An engineering company firm has been fined for safety failings after a member of the public witnessed workers on a fragile roof without any preventative measures to avoid risk of falling.
Redhill Magistrates’ Court heard how in September 2014 employees of Todd Engineering Limited, of Staffordshire, were working on a fragile roof installing ventilation ducting. The risks were obvious, but nothing was in place to prevent either falling off the edge of the roof or through the roof.
Falls from height remain one of the biggest causes of deaths at work in the UK. Fortunately, no-one was injured in this incident.
Todd Engineering Limited, of Gregory Works, Armitage Road, Rugeley was fined a total of £10,000 and ordered to pay £4,782 in costs after pleading guilty to an offence under Regulation 4(1)(a) of the Work at Heights Regulations 2005.
Speaking after the hearing, HSE Inspector Denis Bodger said: “It is essential that all roof work is properly planned by a competent person and competent workers are clearly instructed on how to carry out the work safely. It is not acceptable to simply rely on sending the workers to site */and expecting that they will carry out the work safely, as was the case here.”
Source: HSE News 15th September