Still no justice for killed workers’ families
The families of five men killed while working on zero-hour agency contracts at a waste recycling plant marked the fourth anniversary of their deaths with a protest at the lack of progress in bringing a prosecution. The men were killed, and a sixth was seriously injured, when 263 tonnes of metal collapsed on top of them at the Hawkeswood Metal Recycling plant in Birmingham on 7 July 2016.
However, despite a four-year HSE criminal investigation and an inquest finding “inexcusable and gross failings of the company”, there has been no arrest or prosecution to date.
The campaign group Families Against Corporate Killers questioned the resources available to the HSE and said “it cannot be right that cases should take four years plus to bring an employer to account for their legal duties under criminal law”.