Corporate Manslaughter Law and How to Avoid Deaths with the Help of Technology

Avoiding fatalities with the help of technology in any organization

Some time ago, in 2007, the law of involuntary manslaughter and corporate manslaughter was introduced into the law; it was signed into law on 6 April 2008. The scope of this law is throughout England, Wales and Northern Ireland, but it is a bit different as it becomes “corporate homicide” in Scotland. Strangely, this legislation, the corporate manslaughter law, is also applicable to the Hong Kong territories.

But, what is it about? And is this legislation just another statute that burdens companies with more red tape? And why is it important to your company?

The reality is that these acts of corporate homicide and murder are responsible for making the workplace safer. But how was that achieved? The legislation effectively creates a fairly large ‘stick’ towards management right at the top of the chain and responsible people in any company; this helps ensure that employees (or anyone involved with or even visiting your business) are kept completely safe.

If someone dies and the death is caused by a lack of duty of care on the part of the organization (corporation, society, unions, employers’ associations, police forces and many government departments, to name just a few), then the consequences could be said. Failure to comply with health and safety legislation causing a death creates a “serious breach” of duty depending on the circumstances.

But this article is not here for you about the act of corporate manslaughter and corporate manslaughter as such, rather it advises to highlight the worst case scenario of non-compliance with the law and some of the potential consequences of such non-compliance.

But what can be done to make an organization’s environment safer and reduce the potential for injury or death? One of the key areas that is critical is the speed of emergency responders to care for someone in critical danger or injured that could easily turn into a fatality. But that is easy to say, however, it can actually be a difficult problem to solve at times due to a lack of knowledge of available solutions that could help most organizations. Communication in any emergency is also key.

While there are many communication systems that could be used to communicate in emergency situations, which one to choose and implement is an important factor in ensuring that your organization is not subject to any breach of legislation or its subsequent consequences.

Taking a look at wireless two-way radios, these can offer a good solution for when someone is injured, but if the person is a lone worker, things can get more cumbersome. Some two way radios include a lone worker facility and if, for example, someone were to fall (even while unconscious) then the two way radio has the ability to ‘warn’ other members on site of the situation so they can offer help or investigate the problem. Some two way radios can even notify a mobile phone when there are problems through the use of other specialized custom equipment. With custom specialized equipment, the entire team could easily be notified that someone is down and then emergency crews can attend the scene.

Other alternatives often include the person ‘calling’ every thirty minutes (variable and determined by the system) and if they don’t call, the alarm goes off. But typically, the two-way radio solution often only identifies “the area” where the injured person may be, and in large organizations that can sometimes be a problem. Working anywhere underground or in confined spaces surrounded by metal makes this form of technology a poor choice.

Other solutions that are available include mobile phone based systems, while mobile based solutions are quite good outdoors (assuming there is phone coverage), but often indoors, underground or in other situations, they tend to be unreliable or not operational at all. Relying on those mobile phone based solutions could be a challenge if they don’t work and someone dies.

Similarly, when using pendant devices (or similar devices) based on GPS, satellite-based, or other similar technologies, there are often issues when it comes to operability in many situations (indoors, underground, and even in areas that need to be intrinsically safe, like bakeries, for example) that need to be carefully considered as far as lives are concerned. Nobody wants a system that only works part of the time, right?

Other equipment includes on-site public address systems that have specific locations for emergency call buttons that can communicate with emergency personnel if there is an incident. These solutions typically have a shorter range than, for example, two-way radios, but vendors often have the ability to extend the range much further. Using signal booster repeaters helps tremendously. One advantage is that these call buttons can be configured to send messages to the entire team of emergency personnel. When an emergency call button is pressed, all team members will receive a message. When the first team member arrives, you can quickly determine the need for another staff member to continue the emergency, or you can simply “press a cancel button” which will send a message to other team members to leave. Using emergency call buttons is usually a good option and is suitable for most business sectors.

An incident at a well-known company about the use of emergency call buttons and how the emergency was handled was recently discussed; BASF’s EHS manager commented: “We had a medical emergency at the Eldon Way site (an employee collapsed). A colleague witnessed the incident and immediately pressed the nearby first aid call button. The 2 first aiders who were carrying the pagers that day were able to quickly respond and handle the incident. This shows just how valuable the system can be in an emergency!” the EHF manager continued: “I was at the Harwood Road site and it turned out that I was with one of the first helpers from that site and because of the amplifiers he picked up the signal too. This means we were also alerted to the incident and went to Eldon Way to help.” The company clearly confirmed the strength of the signal booster repeaters, and the incident was resolved quickly and efficiently.

The call buttons can be ‘battery’ or mains powered, but in the event that they are battery powered when the batteries are running low (after many months of use) the unit sends a message to management confirming exactly which unit needs replacement batteries. Battery power is a solution where there is no mains supply available on site, but where there is adequate mains connectivity, that should be the preferred option.

Lastly, there are big developments in the area of ​​beacon technology that has been growing steadily for a while. For anyone unfamiliar with beacons and that type of technology, there are a few different ways to use beacons technically, but in general they tend to work by detecting near-field components that may be attached to assets (asset tracking) or even people for their exact location on or off premises (depending on the specific beacon technologies used). BLE technology has long been known for shorter range issues, but with BLE 5.1 ​​and above, instead of the typical 10-meter range, this new 5.1 technology reportedly reaches over 200 meters. Other enhancements to those systems offer even greater range for on-site lone worker (or not so lone worker) solutions that clearly offer many advantages that other technologies simply cannot achieve. Other features that depend on the exact beacon technology being used can even show locations of people or assets in multi-story facilities, so if an employee was on the 12th floor of a 30-story building, for example, that employee can be seen on a map and exactly what floor they are on. These features are set to change the way the lone worker (or even the location of employees in general) will change in the next wave of technology in this sector. And the costs are easily proportional to the low-budget figures.

Of course, there are even more solutions out there, but some of them tend to be very expensive and prohibitively expensive, while systems like two-way radios and emergency call buttons tend to be financially within the reach of most businesses and don’t really compromise the operational features they’re specifically used for.

Failure to ensure security and non-compliance with any of the laws of each respective country can result in unbelievably high fines without limit plus costs; an example is a London company that was fined £1,200,000 and costs in total. The Sentencing Council has a statutory duty to prepare and provide sentencing guidelines to courts for offenders in the UK. The sentence can be lengthy and can include jail terms for the responsible employees. The legislation in the UK which creates this liability is the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and prosecution under this Act often takes place due to the negligence of the person responsible for ensuring that employees (for example) are safe at all times.

The law and the penalties resulting from such breaches can be extreme and a look at Wikipedia on this topic will soon confirm that taking a nonchalant approach to health and safety or ‘doing nothing’ to alleviate problems before they result in serious injury or death is not an option. Ultimately, the highest levels of management are held accountable for any fatalities and management could even end up in jail.

A recent incident in the headlines was the Grenfell Tower fire and it has been suggested that certain parties involved in that catastrophe may be subject to breaches of corporate manslaughter law. Only time will tell if that is the case, but it highlights the position here in England and how the law could have been broken and the serious consequences by large organizations.

Of course, there is no solution that guarantees complete communications in every condition or situation that could apply when someone is injured or killed; But careful consideration of the systems available will ensure that you end up with an emergency communication solution that’s right for you—even a combination of more than one type of system that can offer a strong communication channel might generally work for you. In most cases speed is essential and unpredictable solutions could actually hinder attendance or, in the worst case, lead to fatality in your organization. Nobody wants that. The fact that your organization has operational solutions on site alone can go a long way in ensuring that the act of corporate manslaughter isn’t something you’ll default to anytime soon.