Businesses have been urged to review their health and safety procedures in the run-up to the implementations of the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act.
The Act, which will come into force on April 6, will make it easier to convict companies where ‘serious management failures’ have lead to the death of an employee.
The House of Lords has already ruled that a widow should be awarded compensation by her husband’s former employer, after he committed suicide when a workplace accident lead to severe depression.
Lawyers at Glovers solicitors said that with workplace stress acknowledged as the second biggest occupational health problem in the UK, and the World Health Organisation reporting that depression is the fourth most common cause of ‘suffering and disability’, for many businesses, the risk of prosecution is significant.
Sikin Andela, a partner and employment lawyer at Glovers, said that for the first time, businesses will be liable for prosecution where there has been ‘a gross breach of the duty of care towards an employee’.
“The Act does not actually create any new obligations for employers”
she added, “but employers and senior management personnel should review their health and safety policies and procedures regularly and actively ensure they are implemented through review and improvement.”
© Crimson Business Ltd. 2008
