Members of the Simon Jones Memorial Campaign have called for changes in the law to prosecute more employers for workplace deaths and injuries.

Simon Jones, 24, was killed by a mechanical grab as he worked in the hold of a ship at Shoreham in 1998.

He had been sent to work for Euromin by Brighton employment agency Personnel Selection and had little safety training.

After a three year battle by Simon's family and campaigners, Dutch-owned Euromin and general manager Richard Martell went on trial at the Old Bailey for corporate manslaughter.

They were cleared of the main charges but the company was fined £50,000 for violating health and safety rules.

At a rally attended by more than 300 people at the Komedia in Gardner Street, Brighton, last night, Simon's mother Anne said: "We need a legal obligation for company directors to attend to the safety of their workforce.

"The awful thing was when Martell's counsel stood in court and said even if he spent all day playing golf instead of attending to safety at Euromin he would not be committing a crime because his only duty was to the company.

"It seemed awful but that is exactly the way the law is written. This law needs changing."

Mrs Jones said: "We particularly need to protect casual workers because they are not protected at all.

"It is no coincidence the industry in this country with the highest death rate is also the one with the highest number of casual workers - the construction industry."

Speaker Mick Fuller, of the London Hazards Centre, said the law needed to be changed to enable workers to challenge their employers about safety issues.

Managers and company directors who neglected safety should be given stiffer sentences.

Other speakers included Tony O'Brian, of the Construction Safety Campaign, and Simon Jones Memorial Campaign organiser Colin Chalmers.

They criticised the increasing casualisation of the workforce and called for workers to take direct action to persuade lawmakers to make corporations and company directors directly responsible for health and safety.

The rally was organised by the memorial campaign in conjunction with the Rebel Alliance and Brighton-based newsletter SchNews.