Construction Boss Fined, Health and Safety Issues
A Cardiff construction company director is fined due to issues of safety. There were breaches of health and safety at work regarding height regulations.
The director did not make certain that his employees would be safe while working at heights. The HSE conducted several health and safety audits to determine if the company was within the required safety guidelines. It was discovered that they were not.
On a visit to the workplace in 2011, an HSE investigator found that two employees were on the outer edge of a storey structure, wherein the first storey was only partially complete. There was no edge protection in place, meaning the workers could have fallen outward and several metres down to a hard ground beneath. No scaffolding, sand bags, or nets were in place for protection.
There was also no method statement for working at heights in the company. It meant that the foreman and director did not accurately assess the risks of the workplace. There was no site manager with safety training in place to ensure that workers were aware of the safety and health rules they needed to follow. It was not the first time the company director faced the issue, as there were notices given to him in 2007 about working at height and endangering employees. This has led to the fines the court has decided on. The fines and additional costs will hopefully be a lesson to all in perilous work sectors.
