CWU Calls For Higher Penalties Following Death Of Romec Engineer

CWU member Ian Dicker, 47, fell to his death at the West London Mail Centre, Paddington in July 2003 and as a result, Royal Mail and Romec Ltd have been fined a total of £250,000 and ordered to pay costs totalling £47,000.

 

Romec pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work Act and admitted they failed to ensure the safety of Ian Dicker and that they failed to ensure that their documented safe systems of work were put into practice by their Engineers. The company also pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3 of the Health and Safety at Work Act as a result of failure to ensure that the fragile rooflights at the sorting office were properly identified by signs, and that they failed to install protective barriers around them.

 

Sentencing them at Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court on Wednesday, June 15, the Judge, His Honour Simon Smith, described the roof where the men where working as "very dangerous".

 

Royal Mail and Romec were prosecuted by Environmental Health Officers from Westminster City Council following a lengthy investigation. Councillor Audrey Lewis, Westminster's Cabinet Member for Community Protection, said: "This was a needless death that could have been prevented if both these companies had obeyed the law. While I am pleased that our prosecution has been successful, if the Royal Mail and Romec had taken more care then Mr Dicker would be alive today."

 

National Heath and Safety Officer Dave Joyce said "The court has rightly imposed heavy fines, having recognised the very serious failures by Romec and Royal Mail in this case where clearly the employers failed to discharge their health and safety legal duty of care to protect workers with a safe place and safe system of work. However, although the Union is pleased with the outcome, as on the face of it this judgement indicates that the court took the Health and Safety offences seriously, this fine is less that 1/2% of Royal Mails £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.

 

Full story: CWU Website

Source: CWU News Release

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