadworker death
Balfour Beatty Civil Engineering has been fined a total of £60,000
and ordered to pay £45,000 costs at Wolverhampton Crown Court, after
pleading guilty to breaches of health and safety legislation. The case
brought by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) followed its investigation
into the death of employee Stephen Haywood.
Risks 234, 26 November 2005
Britain:
Boss guilty of worker’s death
A construction boss has been convicted of manslaughter after his “total
contempt” for worker safety led to the death of an employee. Wayne
Davies, 36, who ran Knighton-based A&E Buildings, who employed 40-year-old
Mark Jones to help erect steel-framed barns, had ignored safety concerns
expressed by Mr Jones's wife about his working conditions.
Risks 234, 26 November 2005
Britain:
Jailed quarry boss ignored safety
A quarry owner who ignored Health and Safety Executive (HSE) orders to
stop work posing an immediate risk has been jailed for nine months. Mark
Broadbent, 35, from Earthstrip Plant in Wymondham showed “contempt”
for HSE prohibition notices and put “profit over safety”,
Norwich Crown Court was told.
Risks 234, 26 November 2005
Britain:
Minister pledges to deliver law on work manslaughter
Plans to make it easier to prosecute companies in England and Wales after
fatal accidents will “absolutely” be implemented before the
end of this parliament, the minister responsible has told the Financial
Times.
Risks 234, 26 November 2005
Britain:
Scottish report backs jail terms for work killers
Unions have welcomed the report of an official expert committee convened
by the Scotland’s justice minister which has recommended jail terms
for killer employers.
Risks 234, 26 November 2005
China:
Chemical plant explosion kills at least five
At least five people died after seven explosions rocked a chemical plant
in north-east China's Jilin province on 13 November.
Risks 233, 19 November 2005
Britain:
Football club fined £4,000 over death of teen player
Falkirk Football Club has been fined £4,000 following the death
of an apprentice player, Craig Gowans, 17, who was electrocuted when training
equipment he was carrying touched an overhead power cable.
Risks 233, 19 November 2005
Britain:
Firm fined £40,000 over worker death
Belle Car Transporters and Specialist Services has been fined £40,000
and ordered to pay £10,000 costs for breaching health and safety
regulations after a worker died when he was crushed by a car transporter.
Risks 233, 19 November 2005
Britain:
Scots slam shameful safety stats
Scotland’s unions have reacted with dismay to new official figures
showing the country has Great Britain’s highest work fatality rate.
Health and Safety Executive statistics released earlier this month showed
fatalities in Scotland rose from 15 in 2003/4 to 36 in 2004/5, an increase
of 140 per cent, adding that HSE enforcement figures show there are fewer
convictions, lower fines, and fewer enforcement notices issued in Scotland.
Risks 233, 19 November 2005
Britain:
What would you do to dangerous bosses?
The Health and Safety Executive wants your views on new approaches to
workplace safety enforcement and penalties. A consultation is asking whether
alternative penalties, such as administrative fines, restorative justice,
conditional cautioning and enforceable undertakings, could have a role
to play.
Risks 233, 19 November 2005
Trinidad:
Teen death proves urgent need for new law
The death at work of 17-year-old Dinesh Rampersad, buried alive under
tonnes of cement at a Trinidad Cement Ltd (TCL) plant, proves how desperately
Trinidad needs a promised safety law, unions have said.
Risks 232, 12 November 2005
China:
Officials order bosses down mines
China's authorities have ordered that coal miners should always be accompanied
underground by at least one manager, the Beijing News has reported. The
move is part of a renewed effort to improve standards in China's mining
industry, which has the world's worst safety record.
Risks 232, 12 November 2005
Britain:
What would you give your right arm for?
Workers are still being maimed on the cheap by negligent employers, recent
court cases suggest.
Risks 232, 12 November 2005
Britain:
Workplace toll shows “more needs to be done” says HSC
Latest official accident and ill-health figures show some improvements
but still leave cause for concern, officials have said. The Health and
Safety Executive says its figures for 2004/05 show progress on occupational
ill-health and the number of RIDDOR reportable injuries, but adds fatal
and major injuries remain a concern.
Risks 232, 12 November 2005
Britain:
Campaign rubbishes official work disease figures
Official UK statistics on work-related ill-health are missing the overwhelming
majority of cases, safety campaigners have warned. The Hazards Campaign,
an informal coalition of unions and other safety organisations and activists,
raised its concerns at a protest outside a Health and Safety Commission
open meeting.
Risks 232, 12 November 2005
• A job to die
for?
USA:
Journal reveals corporate safety corruption
Big business is involved in a deadly campaign to maximise profits at the
expense of workers’ health, according to papers in the latest issue
of the International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health
(IJOEH). A special issue on the “corporate corruption of science”
details how safety standards have been derailed by industry domination
of occupational health research and corporate lobbying.
Risks 231, 5 November 2005
Britain:
Firm pays £30,000 for ignoring asthma risks
A Gloucester company that put its workers at risk of contracting occupational
asthma has been ordered to pay fines and costs of more than £30,000.
Gloucester Magistrates' Court heard that Thermo Radiometrie Ltd had allowed
its employees to work with rosin solder flux, a substance which has been
known for decades to cause asthma.
Risks 231, 5 November 2005
Britain:
Worker dead in machine for day
A worker crushed to death in a machine lay undiscovered for 24 hours.
An investigation has begun into the death of Michael Joyce at the Freudenberg
Technical Products plant on north Tyneside.
Risks 229, 22 October 2005
Britain:
No manslaughter charges for Potters Bar
There will be no manslaughter charges in connection with the Potters Bar
rail crash that killed seven people and injured 70 in May 2002. HSE has
said a decision whether to bring charges under the Health and Safety at
Work Act would be taken after the coroner’s inquest.
Risks 229, 22 October 2005
Britain:
Shell safety fines top £1m in six months
Oil giant Shell has been fined £100,000 following an explosion inside
a chemical tanker, bringing its total health and safety fines in the last
six months to £1 million. The latest penalty for criminal breaches
of safety law came after a tanker driver was knocked over in a blast,
which happened as he was filling up at Shell Chemical UK's Stanlow complex.
Risks 229, 22 October 2005
India:
Seven labourers killed as brick kiln collapses
The manager of an Indian brick kiln has been arrested after the structure
collapsed, killing seven workers. Three others were injured, one critically,
when a pillar, which was supporting a layer of bricks at the kiln in Guptipara,
collapsed.
Risks 228, 15 October 2005
Britain:
£12,500 fine after worker disfigured by burns
A steel firm has been fined £12,500 after a worker suffered extensive
burns when he fell through a poorly-welded safety gate and landed on hot
metal. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said Alpha Steel’s
behaviour “fell well short” of legally required safety standards.
Risks 228, 15 October 2005
Britain:
Firms fined £13.5m over Hatfield crash
Balfour Beatty and Network Rail have been fined a total of £13.5m
for safety offences related to the Hatfield rail disaster in 2000. Passing
sentence on 7 October, Mr Justice Mackay described Balfour Beatty's breaches
of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act as “one of the worst examples
of sustained industrial negligence.”
Risks 228, 15 October 2005
Britain:
Large fines don’t add up to real justice
Unions and campaigners have reacted with dismay to the “paltry”
fines for the Hatfield train disaster.
Risks 228, 15 October 2005
Britain:
Gas blast family want corporate crime law
A couple who lost their daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren in
the Larkhall gas explosion are backing calls for a change in the law.
Transco was fined a record £15m in August for breaching health and
safety laws
Risks 228, 15 October 2005
Australia:
Government says jail would confuse bosses
The Australian government’s employment minister has said stringent
penalties on killer bosses are wrong because they will confuse employers.
Kevin Andrews, a minister with the anti-union Liberal federal government,
has come out swinging against laws introduced at the state level by their
Labour administrations which impose fines and jail time for bosses whose
negligence leads to a worker's death.
Risks 227, 8 October 2005
China:
Explosion at state-owned coalmine kills 34
An explosion has killed 34 miners at a state-owned coal mine in China.
The No2 Coalmine run by the Hebi Coal Industry (Group) Corp in Henan Province
had previously been named one of China's top 520 state-owned enterprises.
Risks 227, 8 October 2005
Britain:
Builders fined for serious safety offences
Two major construction firms have been fined in
separate safety cases. MJ Gleeson Group plc was fined £50,000 after
a quantity surveyor died under the wheels of a forklift truck and Bellway
Homes was fined a total of £16,000 for safety offences and £1,372
costs after bricklayer Craig Noble, 20, was injured in a fall down an
unguarded stairwell, suffering a fractured skull and neck injuries.
Risks 227, 8 October 2005
Global:
UK giant BP faces flak over £12m safety fine deal
UK headquartered multinational British Petroleum
(BP) is facing union criticism abroad after receiving the USA’s
largest ever workplace safety fine, over US$21m (£12m), in a secret
deal with safety authorities.
Risks 226, 1 October 2005
Global:
Tobacco industry weakened pesticide regulations
The tobacco and chemical industries together campaigned to delay and weaken
international regulations on pesticide use, according to new US research.
Risks 225, 24 September 2005
Global:
Work-related deaths on the rise
As many as 5,000 people die every day as a result of work-related accidents
or illnesses, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) has said. The
UN body said the global death toll from work-related incidents and disease
was an estimated 2.2 million a year, 10 per cent higher than three years
ago.
Risks 225, 24 September 2005
Britain:
HSE warning after site transport death
Companies should plan how vehicles move around their sites, the Health
and Safety Executive (HSE) has warned after the death of worker. Derbyshire
company Glebe Mines Ltd was ordered to pay £32,600 in fines and
costs by Chesterfield Magistrates.
Risks 225, 24 September 2005
Britain:
Boss jailed after worker crushed
Managing director Paul White, the owner of a recycling firm, has been
jailed for 12 months, fined £30,000 and ordered to pay costs of
£55,000 after an employee died in a shredder. Kevin Arnup, 36, from
Norwich, was crushed to death after being pulled into the machine
Risks 225, 24 September 2005
Britain:
Amicus welcomes progress on Scots work killing law
Amicus has received the backing from Scotland’s justice minister
in its campaign for corporate killing legislation in Scotland.
Risks 225, 24 September 2005
Britain:
Top safety boss wants directors to be responsible
A massive 85 per cent of health and safety professionals want a new law
on corporate manslaughter. A survey by safety specialists’ organisation
IOSH, found respondents believed the way to tackle work-related fatalities
was the use of penalties that reflect the gravity of the offence (69 per
cent), with half the respondents saying the likelihood of conviction should
increase.
Risks 224, 17 September 2005
Britain:
Balfour Beatty guilty in death case
Construction giant Balfour Beatty has admitted failing to protect the
safety of its employees following the death of a roadworker.
Risks 223, 10 September 2005
Britain:
Executives cleared of train crash blame
Five rail executives charged over the Hatfield crash in which four people
died and more than 100 were injured in October 2000 were this week cleared
by an Old Bailey jury of breaking safety rules. However, Network Rail,
the successor organisation to Railtrack, which was responsible for Britain's
railway infrastructure at the time the King's Cross-Leeds train was derailed
at 115mph, was convicted of safety breaches.
Risks 223, 10 September 2005
Britain:
How could no-one be to blame?
Rail unions have reacted angrily to the acquittal of five rail managers
on charges relating to the Hatfield rail crash, and say the rail executives
responsible should be facing jail time.
Risks 223, 10 September 2005
South
Africa: Migrant gold miners return home to die
The deadly legacy of South Africa’s apartheid system is still being
felt across southern Africa, as migrant gold miners, ailing as a result
of heavy dust exposures, return to their rural homes to die.
Risks 222, 3 September 2005
China:
Government acts to stem mine deaths
China is promising radical action to stem the huge number of fatalities
in its coal mining industry. Officials say they are suspending production
at a third of China’s coal mines, with the 7,000 mines affected
required to meet national safety standards before they can reopen.
Risks 222, 3 September 2005
Britain:
Asbestos killing more before their time
An engineer who was suing Yorkshire Water for their negligence in exposing
him to deadly asbestos has died of mesothelioma. Jonathan Kay died knowing
he had won his legal fight after Kelda Group plc – formerly Yorkshire
Water Authority – admitted liability, and is one of a new generation
of younger workers succumbing to asbestos cancers.
Risks 222, 3 September 2005
Britain:
Transco fined £15m for killer gas blast
The gas supply company Transco was fined a record £15 million last
week after being convicted of serious safety breaches which led to the
deaths of a family of four in an explosion. The jury's guilty verdict
against Transco, which made a profit of £390 million last year on
a turnover of £2.2bn, was unanimous.
Risks 222, 3 September 2005
China:
Coalmine deaths running over 100 a week
China’s coal mines, the most dangerous in the world, have left nearly
700 workers dead or missing in just the past six weeks, the State Administration
of Work Safety has said.
Risks 220, 20 August 2005
Britain/USA:
BP disaster probe reaches London
The top government chemical safety body in the US has told BP’s
London-based chief executive, Lord John Browne, there must be an “urgent”
independent review of its refinery safety. The unprecedented call from
the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) comes after a
series of explosion’s at its US facilities, including the massive
blast in March that killed 15.
Risks 220, 20 August 2005
Britain:
Support for factory blast inquiry
Scottish union federation STUC has given its backing to the campaign for
an inquiry into the Stockline Plastics explosion in Glasgow. Five men
and four women died and dozens were injured when the explosion demolished
much of the factory on 11 May last year.
Risks 220, 20 August 2005
UAE:
More than two a day die on site
Construction workers are dying at a rate of more than two a day on construction
sites in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). A report in regional trade magazine
Construction Week says around 880 workers died on building sites in the
UAE in 2004.
Risks 219, 13 August 2005
Britain:
Union action call on Scottish fatality figures
TGWU Scotland has condemned the country’s appalling record on health
and safety at work and vowed to step up its campaign for urgent action
by the Scottish Parliament.
Risks 219, 13 August 2005
Britain:
Small fine for dangerous contempt for the law
A construction firm that ignored an official order stopping work on a
dangerously sub-standard scaffold has received a small fine. Bosses at
North Homes in Buchan, Scotland, said they were too busy to check safety
standards.
Risks 219, 13 August 2005
Britain:
Britain: Dismay at steel blast “accident” verdict
The union representing workers at the Port Talbot steel plant where three
workers were killed in a blast nearly four years ago have reacted with
dismay after a coroner instructed jurors to return an “accidental
death” verdict. Corus has been guilty of a series of sometimes deadly
safety lapses.
Risks 219, 13 August 2005
Britain:
Safety criminals face little penalties
The penalty for criminal neglect in Britain’s workplace remains
worryingly low, recent cases suggest.
Risks 218, 6 August 2005
Britain:
Top regulator wants anti-social orders for bosses
More use should be made of Anti Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) to prevent
unhealthy workplace practices, the country’s largest enforcement
agency has said. The Environment Agency, the only national regulator larger
than the Health and Safety Executive, said the use of ASBOs and other
measures that curtail and disrupt their activities such as vehicle and
equipment seizure are useful new tools which could be highly effective.
Risks 218, 6 August 2005
Bangladesh:
Union leaders demand safety improvements
Trade union leaders in Bangladesh have demanded improved safety at the
nation's garment factories in an effort to clean up an industry where
dangerous working conditions cause dozens of deaths and injuries every
year.
Risks 218, 6 August 2005
China:
Gas leak at coalmine kills 24
A gas build-up in a coal mine in central China has killed 24 miners and
left two missing, state media reported this week, in the latest accident
to strike the world's deadliest mining industry.
Risks 218, 6 August 2005
Ireland:
Union says figures miss most work deaths
The true level of occupational fatalities in Ireland could be up to 10
times higher than reported, according to a union. Sylvester Cronin, health
and safety officer with SIPTU, has called for the creation of a scientific
review body to establish the extent of work-related injuries and ill-health.
Risks 218, 6 August 2005
Britain:
STUC concern at soaring work deaths
The number of people killed at work in Scotland last year showed a massive
rise, prompting Scottish union federation STUC to call for rigorous inspection
and enforcement in the nation’s workplaces.
Risks 218, 6 August 2005
USA:
BP cost cutting linked to deadly explosion
BP’s massive programme of cutbacks on staffing and maintenance could
have been at the root of the fatal Texas City refinery blast, according
to a report in the Wall St Journal. It contradicts claims made by UK multinational
BP in May that the disaster was the result of “surprising and deeply
disturbing” mistakes by plant operatives and follows an official
June report which found mechanical failures and improperly designed systems
were to blame.
Risks 217, 30 July 2005
Britain:
Mixed picture on workplace deaths
Latest Health and Safety Executive (HSE) fatality figures reveal a mixed
picture and have prompted a new call for employers to improve control
of workplace risks. The overall fatality level for 2004/05 is down by
15 to 220, but this is due to a drop in service sector deaths, with the
number of deaths in the construction and manufacturing sectors were both
up.
Risks 217, 30 July 2005
China:
Mine explosion in kills 26
A gas explosion last week at a Chinese coal mine killed 26 workers in
the northern province of Shaanxi, the state-run news agency Xinhua has
reported.
Risks 217, 30 July 2005
India:
At least 10 die in oil field fire
At least 10 workers have been killed and others are missing after fire
destroyed an oil platform off India's west coast. India's oil minister
Mani Shankar Aiyar said hundreds of people had been on the platform, situated
in the country's most important oil field.
Risks 217, 30 July 2005
Britain:
Deaths highlight deadly farming dangers
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is warning all farmers to take care
during the harvest. A series of recent fatalities have highlighted the
deadly risks in agriculture, by far the UK’s most hazardous industrial
sector.
Risks 217, 30 July 2005
China:
Coal mine company hid bodies
The managers of an illegal coal mine in China hid the bodies of 17 dead
miners after a gas explosion earlier this month so they could under-report
the death toll. Mine operators are obliged by law to pay compensation
to the families of miners killed at work.
Risks * Number 216 * 23 July 2005
Britain:
Boss fined after security guard is asphyxiated
A company boss was fined £50,000 for breaches of health and safety
laws which led to the death of an employee. Security guard David Bleak,
52, from Ramsgate in Kent, died from carbon monoxide poisoning from a
petrol heater while working at the former Ashford Hospital on 13 November
2001.
Risks * Number 216 * 23 July 2005
Britain:
Select committees to investigate manslaughter bill
Two top select committees are to undertake a joint enquiry “to consider
and report on the government’s draft Corporate Manslaughter Bill.”
The Home Affairs and Work and Pensions Committees announced this week
they have created two sub-committees which will work together in scrutinising
the draft Bill.
Risks * Number 216 * 23 July 2005
Britain:
Risk tolerance is the real workplace killer
In the week after safety minister Lord Hunt launched an online Health
and Safety Executive (HSE) debate about “the causes of risk aversion
in health and safety”, a series of tragedies have highlighted a
far more pressing problem – deadly risk tolerance by employers.
Risks * Number 216 * 23 July 2005
Britain:
Deaths fall as rail maintenance goes in-house
The decision to take rail maintenance back in-house has had a positive
impact on rail safety, an official report says. The Health and Safety
Executive’s annual report on railway safety shows deaths and injuries
to rail staff have fallen dramatically since the move back to in-house
maintenance.
Risks * Number 216 * 23 July 2005
Britain:
Union “sickened” at belated Hatfield guilty admission
The leader of train drivers’ union ASLEF has said he is “sickened
and astonished” by Balfour Beatty’s guilty plea this week
on safety charges relating the Hatfield train crash, over four years after
the tragedy. The change of plea at the Old Bailey comes after the judge
last week threw out manslaughter charges against the company and five
rail bosses.
Risks * Number 216 * 23 July 2005
Britain:
Shell deaths will now be investigated
Offshore union Amicus has welcomed the Lord Advocate's decision to hold
a fatal accident inquiry into two deaths on Shell's Brent Bravo platform
in 2003. The Lord Advocate, Scotland’s senior law officer, said
it would be in the “wider public interest” for an inquiry
into the deaths of Keith Moncrieff and Sean McCue, overturning an earlier
decision.
Risks * Number 216 * 23 July 2005
USA:
Immigrants entrapped with promise of safety training
Federal immigration officials have used a bogus offer of mandatory safety
training to entrap undocumented construction workers in North Carolina,
who now face deportation. The fake training ruse has angered safety authorities
in the state, who say it has eroded trust with groups of workers at particularly
high risk at work.
Risks 215, 16 July 2005
USA:
House moves to deform safety law
A Republican-led bid to severely weaken US health and safety law has passed
its first legislative hurdle. The House of Representatives this week passed
by a comfortable margin four “roll-back” measures that if
they become law will give most US companies fair greater latitude to evade
health and safety action and penalties.
Risks 215, 16 July 2005
China:
Dozens die in coal mine blast
A deadly coal mine blast in northwest
China has killed at least 76 workers, with seven others still missing
Risks 215, 16 July 2005
Britain:
Firm fined after boy dies on work experience
A Welsh firm has been ordered to pay a £60,000 fine after a 14-year-old
worker was killed when a quad bike he was riding overturned.
Risks 215, 16 July 2005
Britain:
Hatfield rail killing charges thrown out
Charges against five rail bosses accused of the manslaughter of four people
who died in the Hatfield train disaster have been thrown out. TUC general
secretary Brendan Barber said: “It is further evidence for a new
charge of corporate killing and for new legal duties on directors so that
people are held responsible for such preventable incidents in future.”
Risks 215, 16 July 2005
Britain:
Firm fined £100,000 after forklift death
Pall-Ex has been fined £100,000 after a forklift driver was killed
in a “readily foreseeable” tragedy. The company made a pre-tax
profit of £326,735 in 2004.
Risks 214, 9 July 2005
Britain:
Next fined £250,000 over warehouse death
Next Distribution has been fined £250,000 in connection with the
death of a worker in a training exercise at one of its giant clothing
warehouses in West Yorkshire.
Risks 214, 9 July 2005
Britain:
British Sugar claims another life
Unsafe work practices and unsuitable equipment contributed to the “accidental”
death of a worker after a 30ft fall at a factory, an inquest jury has
ruled. The company has received two six-figures fines already this year
for earlier safety offences.
Risks 214, 9 July 2005
Britain:
Dangerous clamour for deregulation continues
The Tories say they are stepping up the pressure on the government “to
slash back on red tape rules undermining British business and making life
unnecessarily difficult for people and families.” The move comes
barely a month after the publication of the Hampton report, which prompted
chancellor Gordon Brown to promise “not just a light touch but a
limited touch” on inspections and other regulatory measures.
Risks 214, 9 July 200
Britain:
Mowlem pays £20,000 after worker’s death
Construction giant Mowlem has been ordered to pay £20,000 in fines
and costs after the death of a worker. Official records show Mowlem plc
has been prosecuted at least four times in the last eight years for safety
offences, including a £100,000 fine in a case relating to the death
of a worker in 1997 and a recent £75,000 for offences relating to
the death of a rail maintenance worker.
Risks 213, 2 July 2005
Britain:
Union dismay at no action over crane deaths
No legal action is to be taken over the collapse of a crane which killed
three workmen in London's Docklands. Alan Ritchie, general secretary of
the construction union UCATT, said: “This is small comfort for the
families of the dead.”
Risks 213, 2 July 2005
Britain:
Explosion death boss released from jail
One of only a handful of bosses to be jailed after the death of a worker
has been released. Glen Hawkins, the boss of the Anchor Garage in Peacehaven,
where teenage trainee mechanic Lewis Murphy died in an explosion, has
had his manslaughter conviction quashed at an Appeal Court hearing.
Risks 213, 2 July 2005
Britain:
Corporate manslaughter bill “needs complete redraft”
The government’s long-awaited draft bill on corporate manslaughter
is under heavy fire from lawyers who claim it is unworkable and should
be taken back to the drawing board. The Association of Personal Injury
Lawyers (APIL) said that while it welcomed government moves to legislate
on corporate manslaughter, the draft bill lefts dangerous directors off
the hook, is confusing and full of loopholes.
Risks 213, 2 July 2005
Britain:
ConocoPhillips hit with £1m payout for refinery blast
A global oil company has been ordered to pay more than £1 million
for breaching health and safety regulations after an explosion at its
Humber refinery. ConocoPhillips, the world’s fifth largest oil refiner,
was fined £895,000 and told to pay full costs of £218,854
at a hearing at Grimsby Crown Court.
Risks 213, 2 July 2005
Britain:
Action call after 11 site deaths in two months
The construction industry has claimed yet more lives, taking the total
since 1 April to 11.
Risks 211, 18 June 2005
Britain:
Directors must be liable for work deaths, says TUC
Individual directors must be made liable for accidents and injuries sustained
at work if there is to be any change in the UK’s poor safety record,
the TUC has said. General secretary Brendan Barber called on ministers
to make amendments to the current bill, or introduce new legislation to
make individual directors liable where their own management failure has
resulted in staff being killed or injured at work.
Risks 211, 18 June 2005
Britain:
Shredder boss admits manslaughter
A man was killed when an industrial paper shredder started up while he
was working on it after his boss ignored “fatal” flaws with
the machine, a court has been told. Paul White, 43, of Drayton, near Norwich,
admitted manslaughter over the death of foreman Kevin Arnup in the machine,
known as a paper hogger.
Risks 211, 18 June 2005
Britain:
Offshore deaths inquiry ruled out
The procurator fiscal in Aberdeen has rejected union and family calls
for a fatal accident inquiry into the deaths of two offshore workers.
The men's families reacted angrily to the decision after campaigning for
an inquiry into the incident on Shell's Brent Bravo platform.
Risks 211, 18 June 2005
Australia:
Killer bosses to face jail time
New laws in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) will give courts
the power to jail killer bosses. The workplace death legislation passed
through state parliament this month and another law, aimed at ending dangerous
and unreasonable deadlines in the trucking industry will take effect next
year.
Risks 211, 18 June 2005
USA:
Death firm barred from work for state
A US construction company found criminally responsible for a fatal workplace
accident has become the first in Michigan to be banned from doing business
with the state. Governor Jennifer Granholm issued an executive order barring
Lanzo Construction Co. from receiving any state contracts until 2013,
after the company was found guilty of violating state rules and safety
procedures in the 1999 construction site death of a worker.
Risks 211, 18 June 2005
Australia:
Mining giant BHP faces safety probes
BHP Billiton, the multinational mining company
that used union-busting individual contracts to boost production at the
expense of safety, is to face courtroom showdowns with safety authorities
and two bereaved women.
Risks 210, 11 June 2005
Global:
Carrefour slammed for Bangladesh fire inaction
The world’s second largest retailer,
Carrefour, has been accused by global textiles union federation ITGLWF
of failing to take adequate steps to ensure worker safety in the wake
of the April 2005 Spectrum Sweaters factory disaster in Savar, Bangladesh
that left 83 workers dead and well over 100 workers still missing.
Risks 210, 11 June 2005
Britain:
Bad bosses should be named and shamed
Company bosses who ignore health and safety rules should be named and
shamed, a leading safety organisation has said. The Association of Personal
Injury Lawyers (APIL) said employers may think twice about breaching safety
rules if it means their companies’ reputation could be publicly
tarnished.
Risks 210, 11 June 2005
Britain:
Firm pays £7,000 after worker is paralysed
A Derbyshire company has been fined £7,000 after a worker fell from
unsafe scaffolding and was paralysed. Kieran Mullin Developments admitted
a charge of having failed to take steps to prevent any employees falling
from the scaffold.
Risks 210, 11 June 2005
China:
Safety official owned death mine
The owner of an illegal small coal mine in which 18 miners died was the
local official in charge of coal mining safety, an investigation has revealed.
The Chinese authorities announced this week that under a new scheme aimed
at tackling mine deaths, about 100,000 senior coal miners will be designated
as safety supervisors.
Risks 209, 4 June 2005
Britain:
Essex Council fined £200k over tree feller death
Essex County Council has been fined £200,000
over the death of a park ranger. Hadrian Robinson died when a tree he
was helping to cut down fell on top of him.
Risks 209, 4 June 2005
Britain:
Union anger at waste firm death
A union organisation has condemned a “scandalous” lack of
safety enforcement at a London waste transfer station and says a life
could have been saved if safety reps had extended powers. Battersea and
Wandsworth TUC (BWTUC) was commenting after London-based World's End Waste
(Investments) Ltd, was fined £100,000 and ordered to pay £4,982
costs following the death of Sam Boothman.
Risks 209, 4 June 2005
Britain:
Second six figure fine this year for British Sugar
British Sugar has received its second six figure safety penalty of 2005.
The company was fined £250,000 this week on charges relating to
an incident which saw an electrician seriously injured; in February it
was fined £400,000 for safety offences relating to the death of
a worker.
Risks 208, 28 May 2005
Global:
BP guilty of “corporate scapegoating”
UK multinational BP is facing a storm of criticism in the US after “scapegoating”
workers for the Texas City refinery explosions that killed 15 workers
and injured more than 170 in March, with a US union saying some of the
blame can be traced back to the company’s London headquarters.
Risks 208, 28 May 2005
Britain:
Road firm pays £97,000 after worker burns to death
Crawley-based road contractor Colas Ltd has been fined £75,000 and
ordered to pay £22,000 costs after a worker was burned to death
while cleaning a tanker.
Risks 208, 28 May 2005
Britain:
Work continues to take massive toll
Millions of workers are suffering as a result of job hazards, according
to a new report from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
Risks 208, 28 May 2005
Britain:
Worker deaths are not counted
The death of a young British bank employee who fell ill and died in Britain
of a work-related disease will not be investigated by the Health and Safety
Executive (HSE) or included in official workplace death statistics because
she caught the disease on a short work trip abroad.
Risks 208, 28 May 2005
Britain:
Stockline owners will not face blast charges
The owners of the Stockline plastics factory which exploded in Glasgow
last year, killing nine people, will not face criminal charges over the
tragedy, reports suggest.
Risks 208, 28 May 2005
Britain:
TUC sees red herring in Brown red tape call
The TUC has told the Chancellor Gordon Brown his push for a reduction
in the red tape “burden” on business is more like a red herring,
as Britain is already the most lightly regulated OECD economy.
Risks 208, 28 May 2005
Britain:
Unions warn against attack on safety enforcement
Angry unions have told the Chancellor Gordon Brown his plans to reduce
the red tape on business by taking a “light touch” on laws
and inspection must not result in weaker safety enforcement.
Risks 208, 28 May 2005
Global:
BP’s safety record slammed in US and UK
British multinational BP leads the US refining industry in deaths over
the last decade, with 22 fatalities since 1995 - more than a quarter of
those killed in refineries nationwide. In the UK, the Health and Safety
Executive this week showcased BP’s “director leadership”
on health and safety at an Edinburgh conference, as an online briefing
from Hazards magazine noted a succession of penalties for serious safety
offences in the UK and elsewhere could all be paid out of chief executive
Lord Browne’s annual bonus.
Risks 207, 21 May 2005
China:
Help call for hundreds poisoned by cadmium
A campaign in support of at least 300 workers poisoned by cadmium at a
battery factory in China is calling for international support. Campaigners,
whose protest against the company has been running for over a year, say
the Hong Kong and Singapore-based Gold Peak Industrial Holdings Ltd (GP)
has ruined the health of hundreds of workers and want the firm to be inundated
with letters of complaint.
Risks 207, 21 May 2005
Australia:
Jail beckons for killer bosses
Killer bosses in the Australian state of New South Wales will face jail
under a workplace deaths bill introduced in the state parliament. Unions,
who have campaigned for these measures for years, gave industrial relations
minister John Della Bosca a cautious thumbs-up after the legislation was
unveiled.
Risks 206, 14 May 2005
Ireland:
Enforcement threat as deaths increase
An Irish love affair with US-style voluntary health and safety programmes
may be turning sour after the country reported a big upturn in work fatalities.
With workplace deaths up 40 per cent in the first 4 months of 2005, the
leader of Ireland's Health and Safety Authority (HSA) has expressed his
“deep concern” and has implored the country's most egregious
safety offenders to “face up to the safety issues.”
Risks 206, 14 May 2005
Britain:
How could this death be “accidental”?
The death at work of David Lord, aged 36 - killed performing a task for
which he had received no training on a job for which there was no risk
assessment during a process the Health and Safety Executive said could
not be justified - was “accidental death” according to an
inquest.
Risks 206, 14 May 2005
Britain:
Companies fined over tank deaths
Two firms have been fined a total of £125,000 after two welders
died as they tried to dismantle a ballast tank. Charles Buckenham, 52,
and his stepfather Brian Dove, 55, were overcome by fumes in the tank
at Lowestoft in 2003.
Risks 206, 14 May 2005
Britain:
Safety fine for dangerous director
A London council has used health and safety legislation to prosecute the
boss of a now defunct company after an employee lost two fingers while
operating an electric saw.
Risks 206, 14 May 2005
USA:
Safety racketeers may soon have reason to fear
The jailing this week in the US of a former coal mine operator for safety
offences has come as top politicians and safety campaigners increase the
pressure for stricter penalties on hazardous employers. A federal judge
sentenced Robert Ratliff Sr., 52, to 60 days in prison and a year’s
probation for safety violations that led to an explosion in 2003, killing
a miner and injuring two others.
Risks 203, 7 May 2005
Australia:
Bosses add insult to fatal injuries
The top employers’ organisation in Australia chose Workers’
Memorial Day – the international day of action for those killed
at work - to call for occupational health and safety laws to be dumped.
Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) chief executive Peter
Hendy went on television on 28 April to call for the overhaul of occupational
health and safety laws as thousands of Australians gathered to remember
colleagues, family and friends who have been killed at work.
Risks 203, 7 May 2005
Global:
Offshore death rate still too high
More than 100 people were killed worldwide in oil and gas production last
year. An International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (OGP) analysis
of just under 2.3 billion work hours of data worldwide is said to show
the continuation of an improving trend - but suggests greater improvements
are essential, particularly in transporting people safely.
Risks 203, 7 May 2005
Britain:
Rail work deaths hit 14 year high
Deaths and injuries on the railways increased last year because a big
jump in fatalities among track workers and November's high-speed crash
at Ufton Nervet in Berkshire. Nine railway staff died at work in 2004,
the highest number since 1991, and reported assaults on rail staff increased
by 6 per cent.
Risks 203, 7 May 2005
Australia:
Employers back jail for reckless bosses
Nine out of ten employers in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW)
back the jailing of bosses who “deliberately and recklessly put
their employees’ lives at risk,” according to a NSW Chamber
of Commerce survey.
Risks 203, 23 April 2005
Britain:
Guilty firm fined £10,000 for cheese factory death
A firm that failed to provide the necessary information, training, instruction
and supervision to a worker who was subsequently killed at work has received
a £10,000 fine. Dumfries firm Homer Burgess Ltd was fined £10,000
at Stranraer Sheriff Court this week following the death of 39-year-old
William Johnstone at a Stranraer factory in March last year.
Risks 203, 23 April 2005
Britain:
Glasgow hit by another deadly factory blast
A second deadly factory blast has hit Glasgow, just 11 months after the
Stockline explosion claimed nine lives. Archie Simpson, 54, died from
injuries sustained in the 15 April blast at the James G Carrick factory
in Springburn.
Risks 203, 23 April 2005
Britain:
STUC welcomes corporate homicide proposals
The creation of a panel involving union, legal and government experts
to develop proposals on a corporate homicide law for Scotland has been
welcomed by the STUC.
Risks 203, 23 April 2005
Britain:
Firm fined £20,000 after son finds dad dead
Newark engineering firm Leadmaster has been fined £20,000 after
a worker was crushed to death by a steel grid in an incident it “would
have been simple and cheap to prevent”.
Risks 203, 23 April 2005
Britain:
Man is killed, firm is guilty, fine is £3,000
Safety fines imposed after workplace deaths, sometimes reduced or unpaid
because the responsible companies have gone bust, are drawing questions
about their adequacy as an effective deterrent. London firm Deco Marble
and Granite Limited was fined £3,000 at Southwark Crown Court after
John Martin Dunleavy, 37, was killed on 26 September 2003, crushed by
marble slabs.
Risks 203, 23 April 2005
USA:
Major site’s safety record too good to be true
The “immaculate” safety record of a massive San Francisco
construction project has been challenged after evidence of an accidents
and occupational disease cover-up came to light. Reports suggest the excellent
health and safety record on the new Bay Bridge construction project has
more to do with bullying, bribes and other “behavioural safety”
initiatives than good practice.
Risks 202, 16 April 2005
Bangladesh:
Factory collapse tantamount “to murder”
Thirty people are known to have died and hundreds are believed to be trapped
in the debris of a nine-storey garment factory in Bangladesh that collapsed
on 11 April after what was believed to be a boiler explosion. Neil Kearney,
general secretary of global textile unions’ federation ITGLWF, said:
“It is difficult to consider this as anything less than the murder
of the workers involved.”
Risks 202, 16 April 2005
China:
Tin smelting poisons 31 members of a family
Thirty-one members of a family have been poisoned, leaving one man dead,
in a tin smelting accident in Hebei Province, China. The family members
suffered from arsenic poisoning when one of them poured water over slag
left over from the smelting process.
Risks 202, 16 April 2005
Britain:
£50,000 fine after horror death
The boss of as scrap metal yard has been fined £50,000 after one
of his employees was sliced in half.
Risks 202, 16 April 2005
Britain:
Police probe latest Corus fatality
A 52-year-old man has been killed in an incident at a Corus plant in south
Wales, the latest in a sequence of tragedies at the firm. Father-of-two
Hywel Thomas, who was from the Pontarddulais area, died on 8 April at
the Corus-owned Aluminised Products Plant plant in the town.
Risks 202, 16 April 2005
Britain:
Bankrupt firm escapes large death fine
A construction firm has escaped a heavy fine over the death of a Grimsby
worker because it had already gone bust. TSL Hygienics Ltd was fined an
“unusually low” £5,000 by Judge Richard Hawkins QC because
it has gone into liquidation since the fatality on 3 September 2001.
Risks 202, 16 April 2005
USA:
Union blames subcontracting as BP blast kills 15
A Texas City BP refinery explosion has killed 15 workers and injured 100
others, several critically. Allan Jamail, an official with Pipefitters
Union Local 211 in Houston, said the root cause of the problem was the
increasing use of non-union workers who "aren't as well-trained"
and did not have the job security to raise safety concerns with managers.
Risks 200, 2 April 2005
Britain:
Waste companies fined £140,000 for fatal failures
Two waste management companies have been fined a total of £140,000
at the Old Bailey after their failure to take basic safety measures led
to the death of a worker.
Risks 200, 2 April 2005
Britain:
Shell guilty over gas leak deaths
Oil giant Shell has admitted three safety charges over the deaths of two
workers in the North Sea two years ago. Sean McCue and Keith Moncrieff
died on the Brent Bravo platform after being overcome by gas while working
on pipes in a leg of the installation.
Risks 200, 2 April 2005
Britain:
Small fry face jail, big cheeses let off
Some bosses will serve jail time for serious safety offences - but it
continues to be those running small firms that face a custodial sentence
rather than their generally better resourced and better renumerated blue
chip equivalents, none of whom have ever faced imprisonment for workplace
safety offences.
Risks 200, 2 April 2005
Britain:
You've nothing to fear, safety chief tells firms
Bill Callaghan, chair of the Health and Safety Commission, says he wants
to eradicate what he sees as the "unreasonable" fear of official
HSE health and safety inspectors among businesses. He said there are 3.7m
businesses in the UK and just 1,500 HSE inspectors.
Risks 200, 2 April 2005
Britain:
Dismay at delay to Scots corporate killing law
Campaigners have expressed concern at the shock announcement that the
Scottish Executive consultation on corporate killing has been delayed.
Cathy Jamieson, the justice minister, came under fire from unions and
safety campaigners after dropping the commitment to publish a consultation
paper on introducing into Scottish law an offence of corporate culpable
homicide.
Risks 200, 2 April 2005
Britain:
Manslaughter bill raises question of guilt
After eight years of delays, the government's publication of a draft manslaughter
bill has been welcomed by campaigners and industry bodies, although the
decision to target companies but not their directors has caused some consternation.
Risks 200, 2 April 2005
Also see comments from: Amicus,
TGWU, UCATT, Prospect, UNISON, GMB, CCA , IOSH and George Monbiot (The
Guardian)
China:
Gem workers face deadly dust diseases
Chronic occupational illness and injury has become a common phenomenon
in the prosperous cities of southern China, according to a campaign group.
Since 2000, many cases have surfaced in several Hong Kong-financed jewellery
factories in Guangdong Province, says China Labour Bulletin (CLB).
Risks 199, 19 March 2005
Australia:
Union prosecutes unsafe banks
Unions in Australia are taking their own enforcement action to make sure
bank employers take urgent safety action. In the latest action, bosses
at top Australian bank ANZ was fined Aus$175,000 (£72,000) this
month after the Finance Sector Union proved ANZ had failed to provide
a safe workplace.
Risks 199, 19 March 2005
Britain:
Carpenter's life priced at £7,500 by court
London construction company Circleworth Ltd has been fined £7,500
after a site worker died in a fall.
Risks 199, 19 March 2005
Britain:
HSE given more teeth and larger role
New and higher penalties are to be introduced for workplace safety crimes
and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is going to have a greatly expanded
inspection empire absorbing four other agencies, the government has said.
Risks 199, 19 March 2005
USA:
Pig plant watchdog has few teeth and a blind eye
Every day, 30,500 hogs enter a sprawling complex of metal buildings in
Bladen County, North Carolina, at the heart of the US pork belt. The job
of killing, cutting and packaging is performed by 6,000 people at the
Smithfield Packing Co. plant, the world's largest pork slaughterhouse,
vigorously anti-union and described by some as a workplace where people
toil until their bodies give out and they either quit or get fired.
Risks 198, 12 March 2005
Australia:
New on-the-spot fines for minor safety breaches
The safety agency covering the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), the
region including capital city Canberra and the home to the federal government,
has announced new spot fines for minor safety breaches that may have otherwise
gone to court.
Risks 198, 12 March 2005
Britain:
Directors' duties bill dies of apathy
A union-backed bill that would have placed explicit duties on company
directors for health and safety in their companies and that was debated
in the House of Commons last week has failed after too few MPs turned
up to give it any chance of progressing.
Risks 198, 12 March 2005
China:
Mine safety push reaches ministerial level
China's government has elevated to ministry level the body charged with
the task of improving the country's appalling mine safety record and has
tapped a senior official to run it. The new agency will have more clout,
at least on paper, than the State Administration of Work Safety, the agency
it replaces.
Risks 197, 5 March 2005
Britain:
UCATT calls for action as the killing goes on
Members of the construction union UCATT have marched down Whitehall carrying
a coffin representing the 300 site workers who have died since a government-convened
construction safety summit in 2001. Targets for a reduction in site fatalities
set at this summit will not be met, said UCATT.
Risks 197, 5 March 2005
Britain:
New law could deliver safety and justice for workers
Families of workers and members of the public killed or injured in a work-related
incident have called on the government to back a "directors' duties"
safety law. The plea came in a letter to minister for work Jane Kennedy
and to all MPs to urge them to support the union-backed Health and Safety
(Directors' Duties) Bill at its second reading in the House of Commons
on Friday 4 March.
Risks 197, 5 March 2005
Britain:
Scaffolding firm fined £30,000 following death of worker
A London scaffolding firm is facing a fines and costs bill of £42,000
after a worker died and another was seriously injured on a poorly planned
job. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted Crowe Fabrications
Ltd, before the Old Bailey, London, following an investigation into a
fatal incident on 12 July 2002.
Risks 197, 5 March 2005
USA:
Jeep is driving workers to desperation
Shotgun-wielding Myles Meyers killed a fellow Jeep employee at the company's
Toledo North plant and wounded two others before turning the weapon on
himself on 27 January. Lean production expert Manuel Yang, an instructor
at University of Toledo, said that "workers suffocate under such
intensified labour conditions, and understandably crack up under the stress,
go mad, or take their guns to work, as it happened with Myles Meyers."
Risks 196, 26 February 2005
Britain:
Lack of HSE conviction on director safety crimes
Only 11 company directors have ever been convicted of manslaughter following
a work-related death, according to new research. The Centre for Corporate
Accountability (CCA) said only five of these directors were sentenced
to imprisonment, another five received a suspended sentence and one was
given a community service order.
Risks 196, 26 February 2005
Britain:
Builder jailed for assaulting HSE inspector
Local builder Eric Dawson has been given a four month custodial sentence
following an attack on a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspector.
Risks 196, 26 February 2005
USA:
Deadly policies kill thousands each year
Tens of thousands of workers are dying each year in US workplaces, but
the Bush government persists in weakening safety controls, unions say.
In 2003, more than 4.3 million US workers were injured and 5,559 workers
were killed due to job hazards; another 60,000 died due to occupational
disease.
Risks 195, 19 February 2005
Russia:
Siberian coal mine explosion kills 21
An explosion that ripped through a mine in the coal-rich Kuzbass region
of Siberia has killed at least 21 workers. Press reports say it the latest
accident to occur in an industry plagued by dilapidated mines, aging equipment
and safety violations.
Risks 195, 19 February 2005
China:
Over 200 die in coal mine explosion
The death toll from China's worst mining disaster
in more than 15 years is over 200, with latest estimates putting the toll
at 210 dead. Authorities in the colliery near the city of Fuxin, in China's
north-east, have few hopes that five other miners still missing are alive.
Risks 195, 19 February 2005
Britain:
British Sugar fined £400,000 after death
British Sugar has been fined £400,000 for breaching health and safety
rules two years after the death of a woman who was hit by a mechanical
shovel. Lorraine Waspe, 40, from Great Finborough, near Stowmarket, died
at the British Sugar processing plant in Bury St Edmunds, on 14 February
2003.
Risks 195, 19 February 2005
Britain:
Dangerous directors continue to evade the law
New research shows 620 people have been killed in the workplace in the
last two years but guilty directors are still evading responsibility.
In the last two years not one director has faced a jail sentence or disqualification
following a health and safety conviction.
Risks 195, 19 February 2005
Europe:
EC drops "disastrous" safety enforcement plan
A controversial plan that could have stopped national enforcement agencies
enforcing safety laws for some foreign companies based on their turf is
to be revised by the European Commission. The move follows criticism of
what TUC described as a "disastrous" proposal in the draft 'Directive
on Services in the Internal market' which would have meant the UK safety
authorities would not be allowed to inspect, investigate, impose enforcement
notices or lay criminal charges against any non-permanent, non-UK European
company or individual for any breaches of health and safety law.
Risks 194, 12 February 2005
Britain:
TUC says no "free passes" on enforcement
TUC has reiterated its concern that a government plan to reel in red tape
must not result in it going soft on workplace safety. A new TUC briefing,
'Reducing administrative burdens: effective inspection and enforcement'
is critical of the business lobby for overplaying potential burdens while
downplaying the benefits of regulation, with asbestos and working time
regulations given as clear examples.
Risks 194, 12 February 2005
Ireland:
Work deaths shock leads to enforcement rethink
Ireland's safety authorities are to increase health and safety enforcement
after reporting a shock increase this year in workplace deaths. The move
comes less than a year after the high profile launch of pilot US-style
"voluntary protection programmes", an approach which has been
criticised by unions in the US and elsewhere as a dangerous alternative
to health and safety enforcement.
Risks 194, 12 February 2005
Britain:
HSC's enforcement talk is "misleading" says CCA
Official Health and Safety Commission documents spelling out when it will
take enforcement action under-play the range of circumstances in which
the safety watchdog should intervene. In a letter to HSC, the Centre for
Corporate Accountability (CCA) says HSC documents are "misleading
and needs amending."
Risks 193, 5 February 2005
USA:
Deadly victims of the meat trade
US meat and poultry companies are using illegal tactics to quash workers'
efforts to unionise so they can improve unsafe working conditions, according
to a new report from Human Rights Watch (HRW).
Risks 192, 29 January 2005
Canada:
Workers face fines for minor safety offences
Workers in Ontario found violating provincial health and safety rules
will be slapped with tickets of up to $300 (£129), the government
of the Canadian province has announced.
Risks 192, 29 January 2005
Britain:
MPs debate directors' safety duties
Labour MP Stephen Hepburn has continued his campaign for tougher laws
to prevent workplace death and injury by placing the issue centrestage
in a House of Commons debate. He urged health and safety minister Jane
Kennedy to listen to calls for legally binding health and safety duties
on company directors.
Risks 192, 29 January 2005
Britain:
Company fined £150,000 after site fall death
A London construction company has been fined £150,000 after its
safety failings led to the death of a construction worker. McDermott Bros
Contactors Ltd (MBCL) pleaded guilty to safety charges relating to the
death of 54-year-old carpenter Vincent Dooley.
Risks 191, 22 January 2005
Bangladesh:
Factory fire kills 23 garment workers
A global union body has demanded immediate action by the Bangladesh government
in the aftermath of a factory fire that has left at least 23 workers dead
and many others seriously injured. The fire broke out on 6 January on
the top floor of the four storey building which housed the Sun Knitting
and Processing factory in Narayanganj, near Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Risks 190, 15 January 2005
Britain:
Company director jailed for roofwork fatality
A company boss has been jailed following the death of a worker in a fall
from a roof. Lee Harper, who was managing director of Harper Building
Contractors Ltd, was sentenced to 16 months following a prosecution brought
by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
Risks 190, 15 January 2005
Britain:
Hatfield rail crash bosses go on trial
Engineering firm Balfour Beatty and five railway managers are to go on
trial for manslaughter over the Hatfield rail crash in 2000 in which four
people died.
Risks 190, 15 January 2005
Britain:
Safety at work requires responsibility in the boardroom
A union-backed campaign for tougher laws to prevent workplace death and
injury and to hold company directors to account for negligent health and
safety practices is now underway, with the first reading in parliament
of the Health and Safety (Directors' Duties) Bill on 12 January.
Risks 190, 15 January 2005
USA:
Safety enforcer "no longer much of a problem"
US rights to basic protection at work are being fatally undermined by
the Bush government, latest evidence suggests. Mark Friedman, director
of labour law for the US Chamber of Commerce, told the programme: "There
is no reason why workers should have a voice in negotiating health and
safety policy" because OSHA does not enforce against workers.
Risks 189, 8 January 2005
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