Phillip
Stone - The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007
[Scared? - you should be ...] -
Regular readers of Despatches will know that we have pleaded, even begged at times for DA members especially but other courier companies as well to take great care in marking out their relationship with their subcontracted riders and drivers. You know the reasons why....
DA
Action for the Courier Industry - For members We were pleased to be the first port of call for a DA member who, having decided that the time was right to develop and expand his business, asked our opinion on drafts of his newly-revised online booking form and several other business documents, including his Terms and Conditions...
Money
News Consumer credit guidance -
The Office of Fair Trading has published revised guidance on fitness and requirements for Consumer Credit license holders and applicants, as well as a statement of policy on civil penalties for failure to comply with requirements...
Road Transport - Confusion over London loading -
The decision by some London boroughs to remove unlimited kerbside access before 11am will create confusion across the capital. While welcoming the London Councils’ decision to double the kerbside loading limit on yellow lines from 20 minutes to 40 minutes, the DA believes that the removal of unlimited access means that companies making early morning deliveries of over 40 minutes risk being fined...
Focus
on Business Migrant workers update -
The Border and Immigration Agency (BIA) is proposing a maximum penalty of £10,000 for organisations which do not make proper checks on prospective employees’ right to work in the UK. Additionally, there will be a new criminal offence of ‘knowing’, it carrying a maximum two-year prison sentence for employers who deliberately employ illegal workers...
End Piece - Questions questions -
This month’s guest contributor is The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (UK). This was their first news release for 2008.
Each week The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) produces an electronic newsletter containing a relevant, and at times, controversial poll. These polls have created heated feedback and a few raised eyebrows! To mark a year of these polls, the Institute reveals some of the results...
Join
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Ask for an application form, or request a call from the DA Chief Executive
... New ! - The
Riders and Drivers Associates. Only £58.75 to join. Visit the
website for more information...
Regular readers of Despatches will know that we have pleaded, even begged at times for DA members especially but other courier companies as well to take great care in marking out their relationship with their subcontracted riders and drivers. You know the reasons why. HM Revenue and Customs and the occasional employment tribunal are perpetually alert to coming down hard on employers who treat this issue in a cavalier fashion. In fact, one of the most common forms of support we provide members is on dealing with this problem when the tax boys come calling or an unhappy courier threatens legal action for alleged unfair dismissal.
Well, this water is about to become murkier, the stakes for ignoring the problem, higher. The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 comes into force on 06 April 2008. For the first time, companies can be found guilty of corporate manslaughter as a consequence of serious management failures resulting in a gross breach of a duty of care. The Act clarifies the criminal liabilities of companies where serious failures in the management of health and safety result in a fatality. A company will be guilty of the new offence if the way in which its activities are managed or organised caused a death and amounts to a gross breach of a duty of care to the deceased. The offence is aimed at cases where management failures lie across an organisation as a whole and it is the organisation itself that will face prosecution.
The point of intersection between this Act and our standard issue of employment v. self-employment is over the definition of ‘duty of care’. The Act specifies that that companies owe a relevant duty of care:
to employees or other persons working for them or performing services for them
to those to whom they supply goods or services
as occupiers of premises
in relation to any activity which they carry out on a commercial basis
related to the use of keeping by organisations of any plant, vehicle or other thing.
This broad scope of the relevant duty of care is deliberate and will cover operators’ duties to other road users and to those involved in loading and unloading their vehicles. Any dispute about whether or not a company had a relevant duty of care to the deceased in a corporate manslaughter case will be a question of law and will be resolved by the judge.
Convictions carry correspondingly severe penalties. Courts have the power to impose unlimited fines, stringent remedial orders and something new called a publicity order. This requires an operator to publicise in a specified manner the fact of its conviction for corporate manslaughter, particulars of that offence, the amount of the fine imposed and the terms of any remedial order made.
Just who is and isn’t an employee, once this Act takes effect, is more than an industrial tribunal stating you need to recompense a driver or rider. It is more than a scary audit from HM Revenue and Customs. It potentially can break a company and cause untold distress to individuals of that company, for while prosecutions will be of the corporate body, the liability of directors, board members or other individuals under health and safety law or general criminal law will be unaffected so that those persons can still be prosecuted for separate offences.
It is now vital that proprietors review their systems for establishing clarity between the conditions of their employed staff and those whom they sub-contract. Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all in this matter and, as ever, the DA is here to provide information and support on a bespoke basis to members.
This wasn’t going to be a sales pitch but we all care about the industry because it’s our livelihood. For those readers who aren’t members of the DA, with the Corporate Manslaughter Act hanging over your head, can you really afford any longer not to belong to the one organisation that, for the price of a meal for two at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, can help keep you trading confidently and securely?
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