Health and Safety Failings – Ladder fall leads to £7,000 fine

Ladder fall leads to £7,000 fine

Key Facts:

• A company have been prosecuted after a worker suffered a 3.6m fall from a ladder.  He suffered multiple injuries, including breaking 8 ribs.
• Several safety failings were identified including a lack of training, planning and supervision.
• The company were fined £7,000 and costs of £1,198.

The Case:

A shop-fitting firm’s health and safety practices were investigated by the HSE after a worker suffered eight broken ribs after falling from a ladder in an incident on 29 August 2014.

The employee was working to remove redundant electrical cabling from the roof space of a factory. He was working off one half of an extendable ladder that was being footed by a colleague. He was using both of his hands to saw through a pipe when he overbalanced and fell from the ladder, falling 3.6m to the floor below.

As a result of the fall, he suffered from eight broken ribs, cuts to his head, a broken finger, and lacerations to his shin, knee and elbow. He since returned to work with the company.

The HSE investigation identified a number of safety failings. Neither of the workers had any experience, nor training in work at height. The ladder they were using was not suitable for the task at hand. The company had failed to organise, plan, or appropriately supervise work at height.

The case was heard at Birmingham Magistrates’ Court on 30 March 2015, where the firm pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 4(1) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005. They were issued a fine of £7,000 and costs of £1,198.

What the HSE inspector had to say:

Speaking after the hearing the HSE Inspector John Glynn stated that:

“The factory had been rewired by an electrical contractor but A Edmonds and Co decided to task its employees with stripping out the redundant material in preference to them being laid off on a three-day week.

However, the company failed to effectively organise and plan the work, gave them an inadequate ladder to use rather than a more suitable aluminium tower and failed to appropriately supervise and monitor what was going on.

Untrained and inexperienced employees were left to their own devices to get on with the job, one they felt compelled to perform rather than being laid-off with reduced wages.

Mr Sweet was extremely lucky not to have suffered more serious injuries or even been killed.”

What the law states:

Regulation 4(1) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 states:

Every employer shall ensure that work at height is (a) properly planned; (b) appropriately supervised; and (c) carried out in a manner which is so far as is reasonably practicable safe, and that its planning includes the selection of work equipment in accordance with regulation 7.

Further information from the HSE on safe work at height can be found here.

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