Following close on the heels of the collapse of Carillion placing thousand of jobs at risk, public sector privateer Amey has been found guilty at employment tribunal of unfair dismissal of two workers who escalated a health and safety grievance to Liverpool Prison management after Amey refused to take their lone working concerns seriously.
In a move obviously designed to squeeze more profit out of the facilities management contract at the prison, John Bromilow and Harry Wildman, with over 40 years of service at the prison between them, were sacked after they took their health and safety concerns directly to the prison governor after the attempts to resolve the position through Amey’s internal processes failed.
It seems astonishing that Amey could not accept the clear risk of lone workers carrying tools around a prison and even worse putting tool bags down to carry out work; as one of the workers said, one person’s tools are another person’s weapons, an accurate summation of the risk, but one that appears to have been lost on the “competent” Amey management who carried out the risk assessment (if there was one of course).
Amey in their defence to the tribunal suggested the pair were trying to damage the company’s reputation by going straight to the prison management. However, this tribunal ruling shows that management cannot hide behind the veil of public sector procurement and not get pulled up when their decisions threaten the lives of workers and, in this case, potentially prisoners.
It is not workers exercising their rights that causes reputational damage to companies; it is employers who, through their negligence kill and maim workers, exposing them to unacceptable risk that causes reputational damage. It is sad that in our deregulated economy more is thought about how companies are perceived to the wider public rather than looking after the health, safety and welfare of committed workers who, through their own diligence and substantial knowledge of the work environment were actually, and perversely, preventing long term damage to the now tarnished reputation Amey clearly hold dear.
The governor of Liverpool Prison should be demanding that John and Harry are returned to the Amey contract at the hearing in June to decide reinstatement and compensation. There also needs to be the opportunity for criminal sanction on employers found guilty at employment tribunal for denying workers the right to a safe and healthy working environment.
Public sector clients should also have to take more responsibility for ensuring the health and safety of workers employed on these maintenance contracts and arguably the best way to deliver this is to bring services that are not protecting workers and the public back in house.
One final thought for Amey management: who would you have blamed if tools had been stolen, hostages taken and lives lost?
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