Health and Safety: Working at Height Fines
A West Midlands roofing company has been fined after a safety official passed them working and spotted an employee working unsafely at height with no fall protection in place at all.
The incident was reported by the safety official after the chance sighting on 26th September 2013 and the firm was prosecuted yesterday (28th April). Sandwell Magistrates Court heard that an inspector for the Health and Safety Executive was on the industrial estate when he saw two of the firms’ employees on a fragile roof of a nearby business unit. He noted that the workers were on the roof without the adequate fall prevention or fall mitigation measures in place.
The following Health and Safety Executive investigation found that the firm had prepared risk 
assessments and method statements for this work that stated that guard rails and netting would be used. Along with failing to comply with these statements the firm also failed to use suitable boarding, platforms and coverings.
£8590 to be paid
Ultimately the firm was fined £7,500 and were also ordered to pay over £1000 costs after pleading guilty to breaching sections of the Work at Height Regulations 2005. After the hearing, Health and Safety Executive inspector Gareth Langston said:
“The dangers that the workers faced were so great and immediately obvious when I witnesses the safety breaches being committed.
[The firm] blatantly ignored the risk assessments advice for fall protection to be in place, leaving workers exposed to an unnecessary risk of a serious or even fatal injury.
Working at height is a high-risk activity. There is a need to adequately plan for such work and ensure those plans are fully implemented and monitored effectively to ensure the safety of those involved.”
Last year more than 6,300 employees suffered major injuries after falling from height at work. Working on roofs accounts for nearly a quarter of all workers who are killed in falls from height. Many others are seriously injured and a re left with life changing injuries.
Read more about Working at Height Regulations: Access Equipment Direct2U
Read more about this story at: Health and Safety Executive