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University of Stirling(斯特林大学)
所在地区:苏格兰所在城市:StirlingTIMES排名:51
一键免费快速申请文章正文综述详细专业照片新闻校友录已获Offer学生资料ICL/Stockline Disaster: Independent Report by Stirling and Strathclyde Criticises Working ConditionsAn independent report into the Stockline disaster by academics at the Universities of Stirling and Strathclyde has criticised working conditions at ICL prior to the explosion.
The report exposes a health and safety culture which was "dangerously dysfunctional" and "blighted by fainthearted regulators” and concludes that regulators failed because they were rarely seen and were increasingly reluctant to take the necessary enforcement action.
The study was conducted by a multi-disciplinary research team including experts in workplace health, risk, employment rights and relations, corporate crime, architecture and accounting from the Universities of Stirling and Strathclyde. They found that heath and safety standards at the ICL factory in Maryhill, Glasgow were seriously deficient and that workers were "actively discouraged" from raising safety concerns.
Co-author of the report, Professor Andrew Watterson of the University of Stirling said: "Everything from the company's health and safety culture, to oversight by the Health and Safety Executive and other regulatory agencies to the penalties laid down this week by the courts point to a system that gives a nod and a wink to the most negligent employers that they can risk lives with virtual impunity. The surprise is not that tragedy struck at ICL, but that it didn't happen sooner."
He added: "Neither HSE nor the firm took the action necessary to remedy problems over 20 years that had a clear potential for catastrophic failure. This was a ‘sick’ firm - workers regularly developed 'polymer fume fever' and former workers report a series of accidents, some requiring hospitalisation."
Co-author Professor Phil Taylor from the University of Strathclyde added: "From workers’ testimonies it is clear that working conditions in the plant were primitive as management was driven by cost-minimisation and cut corners. There appears to have been an absence of consultation – on either a formal or informal basis – with the workforce which was a reflection of the wider industrial relations culture and practices, which rested upon top-down unilateral management decision-making. Workers complained of heavy-handedness, arbitrariness and favouritism over questions of pay determination. Reports suggest that management had long been motivated by a hostility to trade unionism and a reluctance to respond to employees’ concerns or to listen to their voices.”
The report calls for a full public enquiry, as well as rights for worker representatives, stricter penalties on company directors (including jail terms and seizure of assets), a stronger enforcement presence and action from HSE.
