Responsibility lay with the relevant Minister.
So, whichever party is in power the same will apply if mistakes or simple incompetence results in something going wrong?
I've written a little story, and would be interested to see who would carry the blame.
The tree of blame.
A, was a young man who, on leaving school, decided he’d like to work in a kitchen so went to college and was taught how to cook and handle food safely.
He began his career at a rather large multinational factory that produced home meals for many supermarkets and other outlets. A worked hard and hoped to one day emulate his supervisor, B, who had come up through the ranks. He did, however, find the work very boring and repetitive, and at times recently had worked as though in a haze. A human Robot.
B who was responsible for production and targets, trusted A as he had been trained and worked hard. There had been no cause to gee A up or to check him as often as some others on the line.
B reported to the Manager,C, who was responsible for the general running of the factory and all production therein, they met regularly and C trusted B to ensure all was well.
C, in turn, reported to the Head of the factory D, who once again found C to be on the ball and trustworthy, he therefore just, as all good Managers should, ensured that spot checks were made to confirm all was running like clockwork amongst his other work.
The chain of command went to the very top, Z, and until now there had been nothing too important to worry about, a slight hiccup here and there like most large companies, but nothing to write home about. It was no doubt extremely unlikely that Z would know any of the workers at the factory or indeed any of the other dozens of factories. His once in a year occasional visit was all A,B, or C would see of Z when touring the site with D.
Everything went well for a while until one day when A, who was in one of his hazy periods, had to use the loo and in his hurry he forgot to wash his hands, or didn’t wash them properly, he had also re-used his gloves instead of changing them, because he had only had them on for around 5 minutes. So, after using the loo and wiping himself clean, then going straight back to the area in which he worked he had broken a number of rules and regs which were to have a catastrophic impact.
The results were calamitous, fatal, and ruinous, with an outbreak of Hepatitis A and a couple of deaths, in several of those businesses supplied by the company.
The source was traced back to the factory where A worked, all products were removed from sale and, of course, the press was all over it. The factory was closed for deep cleaning and samples of all staff taken. Eventually A was identified as the source of the infection. The cost to the company both monetarily and reputation wise was extremely high and resulted eventually in a number of redundancies due to lost business.
A had apparently been on a holiday to South America and had either been drinking unclean water, eaten food that had been washed or grown in unclean water or had been eating food that had been handled by an infected person, thus picking up the infection himself. He had failed to report his ‘not feeling well’ to B, as he now needed money following his holiday of a lifetime.
Heads rolled, but whose?
A, B, C, D or the man at the top Z.
yorkshirebylines.co.uk
