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Employees at risk of harm due to poor leader knowledge
NEW DATA released shows managers and directors in UK organisations lack sufficient competence and understanding of workplace health and safety beyond their baseline legal compliance.
Workers call for health and safety legislation overhaul
NEW RESEARCH has found that more than nine in ten workers believe that the main piece of UK Health & Safety legislation should be overhauled, fifty years after it was first introduced.
Charitable trust fined following death of volunteer
A CHARITABLE trust has been fined after a volunteer lost his life during restoration work on the Wilts and Berks Canal.
Peter Konitzer was fatally crushed when a section of a wall collapsed onto him in an excavation at Pewsham locks on 24 August 2016.
The 62-year-old had been inside the excavation removing temporary propping that was supporting the wall when the section collapsed.
Wilts & Berks Canal Trust undertook the restoration work as part of its project to preserve, conserve and improve the route of the Wilts and Berks Canal.
A joint investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and Wiltshire Police found Wilts & Berks Canal Trust had failed to ensure the safety of volunteers who were working within the excavation. The temporary propping was inadequate and there was no clear method for the safe installation or removal of props during this renovation work.
The trust routinely used volunteers to assist in work to undertake tasks including clearing rubbish and overgrowth from various canal sites and general gardening type duties but had increasingly used volunteers for light construction works.
Wilts & Berks Canal Trust, of Dauntsey Lock, Chippenham, Wiltshire, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The trust was fined £30,000 and ordered to pay £10,822 in costs at Swindon Magistrates’ Court on 24 June 2024.
HSE inspector James Lucas said, “This was a tragic and wholly avoidable incident. The situation which led to Peter’s death would not have arisen had the temporary structural works been properly planned and implemented to ensure a suitable safe system of work prior to the incident.
“It is essential that those in control of work of this nature devise safe methods of working and to provide the necessary information, instruction, and training to their workers to ensure their safety.”
Non-compliant and unsafe ladders targeted at seaports
ONGOING RESEARCH has proven there is a real and serious issue with the availability and use of substandard imported ladders on the UK market.
Gavin Pugh, from Bangor in North Wales, was 35 at the time of the incident and employed as a linesman by Wood Transmission and Distribution Limited. He had been demolishing and replacing electricity pylons in East Staffordshire when he fell more than 30 feet on 6 April 2022.
Birmingham Magistrates Court was told how Mr Pugh and his colleagues began working on a pylon known as Tower AE11 in preparation for its demolition. They were unaware there had been previous work to loosen the bolts on the tower, known as “bolt cracking”, undertaken by another team of linesmen. This work had not been risk assessed and there were no systems in place to effectively record and communicate what they had actually done.
In addition, the team that was sent to site that day was also under-staffed for the work being carried out. As the job progressed, Mr Pugh unknowingly attached his fall protection lanyard to a diagonal steel section that was only securely bolted in place at its uppermost fixing. As he moved around the tower, the steel section he was attached to dropped into a vertical position, causing his lanyard to fall loose, resulting in him falling to the ground. He spent six months in hospital and has been left unable to work as a result of his extensive injuries.
HSE issues human error warning to offshore firms
BRITAIN’S OFFSHORE oil and gas installations are held to high regulatory standards, but human error can still lead to a major incident.
That’s the message from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), who are urging offshore companies to take a closer look at what’s widely known in the sector as human factors.
HSE inspects human factors on offshore installations, with a particular focus on safety critical tasks.
Safety critical tasks have the potential to initiate or escalate a major accident on an installation.
HSE recently issued oil firm Apache with an enforcement notice after inspectors formed the opinion that the company failed to fully consider human factors as part of its plans to prevent a fire and explosion on its Forties Delta platform in the North Sea.
Mary Marshall, a principal specialist inspector at HSE, says it is necessary offshore firms like Apache identify safety critical tasks carried out on their offshore installations.