Speak up or pay up – secret new law targets employees
Thursday 7 October
Developments
Following publication of this paper, the Government recognised that the new law was defective and amended it in 2006.
Ordinary employees are now first in line to be sued after disasters and accidents, a new report from the charity Public Concern at Work reveals today (Thursday 7 October). Botched legislation passed last October means employees now face paying unlimited damages if they don’t speak up about health or safety risks at work - even if there is no negligence on their part. In contrast, disaster victims still have to prove corporations are at fault to obtain compensation.
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, Guy Dehn.
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 Mr Dehn.
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 June, have said they are urgently considering the matter.
Notes to Editors
Please state that the report “Speak up or Pay Up” is available at www.pcaw.co.uk/policy/speakup.html