DPP's Reasons Project comment and Justice for Justin Foley Campaign update

national | worker & community struggles and protests | press release Friday October 24, 2008 10:55 by Lauren Foley - Justice for Justin Foley Campaign foleys at justinfoley dot ie

Lauren Foley, Justice for Justin Foley Campaign Managers' comment on the DPP's Reasons Project. Underscoring the perspective of the bereaved in the wake of fatalities in the workplace. Also, Justice for Justin Foley Campaign update. Justice for Justin Foley petition to the European Commission has been deemed admissible and is waiting to be tabled thanks to Kathy Sinnott MEP.

Justin's Life Remembered

On 23/10/2008 the Office of the DPP piloted their Reasons Project, which is, policy on the giving of reasons for decisions not to prosecute in alleged offences where a death has occurred. This is a policy change that will enable parties closely connected with the deceased to request the reasons for decisions not to prosecute. The policy change includes fatalities in the workplace and it is not retrospective.

My brother Justin Foley (RIP), 21, from Rush in North Dublin, was crushed to death by a truck in a work-related fatal incident on the 3rd of December 2002. As the Campaign Manager for the Justice for Justin Foley Campaign I am heartened to see fatalities in the workplace, being grouped as a distinct category, by the DPP, in this policy change.

Too often fatalities in the workplace are not viewed as an explicit grouping. My family and I have felt this has hindered policy movement and to some extent public awareness in these occurrences, which as we know in an all too real extent, can affect anyone at any time in any workplace. Poor health and safety practices put ‘profits before people’. Personally, the ‘people before profits’ slogan encapsulates my opinion on such practices. Workplace fatalities are reported individually, when they occur, and, to my mind, do not register as a distinct category of deaths in Ireland or internationally. As Corporate Manslaughter is not a charge that can be issued on an employer in Ireland, due to lack of legislation, fatalities in the workplace come under Health and Safety legislation. My concern with the HSA’s lack in prosecuting companies in the aftermath of workplace deaths and breaches of Health and Safety legislation and the subsequent fallout from these trends needs to be addressed.

In the Reasons Project the DPP has just highlighted that workplace deaths can be prosecuted criminally. Nevertheless, fatalities in the workplace are considered white collar crime. And the onus falls to the bereaved to take legal proceedings in civil prosecutions. This is not something that a grieving family necessarily has the wherewithal or fortitude to pursue – particularly in the immediate aftermath of their bereavement. The lack of Corporate Manslaughter legislation in Ireland at this time, as far as I am concerned, flags up the pertinent issue of the term ‘workplace accidents’. In my family we speak of Justin having been ‘killed’ just as one would if someone related to them had been ‘killed’ in a road traffic offence. There is death in ‘fatalities in the workplace’ but can one mention a killing when legislation does not cover manslaughter in these instances?

All of this bleeds into the criminal and civil dichotomy presented in such fatalities. Justin, twenty months my junior, was a young man in the early years of his adult life when he died at 21. He did not live to buy his first car. He did not live to own a house of his own. He did not live to get married. He did not live to father children. He would have had all of this ahead of him. But he did not live past the young age of 21. Since his death in 2002 my family are still awaiting our civil case against the companies involved to come to court. Civil proceedings take a long time – in our case 6 years and waiting.

Recently our petition regarding Health and Safety in the Workplace with specific reference to Justin and the Health and Safety Authority in Ireland has been deemed admissible by the Petitions Committee in the European Commission and is waiting to be tabled. This would not have been possible without the advice and support of Kathy Sinnott MEP.

The Reasons Project policy change will not affect us – as Justin died on 3/12/2002 and the change took effect regarding deaths following 23/10/2008 – we have no way of knowing why a criminal prosecution was not taken. I do not know how the Project will be administered, or what the further implications of such a scheme may turn out to be, as this is just the outset. Nevertheless, any move of the DPP to make their dealings with bereaved families more compassionate is welcomed by the Justice for Justin Foley Campaign.

First, dealing with the sudden and unexpected death of a loved one is extremely difficult. Couple this with the circumstances surrounding the death, the involvement of government agencies, the Gardai, and the complex legal and governmental systems. Next, ponder a moment the weight of the pressure of living in an expectant state for X amount of years on a civil case – in the hope of finding out some information, getting closure, and being allowed to grieve. Then, you will for a moment have an insight into the altered world that the bereaved exist in when the alleged offenders are not prosecuted by the DPP or the HSA. Your loved one has died. And it is left to you, not simply to grieve, but to engage a solicitor and to take civil proceedings yourself. Personally, I feel the way the government and its agencies leave families to deal with all of this pressure, in the wake of their bereavements, without guidance, is morally negligible. But dealing with the bereaved in a more sensitive way will hopefully be a step towards families getting some solace and some closure in a system where they and their loved ones are all too often forgotten.

Justice for Justin Foley