FACT slams proposed death at work fines
Pressure group Families Against Corporate Killers (FACT) has condemned the fines proposed in new sentencing guidelines for Corporate Manslaughter and Health & Safety offences causing death as inadequate and illogical.
The guidelines suggest the fines for Corporate Manslaughter should start at £500,000 'and may be measured in millions' while fatal breaches of Health and Safety at Work Act should attract fines no lower than £100,000 'and may be measured in hundreds of thousands of pounds or more.' Companies pleading guilty to these offences should have their fines reduced, according to the Guidelines.
However, FACT said the fines are too low and an inadequate deterrent. In a statement it said: "The failure to link fines to turnover is illogical and will allow large companies and transnational corporations to continue to get away with criminal behaviour."
Its spokesperson said: "Financial crime such as fraud or anti-competition acts can be punished by severe penalties such as imprisonment of individuals and hefty fines up to 10% of corporation's turnover. Yet we are told, applying that link between fines and turnover in the case of killing someone is unworkable!
"These guidelines... are a slap in the face for families like ours who have paid the real price of employers' failure to comply with health and safety law."
It wants the government to make directors legally responsible for health and safety in their organisations and to face imprisonment if they fail in those duties.
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