Laura
Adamson tragically lost her brother in 2005. She is a
member of Families Against Corporate Killers. In a moving article
for the DGS Laura argues why it is so important to have effective
health and safety legislation that holds employers to account.
Contact details for Families Against Corporate Killers are at the
bottom of the page.
Families Against Corporate Killers
When someone is
killed at work, they are never the only victim. This was
one of the themes of International Workers Memorial Day 2009.
Held annually on 28 April 2009, IWMD is a day recognised
throughout the world as one to Remember the Dead and Fight for
the Living.
This year, as
with the last two, members of Families Against Corporate Killers
(FACK) have spoken at events up and down the country. Launched
in July 2006, FACK brings together families united by the bond of
having lost loved ones killed by work. Workers like
Andrew Herbertson (left, below), killed aged 29. His
life support machine was turned off on his son’s 8th
birthday. Not only workers, but also members of the public
like little Samuel Adams (right, below), killed aged just
6 on a day out with his family to the Trafford Centre when an
incorrectly stored 18 stone railing hit his head.
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Please be clear, FACK is not about
retribution or revenge, but rather: law and order,
justice, equity, accountability and deterrence! FACK
gives a collective voice to those who pay the price for
employer negligence, to help equal the voice of employers
and business in shaping policy on health and safety. |
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The HSE
would have you believe that last year 32 people lost their lives
in Scotland in work-related deaths. That is awful enough,
but that figure masks the true scale of the problem. Deaths
of those killed while driving for work are not included, neither
are those who die from work-related illnesses, such as
mesothelioma. Those investigated by the civil aviation
authority are not included, and neither are those who die in the
seas around our coasts. So, when the 2008/09 figures are
released, the 14 oil workers and 2 helicopter crew who perished
in April will not be “counted”. But their
deaths and their lives most certainly did and do count. We
should not be talking about health and safety statistics, but
about the real people involved.
| People like my wee brother Michael (right).
On Thursday 4th August 2005 my mum and dad,
his fiancée and myself kissed his forehead and said
goodbye for the last time as he lay dead in a hospital
bed. He died aged just 26. It took until
October 2008 for his employer company and 3 members of
management to finally face trial in connection with his
electrocution at work. |
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Many families of
someone killed at work previously believed what they read and
heard in the British press – that we live in a “crazy
world” of health and safety laws, and that most work deaths
are the result of freak accidents. This is very far removed
from reality! FACK families can accept that true accidents
do sometimes happen, but in most cases the catalogue of ignorance
of health and safety laws, deliberate non-compliance, and
complete lack of fear of the enforcement system and the
enforcement authorities by employers, managers and directors is
overwhelming.
So, what does
FACK want from the enforcement authorities? We want there
to be a credible threat that if you are responsible for health
and safety and you do not comply, that you will get caught.
We want those responsible for the decisions that lead to death to
be held properly to account in law and, if guilty, to face
significant penalties which are proportionate to the crime and
the harm done. We want all of this so that other lives are
not lost.
The Government
talks of reducing the regulatory burden and removing red tape for
low risk businesses. Exactly what is meant by this? A
Government report found that small firms spend under three and a
half minutes a day on safety admin. Where is the burden?
Be clear that the real health and safety burden is borne by those
who lose their lives, and the loved ones left behind. The
fact that light touch regulation plus risk taking equals economic
disaster has been very clearly recognised in recent months.
We now need the Government and enforcement authorities to wake up
to the fact that, in the health and safety arena, light touch
regulation plus risk taking equals more lives lost and more
families robbed of a future with their loved one.
Nine people were
killed and 33 injured in the ICL/Stockline blast. At the
judicial inquiry, counsel for the Stockline Families Support
Group made clear the families’ feelings that individuals at
the top of the company tree deliberately set out to deceive the
HSE inspectors. If we move to lighter touch regulation, how
many more employers will get and take the opportunity to
deceive? How many more Stocklines will families have to
endure?
Figures gained
using a Freedom of Information request reveal that the number of
HSE inspectors has been decimated since this catastrophic loss of
life - a decrease of 16% in 4 years. So where is the
credible threat of being caught? I was terrified
recently to read about a HSE inspection initiative in Glasgow and
the West of Scotland. They visited 47 sites and it was
necessary for them to issue prohibition notices to stop work
immediately on 10 sites because conditions were so dangerous!
Things should never get so bad. Death and injury is waiting
to happen:
| Trainee scaffolder Steven Burke (below)
died after falling more than 9m (30ft) while working at a
water treatment plant. The 17-year-old had told his mum
only two days before his death of his safety worries
about the site. |
Craig Whelan (below), a 23 year
old father of one was about to leave his job as he was
unhappy with the way safety issues were handled by his
employer. He was killed in a fireball in a 200 ft
chimney. |
Weeks before the death of Mark Wright (below)
he said his employer was taking so many health &
safety risks, someone would be killed one day. He
phoned his mum the night before he was killed. He had a
new job and was going to hand in his notice. He
didn’t get the chance. |
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These
accidents waiting to happen are not accidents!
Mark, a father of two, was killed in April 2005. It is
likely to be 2010 before a court of law finally pronounces
judgment on his employers. It is the rule rather than the
exception for a health and safety case to take this long to make
its way through the enforcement system.
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While families wait for the outcome of
the investigation and prosecution processes, they battle
with the justice system for scraps of information. Brian
French, a father of five, (right) and Colin
Ferguson were killed when their Land Rover was crushed by
a 100 tonne truck at Pennyvenie opencast mine on 26
February 2007. Other than a standard letter
received a month later, Brian and Colin’s families
received no information from the procurator fiscal until
more than 15 months after the deaths of their loved ones.
This came only after they wrote to the Lord Advocate to
tell her they had been very patient, and they thought
some might say too patient because in the months they
waited for news about a prosecution, Jim Griffin (a
father of three) was crushed between 2 dumper trucks at
Pennyenie. |
The length of
time enforcement action takes means lessons cannot be learned and
implemented before more lives are lost.
Two years after
my wee brother’s death I read about Barry Martin who was
electrocuted during a Building Society fit-out in 2003. His
employer had failed to ensure power switches were padlocked
closed so that they could not be mistakenly reconnected. The
judge described it as a “matter of regret” that it had
taken 4 years to get the case to court. I would put it more
strongly than that because, in the intervening period, my wee
brother died as a consequence of that exact same failure. In
fact, we heard during the trial that 7 electricians died as a
result of failure to implement these safe isolation procedures
between 2004 and 2006. Why did so many men, including my
wee brother, have to die before there was a push by the
enforcement authorities to ensure that the necessary safety
equipment which every electrician is taught to use during his or
her apprenticeship was supplied by employers? This was a
whole industry whose safety standards had become rotten to the
core. Without the credible threat of enforcement, standards
slip, employers become complacent and lives are lost.
| The family of Dr Graham Meldrum (right)
found out in open court the horrific manner in which his
head was impaled by the faulty tail lift of a lorry.
A Strathclyde Police surgeon, told the Fatal Accident
Inquiry into his death that he "saw a male trapped
in a hydraulic ramp of an articulated lorry. There was a
metal spike into the right side of his skull and a metal
plate slicing into the inside of his skull."
Two companies were fined less than £34,000 in total in
respect of Graham’s death. |
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Lewis Murphy (left) suffered 60% burns when he was engulfed in a massive fireball. His parents, Mick & Bet, found out in court that as their 18-yr-old son was taken to hospital, he had asked the paramedic if he was going to die. The garage owner was fined £10,000 with costs of £15,000. He told the court that safety training was not offered because it was “common sense” and he expected his staff to learn by experience |
| 17 year old Daniel Dennis (right) had been in his job for just one week, had not been properly trained and had no safety equipment. He fell through a skylight to his death. It took a union-backed public campaign, an inquest verdict and a judicial review before Daniel’s mum and dad saw the roofing firm’s owner in court. Daniel’s parents describe health and safety penalties as like “a thorn in the thumb”. |  |
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Even in cases where fines are into 7
figures, there remains a sting in the tail. Corus
were fined £1.3M for the deaths of 3 of its workers,
including 20 year old Andrew Hutin (left), in a
blast furnace explosion. Andrew’s father says:
“Corus has received £75M from its insurers, which
paid in full for a new blast furnace, opened with huge
amount of national publicity by Prince Charles. Could
someone therefore inform me, because I am obviously
missing something here, who has been penalised?” |
The fact is
– as individuals we are held far more accountable for our
actions than employers. A moment’s inattention and a
mistake on the motorway can lead to a death and a driver facing
culpable homicide charges and possible imprisonment. Yet,
employers who have flouted health and safety laws for years,
cutting corners to save money, will generally not face
imprisonment and may in fact face no individual charges at all.
There is a growing accountability deficit.
I did of course
mention earlier that my brother’s employer company and 3
members of management faced trial in connection with his death.
They walked free from the dock after 4 weeks of evidence because
the prosecutor failed to lead evidence which should have been led
in respect of two, and the other had been charged under the wrong
section of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. On their
release, the advocate representing the company referred to his
client as an “invisible man” now sitting in the
dock. Prosecution of the invisible man does not and will
never provide justice for the family left behind, nor will it act
as a deterrent to others who may choose to play fast and loose
with the health and safety of their employees.
| This is starkly illustrated by the case
of Chris Knoop (right). He was killed and 3
colleagues were seriously injured when liquefied
petroleum gas exploded at North West Aerosols Ltd. An
investigation revealed widespread electrical faults,
unsafe work systems and inadequate training. The
directors put the company into liquidation after the
tragedy, they did not attend any of the court
proceedings, and the firm was not represented in court.
The judge presiding over the case described the tragedy
as one of those “accident[s] waiting to happen”
which are not accidents. Yet he was only able to
impose the “absurd and unreasonable” fine of
£1 for each of two safety offences and £1 towards
costs! It would be laughable if it were not so
tragic, so wrong, and so unlikely to send out the right
message to other companies and directors. |
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FACK feels this
was able to happen as there are no positive legal duties on
directors to be responsible for the health and safety in their
organisation: the legal duties to comply with health and safety
at work are on the company. But the fact is, companies do
not take the decisions which lead to deaths - directors and
managers do.
Most workers do
not die in tragic unforeseeable “accidents”. They
are killed because a director or manager decided their health and
safety just wasn’t an important enough priority. Even
the HSE recognises that at least 70% of major and fatal injuries
are due to systematic management failures. The lack of
positive legal duties was able to be used to the advantage of the
3 defendants charged in my brother’s case, assisting them in
walking away from their responsibilities. Instead, the
invisible man was left to be fined £300,000 for the health and
safety failings which resulted in my brother’s death.
Somebody wiser
than me once said: “the world is a dangerous place, not
because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on
and do nothing.” So, we are calling upon our
politicians and those responsible for enforcement to stop looking
on.
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FACK families are calling upon:
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If anyone feels
we are acting in an unreasonable manner by making these demands,
then they should stop and consider for a moment how it would feel
to walk even one mile in our shoes. Until it touches your
life you can’t fully understand the impact it has: visiting
the cemetery once a month and more to lay flowers for the son and
brother who should have outlived us all; trying not to linger in
the card shop at Christmas on those which say: “to a loving
brother”; and knowing I will never answer the phone again
and hear the words “how you doin’ sis?”
We can’t
bring back the loved ones we have lost but we can, and we will,
fight on to deliver justice and prevent others losing their
lives, or their loved ones. FACK families are fighting for
YOUR right not to walk in our shoes. Please help us in this
fight by joining your voices with ours and together let’s
make this country a safer place to live and work.
If you would like
more information on FACK you can contact Louise Adamson (FACK
member) on Tel: 07812 782534 or Email: adamsons126@hotmail.co.uk
Hilda Palmer
(FACK facilitator) Tel: 0161 636 7557 Email:
Hilda@gmhazards.org.uk