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This means that for the Potters Bar train crash, where
Jarvis and Network Rail refused to accept responsibility for years before
settling the claims for £12 million, the employee who inspected the track weeks
before the crash would have been made the statutory fall guy and forced to take
centre stage in any legal battle.
Public Concern at Work, the whistleblowing
charity, is calling on ministers and the Health and Safety Commission (HSC) to
set out how this new liability affects employers and employees. "It's
unacceptable that such a far-reaching and radical new law can be introduced with
no publicity and without even a word of advice or guidance to those it affects,"
says the charity's director,
Beanfeast for lawyers and insurers
The far-reaching effects of the law are set out in
"Speak Up or Pay Up", a report out today from Public Concern
at Work. The charity warns that insurance premiums and legal costs could rocket
for businesses even though the law targets ordinary workers. This is because
safety chiefs and ministers ducked the key issue whether employers or employees
should insure this new liability, leaving the matter to the courts. A leading
QC has advised that it is likely, but far from certain, that the courts will
pass this new liability on to employers. "If ministers are set on this
law, they must now make clear who is expected to insure against these risks,"
says
The charity also says far more thought should have been
given to how such a radical new law will affect workplace relations and impact
on the compensation culture. It argues that policy makers should have
considered if bad employers will use the law to pass the buck to employees
after every accident, if it will lead to an explosion in reporting by nervous
employees and if it could turn lawyers into freelance factory inspectors.
Public Concern at Work considers that the law has been so
badly thought through that it should be withdrawn: "We think this law
is such a mess the Government would do better to scrap it and go back to the
drawing board," says Mr Dehn.
Cock Up or Stitch Up?
Public Concern at Work's report shows that the consultation process was a
shambles. When the proposal was first announced the HSC said the law would only
impose a new liability on business. By the time the consultation was over,
however, safety chiefs had been warned that the draft law would put employees
in the frame for the first time but decided to press ahead anyway.
In a development that will alarm MPs, the report shows that
when ministers and the HSC presented the draft law to Parliament the supporting
papers made no mention that it would impose any liability on employees, let
alone such a radical and far-reaching one.
The Government and HSC, who were sent the report in