Simon is a former employee of Rubber Ltd., an international energy company

incorporated in Hong Kong. He was recruited to work as an accountant at Rubber Ltd. 10

years ago and, although originally based in Hong Kong, he spent most of the 10 years

working in mines in various countries in Africa. Having recently retired because of ill

health and returned to Hong Kong, Simon has discovered that his health problems are

related to exposure to dangerous substances in the course of his employment. R ubber

Ltd. is the parent company of Rubber (South Africa) Ltd. and has recently completed a

risk assessment study of all its operations. T he assessment identified Rubber (South

Africa) Ltd. as being a high risk financially to Rubber Ltd. on the basis of Rubber (South

Africa) Ltd.'s tax liability and its exposure to huge amount of potential litigation, such as

that of Simon. The repo rt also notes that Rubber Ltd. could have reduced its financial

risk exposure by removing all the assets from Rubber (South Africa) Ltd. and closing it

down. Having checked his employment contracts, Simon has found that he was

employed in Africa by Rubber (South Africa) Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Rubber

Ltd., which has subsequently gone into insolvent liquidation. Simon has also discovered

that Rubber Ltd. is directly responsible for the safety policy of all its subsidiaries and that

a number of directors of the two companies were the same people. Advise Simon.