Health, Safety and Environment

CWU Calls for Higher Penalties for Deaths at Work

20 June 2006

The CWU has said the Government must introduce corporate manslaughter laws and stringent directors' safety duties if it is to make dangerous employers think twice before putting their staff in danger.

The union call came after Royal Mail and its facilities management spin-off Romec Ltd were fined a total of £250,000 and ordered to pay costs totalling £47,000 after Romec engineer and CWU member Ian Dicker, 47, fell to his death through a fragile skylight at the West London Mail Centre in July 2003.

Both companies pleaded guilty to safety offences. Sentencing the firms at Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court on 15 June 2006, His Honour Simon Smith described the roof where the men where working as "very dangerous". Royal Mail was fined £150,000 and ordered to pay prosecution costs of £25,000. Romec was fined £100,000 with costs of £22,000.

CWU national safety officer Dave Joyce welcomed the heavy fines for "very serious failures" but added "this fine is less than a ½ per cent of Royal Mail's £355m operating profit on a turnover of £9bn. In fact chief executive Adam Crozier could have paid the fines out of his £3 million pounds bonus and still had plenty of change in his pocket! This case clearly illustrates why we need a new corporate manslaughter offence on the statue books and reinforces the case for more stringent health and safety duties on directors with penalties for those who neglect safety standards to such an extent that they lead to deaths like this."