The question of who has responsibility for health remains as contested today as it was 200 years ago when the Industrial Revolution was gathering pace and the very earliest factory legislation sought to protect children working in the mills. But there really ought to be no room for argument: surely the very first duty of any employer, even before questions of fair pay or equal treatment arise, is to ensure all your people get off your premises alive and with as many limbs attached as when they came in that morning.
Yet even here there are ambiguities. In September BP paid a $21m fine for the fatal explosion at its Texas City refinery in which 15 workers lost their lives. But none of those people was actually an employee. Look at the 2004 social reports of BP, Shell and ExxonMobil and you’ll find just six employees lost their lives that year – six too many, but not a bad record given what those companies do and the fact they employ more than 300,000 people. Now compare that with the 48 contractors who died on their premises – eight times more with far fewer people involved – and you have to conclude this is a case of different standards, if not actually double standards.
Move from employees to consumers and the picture becomes still more complex. If even the UK Cabinet is totally split on the smoking issue, individual companies might be tempted to roll out the old mantra that individuals must be responsible for their own health. Of course that is true in so far as it goes, but it doesn’t absolve a food manufacturer or a service provider like a pub from its responsibilities – if for no better reason (being practically cynical now) than companies are a more juicy target for attack by the tabloids than the behaviour of their own readers.
In looking at this subject from Western Europe, beware of perceptions based on state-funded healthcare systems. In most parts of the world, health is a very real direct cost to individuals and companies. Add to that greater legal liability for products in America and you have a potent business as well as responsibility case for action. Address it at three levels: direct (employees and consumers of your products), indirect (contractors and consumers on your premises) and through wider engagement (such as community partnerships).
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