New Hazard of the Month Announced!
WA Management are pleased to announce that our hazard of the month for September is Fire! We will be focusing on Fire Safety measures throughout the month, especially to coincide with Fire Door Safety Week during 21st – 27th September. Make sure you are following all our social media platforms to keep-up-to-date with our tailored research blogs and more!
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To coincide with this, for this month only we have a fantastic 10% off our RoSPA Accredited Fire Safety and Fire Warden online training courses with the code ‘Fire20’! All of our professionally-designed e-learning courses are available 24/7 upon purchase, and come with a downloadable certificate.
£200k Fine for Maritime Firm After Employee Fractures Foot
A maritime freight and logistics company has been fined after a worker suffered multiple bone fractures to his foot when a forklift truck was driven over it. A worker was injured when a 15-tonne forklift truck drove over his foot during unloading and stacking of steel coils in a shed at premises in Newport.
An investigation by the HSE found that there was inadequate control of workplace transport risks. The company had also failed to conduct a suitable and sufficient assessment of controls for workplace transport.
Simec Ports (UK) Limited, formerly known as Cargo Services (UK) Ltd, was found guilty of breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. The company has been fined £200,000 and ordered to pay costs of £8,732.04.
Read more on the incident from SHPOnline.
Three Construction Firms Hit With Fines Totalling £256k After Worker Dies
Three construction companies have been heavily fined after a worker suffered fatal injuries while demolishing a two-storey building in preparation for a development project. On the 13 October 2016, David Shayler, an employee of Ryde Demolition Limited, was removing roof timbers by hand with a colleague when a gable wall partially collapsed causing him to fall backwards striking his head against a stack of roof tiles.
An investigation by the HSE into the incident found that:
- The work was inadequately planned and managed by all the duty holders involved in the project.
- The technique used to remove the roof timbers was done out of sequence and the brick gable had been left unstable.
- Inadequate provision was made to prevent falls from height, despite concerns raised by workers in the days leading up to the incident.
The three companies were fined a total of £256K after pleading guilty to sections of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the Construction (Design & Management) Regulations 2015.
Read more from on the incident from the HSE.
Company Fined £20K After Worker Suffers Serious Back Injury
A powder coating company has been fined after a worker in a factory in Poole, Dorset suffered shattered lumbar vertebrae and had to be kept in a lying down position on his back for two weeks in hospital. On 27 July 2017, the worker was checking the straps on a wheeled A-frame trolley containing ten 6m long twin wall polycarbonate sheets weighing 34kg each, when the load unexpectedly toppled onto him pushing him to the ground. Colleagues had to lift the sheets off the worker and call for an ambulance.
The HSE’s investigation found that C & R Powder Coating and Welding Fabrication Ltd had failed to ensure the safety of workers engaged in the transfer and storage of plastic sheeting on a trolley. In addition, the trolley was not suitable for the storage and transport of the plastic sheets because it was not sufficiently long enough and had no means for ensuring the straps being used would stay in place.
C & R Powder Coating and Welding Fabrication Ltd pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 4 of The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (PUWER). The company has been fined £20,000 and ordered to pay costs of £10,338.20.
Read more on the incident from SHPOnline.