Paying the Price for Health & Safety Failures
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Recently, the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) announced that the number of employees killed or injured at work is at it lowest level since the introduction of the modern health & safety system 35 years ago. The Health & Safety At Work etc Act was introduced in October 1974 and, during that year, over 650 people were killed in work related incidents. The HSE statistics for the year to March 2009 show that 180 people died as a result of work related incidents. Following the introduction of the 1974 Act, there has been a steady reduction in work related deaths, but the HSE has stressed that workers are still dying as a result of avoidable accidents at work.
Last week the HSE prosecuted a roofing company in West Yorkshire for three safety breaches following an incident in January this year. A roofer sustained serious head injuries when he fell nearly four metres through a roof he had been working on. The company pled guilty to all three charges under the Work At Heights Regulations 2005 and was fined £23,500 in total and ordered to pay costs of almost £3,500. The fines were higher than in previous similar cases because the new Health & Safety Offences Act 2008 had come into force. The 2008 Act came into force in January this year and raised the maximum possible fine for breach of health & safety regulations in the lower courts from £5,000 to £20,000. The roofing company in question is thought to be the first company fined using the powers provided by the new Act.
The HSE investigation established that there had been no coverings over any of the skylights in the roof to prevent employees falling through. The company had also instructed employees to erect a tower scaffold when they were not trained to do so. As a result, the platform was too low to break the roofer’s fall.
An HSE representative described these as “very serious health and safety breaches”.
Last month a horticultural company was prosecuted in Scotland following the death of an agency worker who was crushed when a tip bucket he was welding moved while he was working on it. The company pled guilty to breaching section 3(1) of the 1974 Act, which places a duty on employers, so far as reasonably practicable, to ensure that employees are not exposed to risks to their health and safety. The company was fined £23,300. Costs are not awarded in cases prosecuted in Scotland.
The HSE stressed that employers who take on agency workers must provide the same level of protection for those workers as they would for permanent employees.
The first trial under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 is due to start in February next year and it is hoped that the case will give some guidance on the impact of the new Act. For more information about the 2007 Act: (Link to previous article on this: /about-us/news/news-2008/april-2008/corporate-homicide-act---now-in-force.aspx)
The introduction of the 2007 Act makes it all the more important for organisations to make sure that they follow the relevant health and safety legislation and keep up to date with developments in this area.
For more information on any aspect of health and safety compliance, please contact David Stevenson.
The information contained in this article is given for general information only, reflects the current law on the date of this article, and does not constitute legal advice on any specific matter