Union slams eight-year delay in sentencing
The HSE is facing criticism from construction workers’ union UCATT after the bereaved family of a construction worker had to wait almost a decade before his employers were brought to justice.
UCATT said there was “no justifiable reason” for the eight-year delay in sentencing the employers of electrician John Walker. He was killed by falling concrete joists in August 2007 while working on a demolition site in south London.
His employers, 777 Demolition & Haulage, and sister firm, 777 Environmental, were finally found guilty of health and safety offences and fined £215,000 with £168,000 costs earlier this month at Southwark Crown Court.
“How does Britain allow the bereaved families of workers – who suffer the totally unnecessary and negligent death of a loved one – to be plunged into an eight year legal nightmare?” the union asked.
Acting general secretary Brian Rye said: “This was not a public enquiry into a war, a plane crash or a complicated corporate legal case. One man died on London’s Walworth Road and yet it took eight long years to assign cause and blame.”