Health and Safety News

Do you need mental health first aiders in your workplace?

Trained colleagues can provide a first port of call during a crisis, but not at the expense of a more comprehensive wellbeing strategy, says Alex Read. In recent years there has been a significant shift in the way we talk about mental health, both in our personal lives and at work. However, despite growing awareness of the issue, for many talking about mental health at work is still taboo. While it’s encouraging to see more employers making changes to normalise this, the reality is that it remains an incredibly complex issue – especially when it comes to considering how to support individual employees’ needs. So it probably won’t be a surprise to learn that mental health is top of mind for many bosses, with a recent survey finding that 62 per cent of HR, wellbeing and benefits specialists agreed that mental health was their board’s biggest area of concern.

Cable strike lands cladding firm with £20k fine

Unique Envelope Façade Solutions has been fined £20,160 after failing to protect its self-employed workers from the risk of a cable strike explosion or electrocution while carrying out repairs at a site in Coventry. On 28 November 2018, two self-employed workers were using a drill to attach a prefabricated cowling to a cable tray. One of the fixings went into a cable, striking one of the phases and causing an explosion. An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that Unique Envelope Facade’s risk assessments and method statements did not consider the risk of drilling into cable trays containing live cables, isolating the electrics to complete work or other methods of fixing which did not involve drilling.

Worker permanently paralysed after fall

On 7 August 2018, an employee of Ian Ramsay was severely injured when he fell from height whilst installing a roof ladder on a pitched roof at a property in Mawsley, Northamptonshire. The fall resulted in the employee being permanently paralysed from the chest down. The homeowners hired Mr Ramsay to paint the exterior windows and soffit boards of their property, including the painting of dormer windows within their roof. The employee was in the process of setting up ladders to access the dormer windows when he fell from height.

HSE warning over poorly maintained vehicles

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has warned operators to ensure vehicles are maintained in a safe condition after a company director was banned for knowingly exposing employees to unsafe working conditions. Preston Crown Court heard that Zarif Mohammed allowed the continued use of the same seriously damaged machine on a Blackburn waste transfer site, despite having a conviction for transport-related health and safety offences following a fatality in 2013. Mohammed has also been subjected to further enforcement action in 2017 for using a poorly maintained and damaged telehandler.

Driver eye care – minimising risk

With the Department for Transport recording 1,784 reported road deaths in 2018, a conservative estimate would, therefore, suggest that in excess of 500 deaths per year involve someone driving for work purposes. A figure corroborated by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA). HSE statistics show that there were 147 workplace fatalities in the UK in 2018/2019. This figure does not include deaths on the road. These figures show that driving is clearly one of the most hazardous tasks performed for work. There are numerous options for safety managers to implement safety checks on vehicles, plan safer journeys, make work schedules reasonable, etc, but what about the drivers themselves? Driver checks and training go a long way, but perhaps the most basic first step, that can be overlooked, is to ensure that the driver has eyesight that is adequate for the task.

Major contractors accused of ‘endemic late payment’

Trade contractors have been highlighting “endemic” payment abuse among some tier one firms following a recent spate of specialist collapses. Companies have been contacting the Enquirer to complain about ongoing payment dispute and delaying tactics used by some main contractors. One leading specialist trade body said: “Our members feel that payment abuse is endemic with certain tier one contractors. “Specialists are funding work undertaken for nearly six months when you add up all the tricks and turns the tier ones use.

Company director sentenced after exposing employees to hazardous substances

A manufacturer of agricultural trailers has been sentenced for deliberately putting his workers at risk of developing severe lung disease, after exposing them to substances harmful to health. Preston Crown Court heard that, over a period of time up to February 2018, James Harrison, former managing director of the now dissolved Laser Shapes (NW) Limited, exposed his employees to hazardous substances and deliberately hid unsafe working practices from HSE inspectors at the company’s former site at Witton Mill, Blackburn. An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that employees of Laser Shapes (NW) Limited regularly used aerosolised paints containing isocyanates and solvents to spray large tractor trailers. Breathing in products containing isocyanates and solvents can cause occupational asthma, dizziness, liver and kidney damage. However, this activity was being carried out without adequate controls in place to prevent workers from breathing in harmful substances.

Egg production company fined following Forklift Truck overturned

A Chorley company has been fined after a forklift truck (FLT) overturned on a slope trapping the driver. Manchester Magistrates’ Court heard that on 1 December 2018 an employee of Staveley’s Eggs Ltd had been driving the FLT at the company’s premises at Goosnargh Near Preston, when the truck overturned, trapping the driver between the truck and the ground, leading to him sustaining serious life changing crush injuries as a result. An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that the areas where FLTs were driven had significant changes in gradient which were not a suitable surface for the type of FLTs in use. The company failed to both identify and control the risk of FLT overturn.

Builders firm fined Â£225k after father-of-four crushed to death when dumper truck overturned

A FAMILY building firm has been fined £225,000 for breaching health and safety law after a father-of-four was crushed to death when his dumper truck overturned. David Green, 32, was pulled from underneath the upturned vehicle after it fell from the top of a mound of soil at a building site in Lawford. Mr Green was carrying out work on Rose Builders’ Summers Park development of 150 homes in October 2016. Following an investigation, the firm was charged with two counts of breaching health and safety law.

Director of skip hire firm where worker was crushed to death convicted again

The judge said Mohammed had acted with “willful blindness” regarding the safety on what he described as a “chaotic premises.” The director of a skip hire firm who was convicted of health and safety breaches after an employee was crushed to death in machinery has been convicted of further breaches at a new firm he set up in the unit next door. Zarif Mohammed, 42, has been banned from acting as a company director after admitting safety breaches at 1First Choice Skip Hire Ltd in Lower Hollin Bank Street, Blackburn.