CONSTRUCTION workers’ leaders have condemned the government’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE) for an eight-year “nightmare” delay in prosecuting an employer following the death of an electrician at work.

John Walker was working on a demolition site in Elephant and Castle in south London in August 2007 when falling concrete joists crushed him to death.

Employer 777 Demolition & Haulage and sister firm 777 Environmental were found guilty at Southwark Crown Court on November 2 of breaching health and safety regulations by failing to investigate the nature of the structure, which led to an uncontrolled collapse. Together, the companies were fined £215,000 and ordered to pay legal costs of £168,000 to the HSE.

Construction union Ucatt said the bereaved family had suffered “an eight-year legal nightmare after the totally unnecessary and negligent death of a loved one.”

Acting general secretary Brian Rye added: “This was not a public inquiry into a war, a plane crash or a complicated corporate legal case.

“One man died on London’s Walworth Road and yet it took eight long years to assign cause and blame.

“This should not happen again.”