Category: Industrial action

A company in Pembrokeshire has been fined £400,000 after a serious accident took place at its refinery. Valero Energy UK Limited was fined after a worker was trapped by a slack wire rope when an access tower walkway that provided gangway access to a stationary tanker vessel dropped 3.5 metres. Operator David Thomas suffered fractures […]

Sports Direct Treats Workers “As Commodities Rather Than Human Beings” A report by the Business, Innovation and Skills committee has accused Sports Direct, one of Europe’s biggest retailers, of not treating its workers like humans, after an investigation revealed “extremely disturbing working practices” and serious health and safety breaches at the company’s Shirebrook Warehouse. MPs […]

A Plymouth company has been fined £500,000 after an employee suffered fatal injuries when a stack of boxes of frozen fish fell on him. Tomas Suchy, 22, an employee of Interfish Limited, was helping to clear up a fallen stack of frozen fish boxes in one of the cold store areas when there was another […]

A zoo has admitted health and safety breaches after a keeper was mauled to death by a tiger in May 2013. Sarah McClay, 24, died at South Lakes Wild Animal Park (now known as South Lakes Safari Zoo), in Dalton-in-Furness, South Cumbria when a Sumatran tiger got through an unlocked gate and left deep puncture wounds […]

Renovation disaster as £700k house in Lewisham collapses during building work The renovation of a £700,000 house bought as a ‘doer-upper’ in south-east London turned into a nightmare when it collapsed during building work. Neighbours said it sounded “like a bomb had gone off” when part of the terraced house, reportedly bought just six months […]

Cheshire Construction Company guilty of Bricklayer’s Death A Cheshire construction company has been prosecuted following a fatal accident in 2011 at a site in Wimslow. Liverpool Crown Court heard that Edgemere Projects Ltd of Tarporley, Cheshire, was the main contractor at a construction site in Wilmslow when on 7 January 2011, Andrew Dytiche aged 23, […]

‘Obvious’ Risk Ignored by Hotel Chocolat Hotel Chocolat, the Chocolate manufacturer, has been prosecuted after a worker suffered serious hand and arm injuries whilst cleaning a machine tank. Piotr Podgorski, 35, from Bretton, in Peterborough, was working as a cell supervisor for the company on 16 August 2014 when he was asked to clean the […]

Self-Employed Law Changes – 1st October 2015 Health and safety law will no longer apply to 1.7 million self-employed people tomorrow, following a recommendation from Professor Löfstedt in his review of health and safety law in the UK. In 2011, the Löfstedt Review recommended that self-employed people whose work activities pose no potential risk of […]

The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) have balloted members who have voted in support of industrial action. The Government response to this industrial action has been coordinated by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) in close liaison with the Scottish and Welsh Government. These Departments have been working with Local Fire and Rescue Authorities […]