US unions call on IoD chairman to quit after fatal mine blast
Source: The Guardian
US unions call on IoD chairman to quit after fatal mine blast
Lady Barbara Judge sat on committees overseeing safety and corporate
governance at Massey Energy, which lost 29 workers in a 2010 explosion
Simon Bowers
Sunday 18 October 2015 16.59 BST
The Institute of Directors is facing calls for its chairman, Lady Barbara Judge, to quit because of her involvement with the coal company responsible for Americas worst coalmine disaster in 40 years. The IoD insisted it had total confidence in Judge following the campaign by Change to Win, a US trade union umbrella group, to urge her to leave because of her role at Massey Energy where she sat on committees overseeing safety and corporate governance.
A coal dust explosion in 2010 killed 29 workers in West Virginia, which according to a 972-page official report was the result of a series of basic safety violations
and were entirely preventable. Judge, who is married to former Conservative party fundraiser Sir Paul Judge, was not criticised.
Before the explosion, institutional investors and union groups warned that Judge, who held multiple directorships, would not be able to devote sufficient time to addressing Masseys already considerable safety issues. Judge, who was appointed chair of the IoD in February, resigned from the coal group three weeks after the disaster, citing the demands of other ongoing business activities.
In its letter, Change to Win said: The evidence of widespread safety problems at Massey mines and red flags pointing towards impending disaster at Upper Big Branch were abundant and yet Lady Judge and her fellow board members failed to act.
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Read more:
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/oct/18/us-unions-call-on-iod-chairman-to-quit-after-fatal-mine-blast