We often tell you about companies that have been fined by the courts for failings in health and safety, with these fines often in tens of thousands of pounds, or sometimes hundreds of thousands!
A recent case saw a supervisor fined – not the company – which had agreed a safe method of removing roof sheets from a warehouse using a scissor lift from the underside. They also had instructed the supervisor that if there were any problems the manager was to be called.
When they had problems, the supervisor allowed the workers to go onto the roof, with the result that one fell 10 metres and was left paralysed.
The supervisor was fined £1000 and ordered to pay costs of £9,700.
This case illustrates that companies must have safe systems of work which employees must follow, and it must be made abundantly clear to supervisors and employees that the system must not be deviated from. A “good” employee is not the one that gets the work done as quickly as possible, but the one who gets the work done by following all of the safe working procedures. This is particularly important when employees work away from base.
For further advice and guidance on this and any other Health & Safety-related matter, please do not hesitate to contact Kelly Halls on 0800 542 7550 or by email at kelly.halls@park-city.local.
