Insurance

OSH professionals are critical to establishing the compliance culture and safety management rules that will keep both civil and criminal litigation risk in the UK at bay.

Little more than a third of the global labour force has effective access to employment injury protection, and there are significant disparities between high and low income countries, a global overview of recent developments in social protection systems reports.

The 18-year-old apprentice at Adam Askey was unfamiliar with the type of roof being repaired and had not received any training for work near skylights. A HSE investigation found that the apprentice was carrying out roof surveying work at a factory on the Fletchworth Gate Industrial Estate in Coventry on 29 November 2016 when the accident happened. The sales director and another roofer were present on the roof at the time. The trainee was placed in an induced coma for three weeks and has been unable to work since his discharge from hospital in January 2017.

In 2009 Nancy Leppink was appointed by President Obama to the Wage and Hour Division of the US Department of Labor. Her job as acting administrator was to help revivify the regulatory agency responsible for enforcing national labour standards including the minimum wage, child labour restrictions and statutory working time limits which had been almost dismantled under the previous administration.

In British criminal law, the employer has to look at the evidence that all reasonably foreseeable hazards were identified, and that all reasonably practicable controls were put in place. However, in civil law, vicarious liability is strict, with the organisation liable for what is done (or not done) on its behalf by employees.