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The arrival of the Corporate Manslaughter Law means that businesses of all sizes from SMEs to large international groups have to take a fresh look at how they manage the safety of their employees that travel. UK companies can protect themselves from potential prosecution by using their travel request and expenses solution to keep track of employees.
With the Corporate Manslaughter Law that came into effect on the 6th April this year, business travel procedures and policies are in the spotlight. Organisations are now legally responsible for putting measures in place to protect employees whilst they travel for work. This covers a myriad of areas from the very basic – ensuring that you have a company travel policy and that employees are aware of it through to maintaining employees safety and having knowledge of their whereabouts at all times. And the stakes are high if companies fail to meet the standards set by this new law.
Under the legislation organisations, if found negligent when a death occurs, will face hefty fines. To support the new law the Sentencing Guidelines Council are drawing up guidelines which are due to be announced in Autumn 2008. Although there is no upper limit to the fine it is anticipated that they it will start at 5% of annual turnover – added to that companies will have to fund their own name and shame publicity.
The new law will give the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) a better chance of finding employers guilty should the worst happen. Previously the CPS had to prove that a single individual was the “controlling mind” and therefore responsible for corporate manslaughter. Now they will have the opportunity to charge the company as a whole for the actions of the senior management and will be able to take a close and detailed look at what systems were in place and how these were maintained in order to protect employees.
The full impact of the Act is impossible to predict but it is becoming apparent that the health and safety of employees must move up the priority lists of all businesses and not just while they’re in the workplace but while they are on the move too. With this in mind businesses are looking for tools that provide immediate tracking solutions for their corporate travellers : travel policy compliance, reporting in real time etc.
