The Industrial Fatality in Post-Robens Britain, 1974 – 2014

This thesis examines workplace fatalities in the period 1974 to 2014 with the subject matter arranged as five case studies presented in chronological order. Developments are examined from the advent of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 over a forty-year period to just after the introduction of the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007. There are common themes running through each chapter. Oral history interviews are used alongside the examination of public inquiry reports, official documents, press reports and archival sources, exploring themes including industry regulation, organisational culture, corporate crime, and social movements. This thesis presents the case that modern industrial fatalities should be separated from the broader historical literature on occupational health and safety. Whilst the subject belongs within, or close to, labour history it is its own sub-topic, in the same way that asbestosis, or work-related disabilities have their own bodies of literature. The modern industrial fatality, as defined by this thesis: - Occurs in a developed and fully industrialised economy, within a modern regulatory framework. - Occurs after the emergence and adoption of modern safety theory, from the early 1980s onwards. - Takes place in industrial settings where equipment, machinery, and processes have inherently hazardous properties but crucially, hazardous properties that can be managed and controlled. - Is foreseeable and preventable. The modern industrial fatality remains an ongoing moral, legal and social conundrum that cuts across the humanities and social sciences with immediate contemporary relevance. This thesis is strongly aligned with Sheffield Hallam University’s applied university goals because it creates knowledge that will help to provide practical solutions to this real-world challenge. The originality of this research is twofold. Firstly, by combining industrial safety theory and historical inquiry, it occupies a space loosely covered by labour history and the social sciences, but hitherto not explicitly examined. Secondly, by framing the modern industrial fatality as a distinct phenomenon it introduces a new paradigm that invites further academic scrutiny. There is significant scope for future research both from a labour history point of view and in terms of implications for organisational learning and policy development.