Contractor fined for failing to provide minimum welfare facilities
A principal contractor has been fined after repeatedly failing to provide minimum welfare facilities at a construction site in Staffordshire.
For a period up to August 2018, Mr Jevgenijs Sondors of J S Services failed to provide minimum welfare facilities for workers on the site of a residential refurbishment in Burton on Trent.
An HSE inspection found there were no welfare facilities available for workers on the site for at least four and a half months. The site did not have hot water, a toilet, washing facilities and rest facilities.
The HSE served two Improvement Notices and a Prohibition Notice on Mr Sondors, who was acting as principal contractor. Mr Sondors then installed a toilet in the property but it was not linked to the water supply. A watering can had to be used to “flush” the toilet. Water in the property was provided via a single cold water pipe attached to a wall with a bucket underneath. No cleaning or drying facilities were provided. Follow up visits after the compliance date for the notice expired, found that the necessary improvements had not been made.
Breach
Mr Jevgenijs Sondors was found guilty in his absence of breaching Regulation 13(4)(c) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 and Section 21 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.
Penalty
A warrant was issued for the arrest of Sonders, who was fined £300 and ordered to pay full costs of £3,851.06.
Sheffield-based cylinder manufacturer fined after worker fatality
Chesterfield Special Cylinders Ltd has received a major fine for safety breaches after a worker was killed.
64-year-old worker was fatally wounded by shrapnel ejected from testing equipment.
On 10 June 2015, a worker was leak testing eight 1,500 litre cylinders at the company’s Sheffield site. Testing was being undertaken by applying compressed air inside to create pressure. While in the process of venting the air through the test manifold, it catastrophically failed. Shrapnel ejected from the testing equipment fatally injured the worker.
An HSE investigation found that prior to installing the fittings, 1.5 litres of a mineral oil-based corrosion inhibitor had been placed into each of the cylinders. The incident occurred because the inhibitor contaminated the leak test manifold during venting of the cylinders. The corrosion inhibitor was subjected to enough pressure inside the manifold to ignite and cause the test equipment to fail.
Breach
Chesterfield Special Cylinders Ltd was found guilty of breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974:
- Section 2(1) requires employers to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of their employees.
Penalty
Chesterfield Special Cylinders Ltd was fined £700,000 with full costs of £169,498.82.
Client and contractor fined for failing to control asbestos removal during construction work
A property owner and his building contractors have both been sentenced after a refurbishment project was found to contain asbestos containing materials (ACMs) while work was still taking place.
During September 2017 the property in Newquay was to be partially demolished and refurbished under the control of one of its owners, Michael Cutmore. The hotel had been left derelict for several years. During this period it had been vandalised, squatted had been soft-stripped by its owner.
Asbestos surveys had identified the presence of ACMs, but these were not managed appropriately or removed prior to the work. B and S BM Limited had been appointed by the hotel’s second co-owner to carry out works in half of the property while Mr Cutmore himself also stripped asbestos from within the former hotel.
During a proactive HSE inspection, it was identified that the former hotel was being refurbished and partially demolished while ACMs remained in-situ. Some of these ACMs were licensable products, for example asbestos insulating board, which contains amosite.
Due to the extent of the spread of asbestos dust and debris throughout the building and the lack of adequate control measures, workers and visitors to the properties were at risk of exposure to asbestos fibres.
Breaches
B and S BM Limited of Prow Park, Newquay pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) and Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974:
- Section 3(1) requires that every self-employed person conducts their activities in a manner to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that they and any persons they do not employ are not exposed to risks to their health or safety.
Michael Cutmore pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(2) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974:
- Section 3(2) makes it the duty of every self-employed person to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, they and all other persons are not exposed to risks to their health or safety.
Penalties
B and S BM Limited was fined £22,000 and ordered to pay costs of £5,000.
Michael Cutmore was ordered to carry out 120 hours unpaid work and ordered to pay costs of £7,500.
|
