Trades Union Congress - Workplace Issues

In 2012, average annual pay of Britain's top bosses was £4.8 million. The average fine for workplace safety offences was £19,923. Do the maths. Small fines alone are not an adequate deterrent for Britain's workplace safety criminals.

The vast majority all the workplace deaths and serious injuries are preventable and due to management failures. When employers fail to identify hazards, assess risks and develop safe systems of work putting people at risk of death, debilitating illness or serious injury, they should be held to account.

Real corporate accountability requires employers be committed to protecting the health of their workforce, not just the wealth of their directors and shareholders.

In order to achieve this, trade unions and the TUC have called upon the government to get businesses and undertakings held accountable for the corporate killing, maiming and making people ill, devastating families and costing the whole country billions upon billions yearly.

If you hurt people in the workplace it should be treated with the same seriousness as incidents outside the workplace. TUC wants a corporate killing law to ensure the most deadly employers are brought to account.

The number of local authority (LA) proactive safety inspections of high risk 'category A' premises has fallen 44 per cent, according to new figures.

Surprise visits by health inspectors are helping hospitals win the war against superbugs, according to Scotland's NHS bug-buster.

A company has been fined nearly £500,000 over the death of a maintenance worker who fell more than 40ft (12m) from a factory roof in Greater Manchester.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has confirmed its delayed cost recovery scheme, Fee for Intervention (FFI), will now start on 1 October 2012.

Commenting on the government-commissioned review of civil litigation funding and costs published today (Tuesday), TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said:

The more people harmed by a corporation's negligence, the lower the court penalty is likely to be, US researchers have found.

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Trades Union Congress: Workplace Issues

Liability / Corporate Responsibility