date: 4 April 2008

embargo: For immediate release

TUC welcome for new corporate killing law

Welcoming the news that from Sunday the UK will have a law covering corporate killing, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said:

'Too often in the past senior executives have been taken an overly casual approach towards the safety of their employees. The catalogue of avoidable workplace deaths in recent years has highlighted in stark terms the need for a new law and for a change of attitude from those at the top of British companies.

'Although unions would have preferred to see the new law make individual company directors personally liable for safety breaches at work and for it to have introduced tougher penalties against employers found guilty of workplace safety crimes, we hope the Corporate Manslaughter Act will see the start of a change in the safety culture at the top of the UK's companies and organisations.

'The new law would be tougher if it were accompanied by a new legal health and safety duty on directors and a requirement on companies to report annually on their workplace safety culture.'

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Press release (300 words) issued 4 Apr 2008