13Linc

safe5NEW CODE TO IMPROVE THE TARGETING OF

H&S INSPECTIONS BY LOCAL AUTHORITY (LA)

The LA National Code sets out the risk based approach to targeting health and safety interventions to be followed by LA regulators.

The Code provides a principle based framework that recognises the respective roles of business and the regulator in the management of risk, concentrating on four objectives:

• Clarifying the roles and responsibilities of business, regulator and professional bodies

• Outlining the risk-based approach to regulation that LAs should adopt

• Setting out the need for training and competence of LA H&S regulators

Explaining the arrangements for collection/publica-tion of LA data and peer review to give assurance on meeting the requirements of the Code.

The list of activities/sectors suitable for targeting proactive inspection by LAs, referred to in the Code is also available.1

1 http://www.hse.gov.uk/lau/publications/la-enforcement-code.htm

LINCSAFE SPONSORS GOLD WINNING CHELSEA FLOWER SHOW ENTRANTSLincsafe are proud to have sponsored the Scottish branch of the National Association of Flower Arrangement Societies (NAFAS) with their Jacques Cousteau-inspired Chelsea Flower show display.

On Tuesday morning the SAFAS team arrived at the Grand Pavilion to discover the coveted gold medal placed on their stand.1

The fl ower arranging team knew all about the fl ower and plant material aspects but had to get to grips with workplace wellbeing and H&S issues, something that was not regularly within the daily routine of most of the team members. Lincsafe were delighted to provide Health and Safety guidance and support as well as some items of PPE to team members.

A briefi ng was given about the RHS Chelsea Show 2013 Exhibitors Handbook of Rules/ Health & Safety requirements. To satisfy this documents requirements a formal Health & Safety induction briefi ng as well scaffold training sessions were held and an H&S guid-ance leafl et was prepared and issued to each team member.

1 http://www.abdn.ac.uk/news/details-13870.php

Formal risk assessment and method statement documents were also prepared and discussed with the team with copies submitted to the RHS.

During the exhibit build-up period RHS Safety Advisers made routine visits and noted the professional, organised and safe way that the ladies worked, whilst wearing all appropriate PPE. They were also complimentary about the teams approach to safe Working at Height together with noting the quality, handling and use of their scaffold tower equipment. Gold for the teams H&S approach might also have been appropriate.

UPDATE

HSE PROSECUTIONSEvery month we try to highlight issues sourced from differentindustries, below are this months selection.....

2013 Lincsafe (Health & Safety) Limited

Four metre fall lands company in court

A construction company based in South East London has been prosecuted for a serious safety breach after a roofi ng worker plunged four metres through a badly-protected skylight.

The 45 year-old worker, Paul Shaw, of Maidstone, suffered multiple fracture injuries, including a broken right arm, when he fell through the roof opening which had been cov-ered only with a thick plastic.

The incident, on 29 February 2012, took place at a prop-erty in Tonbridge, Kent, where building fi rm Bryen & Langley Ltd were the lead contractor overseeing the construction of an extension and swimming pool.

Maidstone Magistrates heard (23 May) that an investiga-tion by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that Bryen & Langley Ltd had failed to ensure that proper safe-guards were in place to pre-vent anyone falling when work was underway at height.

The court was told that sky-light openings above the swimming pool had been covered with plywood sheet-ing. This was changed to thick plastic to allow some natural light through and to enable workers to lower materials into the pool area if needed. The plastic was then covered with pallets and held down by timbers.

Mr Shaw, who was employed by a roofi ng sub-contractor on site, went up to the swimming pool roof and stepped on to a skylight opening believing it was safe to do so. It was not. The hole was simply covered by the plastic and he fell straight through landing on the pool’s concrete walkway.

Mr Shaw now has restricted movement in his wrist but was able to return to work after some fi ve months.

Bryen & Langley, of Footscray Road, Eltham, London, was fi ned £12,000 and ordered to pay £9,209 in costs by Magistrates after admitting breaching the Work at Height Regulations 2005.

After the hearing, Inspector Melvyn Stancliffe said:

“The distance that Mr Shaw fell could easily have resulted in his death. He is a lucky man – though I am sure he did not feel so at the time.

“This incident was avoidable and Bryen & Langley, as lead contractor, had a responsibil-ity for safety on the site. It would have been a simple matter to have fi xed the sky-light covers in place. If they then needed to be moved for any reason, then temporary protection should have been placed around the openings and a system employed to en-sure coverings were replaced promptly and correctly.

“Work at height needs to be properly planned and there need to be suffi cient measures taken to guard against people falling.” 1

Badly-protected skylight where a roofi ng worker plunged four metres through a roof opening

1 http://www.hse.gov.uk/press/2013/rnn-se-10813.htm

Company fi ned for excavation failings

A Kent construction company has been fi ned for unsafe excavation work after a worker was seriously injured at a building site in Cranbrook.

The BBS Construction Ltd employee, who does not wish to be named, smashed his right hip in the incident at Benenden School for Girls on 18 January 2011 when the face of an excavation some four metres in depth collapsed on top of him.

He also injured his left knee after being buried up to his waist by earth and rubble, and was un-able to work for several months before eventu-ally returning.

Maidstone Magistrates’ Court heard yesterday (8 May) that the collapse occurred during work to build a new multi-storey science block, which Tovil-based BBS Construction was contracted to deliver.

The injured worker, then aged 44, was excavat-ing a basement to support the new building. However, concrete to fi x the posts for a support-ing wall had been overpoured and the excess had to be chipped away with a manually-operat-ed hydraulic breaker. It was this work that trig-gered the collapse.

A quick-thinking excavator driver managed to stem the fl ow of earth by placing the bucket of his machine into the face of the weakened earth, but his colleague was still caught and trapped. Another worker managed to jump clear.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investi-gated the incident and established that the risks of manually breaking the excess concrete were not properly assessed.

An inspector also found that earlier in the project a waste water drain had been installed by BBS less than half-a-metre from the face of the base-ment excavation at a depth of two metres. Mag-istrates were told that this may have weakened the earth around the basement and made it more susceptible to collapse.

BBS Construction Ltd, of Church Street, Tovil, Maidstone, was fi ned £8,000 and ordered to pay £10,536 in costs after pleading guilty to a single breach of the Construction (Design and Manage-ment) Regulations 2007.1

1 http://www.hse.gov.uk/press/2013/rnn-se-bbs-construc-tion.htm

Company fi ned for

2013 Lincsafe (Health & Safety) Limited www.lincsafe.co.uk 016738761502013 Lincsafe (Health & Safety) Limited www.lincsafe.co.uk 016738761502013 Lincsafe (Health & Safety) Limited www.lincsafe.co.uk 016738761502013 Lincsafe (Health & Safety) Limited www.lincsafe.co.uk 016738761502013 Lincsafe (Health & Safety) Limited www.lincsafe.co.uk 016738761502013 Lincsafe (Health & Safety) Limited www.lincsafe.co.uk 01673876150

Are you digging yourself into the sand

without supervision this summer...

SITE SUPERVISORS TRAINING (SSSTS)

2 DAY “OPEN” COURSE

DATES: 19th, 20th June 2013PRICE: £315.00+VAT (Per Person)VENUE: Lincsafe Head Offi ce

Aims

To ensure delegates have an overview of their responsibilities for health and safety on construction sites. This course provides the ideal introduction for those supervisors who have had some or little previous health and safety training. This course is intended to give site supervisors a clear understanding of how health and safety affects their role and the practical steps they can take to ensure a safe site. This course is for fi rst line managers - those who have, or are about to acquire supervisory responsibilities. It provides an introduction to health and safety, welfare and environmental issues for those requiring an understanding of their legal responsibilities relevant to their work activities. It will provide a sound knowledge base to enable them to give valuable assistance in safely managing a construction site.

“Grants available to companies who pay ConSkills levy”. * We need a minimum number to run this course. Confi rmation will be sent two weeks prior to course date.*

Recycling giant fi ned

for worker death. Need to Knownews...

2013 Lincsafe (Health & Safety) Limited www.lincsafe.co.uk 016738761502013 Lincsafe (Health & Safety) Limited www.lincsafe.co.uk 016738761502013 Lincsafe (Health & Safety) Limited www.lincsafe.co.uk 016738761502013 Lincsafe (Health & Safety) Limited www.lincsafe.co.uk 016738761502013 Lincsafe (Health & Safety) Limited www.lincsafe.co.uk 016738761502013 Lincsafe (Health & Safety) Limited www.lincsafe.co.uk 01673876150

Recycling giant fi ned for worker death failingsA worker at one of the world’s largest metal recycling fi rms was killed because of a failing to properly segregate people and moving vehicles, a court has heard.

European Metal Recycling Limited, which operates across Europe, Asia and the Americas, was today (20 May) ordered to pay more than £370,000 in fi nes and costs for its safety failures after also ac-cepting shortcomings linked to training, instruction and supervision.

The company was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after Linas Mataitis, 25, from Mitcham, was struck by the bucket of a wheeled loading shovel at EMR’s site on Scrubs Lane, Willesden, during a shutdown clean-up on 18 July 2010.

He sustained fatal injuries after being pushed and pinned against a steel column by the large, heavy vehicle.

Southwark Crown Court was told Linas had joined the company two months earlier as a temporary worker.

He was working near a large shredding machine that had been powered down for essential annual maintenance, with surrounding safety zones and interlocking gates opened up to allow worker and vehicle access.

Linas was one of a team of workers using hand shovels to scrape and clear dirt near conveyors feeding the shredder, which they placed into piles for colleagues using machines to clear.

On the morning of 18 July there were three vehicles operating alongside the team on foot; a bobcat, a mini excavator and a wheeled loading shovel. The smaller machines were being used to fi ll the bucket of the loading shovel, which then drove away to be emptied.

The court heard the loading shovel was returning to be refi lled for a fourth time when it struck Linas and crushed him against a conveyor support.

A subsequent HSE investigation found that although EMR had a documented procedure for clearing dirt from around the conveyors, which mentioned the use of a bobcat, it did not cover the shutdown oper-ation when the safety gates were open, when more vehicles were operating nearby and when there was increased pedestrian movement.

HSE also established that the loading shovel was being driven by a partly trained operator who may have been unauthorised to use it. The company had confusing and confl icting records in this regard, highlighting failings to properly manage and audit training and supervision.

European Metal Recycling Limited, of Delta Cres-cent, Westbrook, Warrington, Cheshire, was fi ned a total of £300,000 and told to pay a further £72,901 in costs after pleading guilty to breaching Sections 2(1) and 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.1

Conveyor support beam Linas was crushed against.

After the hearing, HSE Inspector Jane Wolfenden said:

“Linas’ tragic death was entirely preventable. Euro-pean Metal Recycling, as one of the world’s largest recycling companies, should have been fully aware of its health and safety duties, and of the clear risks presented by vehicle and pedestrian movements.

“A risk assessment isn’t a paper exercise where a ‘one size fi ts all’ approach is acceptable, and the company should have properly planned for the shutdown operation where the level of risk was sig-nifi cantly increased –implementing safe systems of work to suit.

“The same can be said for training, instruction and supervision, where there was no clear direction or protocol for monitoring new or inexperienced work-ers.

“As a consequence of the company’s failings Linas’ family continue to grieve the loss of a son, brother and partner.””

1 http://www.hse.gov.uk/press/2013/rnn-ldn-emr-ltd.htm