Fri 19 Mar 2010
Controlling Corporate Manslaughter Risk Through Effective Lone Worker Solutions
Posted by EPR Network under Business, Featured, Healthcare, Human Resources, Internet & Online, Society
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Released on: March 19, 2010, 10:23 am
Author: QueryCLick LTD
Industry: Human Resources
With the recent drastic increase in the consequences for firms contravening health and safety legislation, Tom Morton, CEO of Argyll, the UK’s largest lone worker solutions provider, advises why organisations should mitigate their risks associated with lone working.
The release of new sentencing guidelines for courts (issued by the Sentencing Guidelines Council in February 2010) have raised the stakes for companies convicted of corporate manslaughter offences. The new law applies to every organisation within the UK and provides an effective route to securing a conviction in the event of a fatality, if it can be proved that a company was in breach of the ‘Duty of Care’ owed by the organisation to its workers by virtue of the way in which its activities are managed or organised. In addition to the existing threat of civil actions being taken by staff, unions or family members, and the costs of defending any action taken, the fine recommended for a public corporate manslaughter prosecution to be imposed on any business is now £500,000 or greater. Not only will the organisation face this unprecedented fine, but it may also be burdened with the additional costs of a remedial order and a publicity order.
