Health and Safety Failings – Fine issued for multiple health and safety failings

Fine issued for multiple health and safety failings

Key Facts:

• The site was in such a dangerous condition that 8 notices were immediately issued by the visiting health and safety inspector
• Dangers included unguarded dangerous machinery, exposure to risk of electrocution, and asbestos contamination.
• HSE inspector said that the standards were “totally inadequate” and that it was “very fortunate no-one was killed or seriously injured’ at the site.
• The company was fined £35,000 and ordered to pay £20,000 in costs as a result of multiple health and safety failings.

The case:

A routine HSE inspection of a waste and recycling site in Carmarthen on 20 May 2013 identified multiple health and safety failings. Such serious safety issues were found that eight notices were immediately served in order to halt a range of activities. Multiple health and safety failings were identified at the site.

The dangers on the site included access to unguarded dangerous machinery, exposure to risk of electrocution, and asbestos contamination.

A further issue was involved the use of a ‘man basket’ on a forklift truck, intended to enable employees to carry out work at height. However, the basket had not been secured to the forks of the truck, nor had a cage been installed behind the basket to prevent workers from becoming trapped with the fork lift mast.

Machinery onsite included a granulator, two compactors, a shredder and a paint mixing drum – none of which had suitable guards that would prevent workers from becoming caught in the moving parts of the machines.

A risk of electrocution was also discovered when electrical were found to be trailing through liquid.

Pipe lagging at the site was not only damaged and exposed, but also found to contain asbestos containing materials, thus exposing the site workers to the risk of contamination. A specialist report had identified the presence of asbestos and recommended its urgent removal, but this advice had not been taken.

The multiple health and safety failings found at the site were heard at Swansea Crown Court on 2 February 2015, where the company pleaded guilty to a breach of health and safety regulations, a single breach of control of asbestos regulations, and a breach of work equipment regulations. The firm was fined £35,000 and costs of £20,000.

What the HSE Inspector had to say:

Speaking after the hearing, HSE Inspector Clare Owen stated that:

“The conditions at this site were extremely poor and the dangers were quite clear. It’s very fortunate no-one was killed or seriously injured there.

Mekatek failed to manage basic health and safety at the site and these multiple failings confirm its approach was totally inadequate. The issues identified, such as cables trailing through liquid and management of asbestos should have been immediately obvious.

The management also relied on health and safety managers it employed for advice but failed to check if they were competent and had appropriate qualifications, particularly for the management of asbestos.

Twenty tradespeople, on average, die from asbestos related diseases in Britain every week and it’s the biggest single cause of work related deaths in the country.

The lives of the 34 workers at the site and any visitors depended on the company meeting its legal health and safety obligations fully.”

What the law states:

Regulation 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 states that:

“It shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees.”

Regulation 4 of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 requires duty holders with a legal responsibility for non-domestic premises to manage the risk from any asbestos that may be present and this includes that:

“the measures to be specified in the plan for managing the risk must include adequate measures for ensuring that information about the location and condition of any asbestos or any such substance is (i) provided to every person liable to disturb it, and (ii) made available to the emergency services.”

Regulation 11(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 states:

“Every employer shall ensure that measures are taken which are effective – (a) to prevent access to any dangerous part of machinery or to any rotating stock-bar; or (b) to stop the movement of any dangerous part of machinery or rotating stock-bar before any part of a person enters a danger zone.”

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