News from Leicester

January 2004 News

Murdered by profit!

photo CSC

On Monday Jan 5th, a protest organised by the Construction Safety Campaign (CSC), took place at Leicester Crown Court over the death of a 16 year old on a Leicestershire construction site. Building workers and campaigners attended from around the country as well as local trades unionists and activists.
Christopher Kesterton had been working on a site in Lutterworth for only a few weeks when he was hit by a falling steel column, which had not been properly secured.
After nearly three years one of the companies involved, Condour Structures Ltd, who admitted their negligence was finally brought to court for a decision on their penalty. They were fined £100,000 with nearly £60,000 costs for health and safety breaches – probably one of the highest fines ever in these circumstances.
In the court it came out that the same firm had been fined for negligence in the case of a death of a worker only 2 years prior to Christopher’s death.
According to the CSC, every year approximately 70 construction workers die in what the government say are mostly preventable accidents on construction sites. Thousands more are injured or made ill by conditions in the industry. In some cases courts have issued fines as low as £3,000 for the killing of a worker!
Christopher’s mother, Amanda Kesterton, said” To think that the maximum penalty for this is a fine, is disgraceful, something has to be done, the law has to be changed as it will not act as a deterrent to these companies. A fine is not good enough”
New Labour had promised a new criminal offence of “corporate manslaughter” in their election manifesto, but have not brought any legislation forward.
The CSC say that negligent employers should face imprisonment for killing or injuring workers, more safety inspectors must be employed, and workers must be given better rights on the shop floor.
Secretary of the CSC Tony O’Brien said: “The Labour government are reneging on their promises, and we are sick to death of it. A pensioner can be jailed for stealing a tin of beans, yet when it comes to killing a worker it obviously pays for bosses who are making millions. We want bosses that kill put in prison”

Earlier stories:

Liberal Cuts in Leicester

Socialist vote in Braunstone, May 2003

Anti-war protests

Massive schools strike in Leicester against the war

For more info on what we've been up to in the past read our archive page