Corus faces prosecution

Steel giant Corus is to face prosecution by the Health and Safety Executive following an investigation into a lethal explosion in a blast furnace.

Three workers were killed and another nine were badly injured at the Port Talbot steelworks in 2001, and next month Corus UK Ltd will face charges of failing to ensure the safety of its employees and failing to ensure that contractors were not exposed to risks to their safety.

It was revealed last November that no manslaughter charges would be brought in connection with the incident.

Roy Rickhuss, assistant general secretary of steelworkers’ union Community, said: “The remarkable degree to which several Corus managers could not remember who made what decisions in a crucial meeting an hour before the explosion – with several of them unable to even recall what was discussed and by whom – smacks of a management culture whose first instinct is not a desire to establish the truth, but to protect their own reputations and positions.”