Death of a reputation?

Croner, a part of Wolters Kluwer UK, acknowledges that many businesses now recognise the fact that under the legislation it will be much easier for an organisation to be convicted of manslaughter for work-related deaths and injuries. But it warns that what most companies have not been alerted to is the direct and real risk to their business reputation if actions for corporate manslaughter are brought against them. The Publicity Order – Section 10 of the impending law – requires any company convicted of corporate manslaughter to disclose their conviction in the public domain, as well as the details of the offence, the amount they were fined and the improvements they have been ordered to make to their health and safety culture. Stephen Thomas, a safety technical consultant with Croner, says: “Only recently over half of all employers (52.4%) admitted to being unprepared for the new law, and from our interaction with businesses we know there’s even less awareness of the publicity clause. “This specific part of the law puts unprepared businesses at risk of damaging their corporate reputation by highlighting their laissez faire attitude to health and safety and ultimately the welfare of not only their employees but third parties such as visitors, contractors or clients as well. This will no doubt affect their recruitment and retention rates, as well as maintaining and securing new business and relationships with contractors – no one wants to work for or recruit the services of a ‘rogue’ company.” Thomas adds: “With the legislation only months away, we’re warning businesses that do not meet current health and safety standards and those with a poor safety culture to start restructuring and implementing the appropriate policies now. “In particular, health and safety needs to be taken seriously at all levels, and especially at the executive level so positive examples are set and a safety culture implemented from the top down. The safety culture of an organisation will be of greater importance than ever before. This is especially true when defending a manslaughter prosecution under the new Bill, where documents such as internal memos, organisation charts, faxes and minutes of safety meetings will be vital in proving that poor management standards did not cause a breach of the duty of care to the person(s) killed. Company owners and directors cannot afford to be complacent and must place health and safety high on their agenda and keep it there.”