The case of a worker who was fatally crushed on a construction site is the inspiration behind a new Bill aimed at preventing companies going into administration to escape punishment following a death or serious injury.
Labour MP Luciana Berger (pictured) has tabled a Ten-minute Rule Bill to give health and safety inspectors the power to apply for a court order to freeze the assets, or parts thereof, of a company under investigation following a death or serious injury at work. The Bill has been prompted, in part, by the death of a member of Ms Berger’s Liverpool Wavertree constituency nearly five years ago.
Richard Mark Thornton died on 29 March 2007 when he was struck by a six-tonne steel column, which was being moved by a poorly-maintained 50-tonne crane, during the construction of a new floor on a warehouse at Wavertree Business Park.
The crane-hire firm, Bryn Thomas Crane Hire Ltd, went into administration in December 2010, a few months prior to the case going to court. The firm pleaded guilty to health and safety failings, which contributed to Mr Thornton’s death, but was fined just £4500 with no costs, owing to its financial status. However, according to construction firm UCATT, which is supporting Ms Berger’s Bill, the judge remarked that an appropriate fine would have been £300,000 if the company had not been in administration.
After entering administration, the company was sold to Bryn Thomas Cranes Ltd and Bryn Thomas Holdings Ltd, which resumed trading using the same equipment.
The Bill, which will be heard in the House of Commons on 8 February, seeks an end to the practice of companies – known as phoenix firms – opting for administration to avoid prosecution, or heavy fines, before starting up again as a similar business.
Commenting on her Bill, Ms Berger MP said: “Companies whose actions result in the death of a worker must be forced to take responsibility. If passed, my Bill will ensure that companies can’t become phoenix firms to escape justice.”
Steve Murphy, general secretary of UCATT, said: “Every workplace death is a tragedy, leaving a family devastated. It is simply appalling that companies can cheat justice following the death of a worker by using creative accountancy and get away completely scot free.”
The Bill also builds on an Early Day Motion (EDM), introduced in May last year by Labour MP for Liverpool Walton, Steve Rotheram. The EDM called on the Government to introduce stronger legislation to prevent companies that “continue to avoid prosecutions and have fines reduced for committing health and safety offences [from] going into administration and then re-establishing their business using a slightly different name with the same premises and the same equipment.”
This is an excellent idea that is well over-due. If directors were made to feel criminal and financial pain they would take more care of their workers.
What an excellent idea, and about time too. At least with a bill like this, the families who have been devasted by the loss of a loved one, would have some justice, albeit a financial one.
I would like to commend MP Berger for the stand she is taking on this travesty of justice.
I have only just read about this loop hole in the system and can’t help but wonder why the H.S.E and/or IOSH have not made waves about this in the past? Or have they?
It seems like a no brainer to me that the Government should back this bill, but the recent petrol fiasco is not a good sign
Good idea but doesn’t current legislation cover it. why not prosecute the company and when they decide to wrap up the law should then prosecute the directors. I also believe that judges have a lot to answer for, if the company is going bust the directors should go to prison instead. .
An addition to the bill should also be that directors are made personally financially responsible for their crimes after all a drug dealer can’t profit from criminal activity.
It has always baffled me how companies can liquidate to escape justice – well overdue in my book. I also have never understood how directors of these cowboy companies evade prosecution.
Incidentally, in the article it refers to a company (Bryn Thomas Cran Hire Ltd) which went into administration and then sold to Bryn Thomas Cranes Ltd. It is my understanding that it is illegal to use a similar company name as to the one liquidated – strange.
A long overdue proposal, why should legitimate companies that to their best to comply with sensible H&S legislation continue to be undercut but “fly-by-night” employers that have no regard for anything but their own profit margin.