Hazards webpages

Hazards health and safety enforcement
HSE’s desperately poor safety enforcement record means 9 out of 10 major injuries don’t result in an investigation. Only dangerous employers now have reason to feel safe.
Hazards enforcement webpage

Hazards work and health webpages
It’s not just fatal accidents that kill at work. Many, many more are harmed and killed by occupational diseases.
Hazards work and health webpage

Hazards compensation webpage
Only a minority of workers injured or made sick as a result of their jobs ever get compensation.
Hazards compensation webpage.

Workers' Memorial Day
28 April Each year worldwide Workers' Memorial Day activities increase now numbering thousands and involving hundreds of thousands of workers. Hazards magazine reports on the burgeoning global union activities.
Hazards 28 April webpage

ICL/ Stockline disaster
A multi-disciplinary team including workplace health, risk, employment rights and relations, corporate crime, architecture and accounting from the universities of Strathclyde and Stirling found health and safety standards at the ICL factory in Maryhill, Glasgow were seriously deficient and that workers were "actively discouraged" from raising safety concerns.
Hazards ICL/Stockline disaster webpage

Other related Hazards webpages

Latest news on the health and safety records of BP and Corus

Corporate killing laws

UK Ministry of justice guide to work killings law
The government has published guidance on the new Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007, which came into force on 6 April 2008.
Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 webpage

HSE guide to UK work killings law
The Health and Safety Executive has published guidance on the new Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007, which came into force on 6 April 2008.
HSE corporate manslaughter webpage

CCA guide to UK work killings law
The Centre for Corporate Accountability (CCA) has published a guide to the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act which came into force on 6 April 2008.
CCA summary of the Act’s key provisions • Risks 351

Guides to the Canadian workplace killing law
The Centre for Corporate Accountability (CCA) and the United Steelworkers union (USW) have published guides to the Westray Bill (C-45), the Canadian workplace killing law.
CCA Canadian killing law webpage • USW guide to the Westray Bill.

Guide to the Australian workplace killing laws
The Centre for Corporate Accountability (CCA) has published a guide Australia’s workplace killing leglislation.
CCA Australian killing law webpage

Corporate crime related reports

Britain: Death fines below 0.2 per cent of turnover
Most large companies convicted of safety offences involving a workplace death are fined at less than a 700th of their annual turnover, a new study has found. If individuals earning an average annual income of £24,769 were sentenced at this level, they would be fined just £35.
CCA news release, including link to the full report, The relationship between the levels of fines imposed upon companies convicted of health and safety offences resulting from deaths, and the turnover and gross profits of these companies, CCA, March 2008

Britain: Directors must be made to be safe
Boardrooms must be compelled to take workplace health and safety seriously. ‘Bringing justice to the boardroom’, prepared for construction union UCATT by the Centre for Corporate Accountability, says there has been a “complete failure” of the voluntary approach to reducing injuries and fatalities in the workplace.
UCATT news release and full report • CCA news release and background materials, October 2007.

Health and safety regulatory policy, Britain
The Centre for Corporate Accountability has produced an online guide to government and Health and Safety Commission policy on health and safety regulation. It says it is also very important to look at the government's wider regulatory policies as these are increasingly having an impact upon the policies that the HSC adopts in relation to safety.
CCA regulatory policy webpages

Work manslaughter cases in full
The Centre for Corporate Accountability Up-to-date details of all convictions, acquittals and ongong work-related manslaughter trials involving the prosecution of companies, directors and business owners can be accessed on the CCA website. As of 20 January 2003, eight incidents have resulted in the conviction of four companies, seven directors, and two business owners
CCA manslaughter page

Britain: Courts protect wonga much better than workers
The courts disqualify company directors risking cash hundreds of times more often than directors risking people’s health and safety, a major study has found. Research for the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) published this week reported that since the introduction of a director disqualification act in the mid-80s only a handful of directors have been disqualified for breaching health and safety laws compared to over 1,500 each year for breaches of financial rules.
University of Warwick news release • A survey of the use and effectiveness of the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986 as a legal sanction against directors convicted of health and safety offences, RR597, HSE, 2007, summary page and full report [pdf]

Britain: Directors publish voluntary code
Company directors have published their own voluntary guidelines to good boardroom safety practice. The Institute of Directors (IoD) says the new guidance will remind directors it is their responsibility to lead on health and safety and establish policies and practices that make it an integral part of their culture and values. HSE describes it as “written by directors, for directors.”
HSE news release, 29 October 2007 and new director leadership webpages • Leading health and safety at work, HSE/IoD, October 2007 [pdf]

Draft Directors' Duties Bill
Unions TGWU and UCATT are promoting a Health and Safety (Directors' Duties) Bill. November 2004.
Hazards, issue 88, November 2004 [pdf]

Death on the job
AFL-CIO has produced a report, 'Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect', spelling out the state of safety and health protections for America’s workers. The report includes state-by-state profiles of workers’ safety and health and features state and national information on workplace fatalities, injuries, illnesses, the number and frequency of workplace inspections, penalties and public-employee coverage under the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHAct).
'Death on the Job' Report, 2008, AFL-CIO, USA

USA: Families demand work deaths justice
Widows, parents, children and other family members of victims of workplace fatalities and occupational diseases in the USA are demanding a ‘Family Bill of Rights’. It outlines 10 simple rights that should be afforded those left behind when a worker dies on the job, including: Information on the role of official agencies in investigating the death; notifying family members of all meetings, hearings and other communication between investigators and the employer and allowing participation in such events; allowing family members the right to view all physical evidence gathered as part of the accident investigation, and ensuring that the evidence is secured from employer tampering; and involving family members in the investigation process, such as allowing them an opportunity to offer names of individuals who may have useful evidence for the investigators.
Family Bill of Rights news release, November 2007 [pdf] • The Family Bill of Rights can be downloaded from the USMWF and Defending Science [pdf] websites

USA: Committee maps out deadly work causes
US Representative George Miller, chair of the House Education and Labor Committee marked Labor Day, 3 September 2007, with the launch of a new interactive online map that enables people to learn about many of the workplace fatalities that have occurred in their own communities this year.
US House of Representatives’ Committee on Education and Labor news release. Interactive map of work fatalities, 31 August 2007.

International corporate accountability resources

Voice of Industrial Death, Australia

USA: Database on ‘crimes against workers’
The US Center for Progressive Reform (CPR) has launched the country’s first-ever database of state prosecutions of health and safety ‘Crimes Against Workers’, including case files, court decisions, media clips, and advocacy resources. CPR says: “We're hopeful this database will serve as a resource for prosecutors, advocates, reporters, and others who are seeking to ensure that those who commit crimes against workers are punished accordingly and that other potential bad actors hear the message that they will be held accountable for criminal misconduct.”
CPR blog and Crimes Against Workers Database. Risks 824. 4 November 2017

European Coalition for Corporate Justice (ECCJ)
ECCJ brings together civil society organisations including NGOs, trade unions, consumers' organisations and academic institutions promoting Corporate Accountability (CA). It represents over 250 civil society organisations present in 16 different countries around Europe.
European Coalition for Corporate Justice

Centre for Corporate Accountability Bangladesh
Details of the Centre for Corporate Accountability's (CCA) activities in Bangladesh.
CCA Bangladesh

Victorian Trades Hall Council Corporate Accountability webpages
Respect, dignity and the right to stay alive at work, Australia.
Victorian Trades Hall Council

Corporate watch research resources
Anybody can do corporate research, but to become skilled at it takes years of experience and deep knowledge about corporate practices and governance structures. AFL-CIO has published some of the top websites used by union researchers in their campaigns to investigate corporations violating workers' rights.
AFL-CIO corporate watch research resources, USA