A glass manufacturing company has been fined £80,000 after a worker sustained serious injuries when he fell through a roof.  A worker at NSG Pilkington (UK) Ltd stepped from a load bearing roof to a fragile roof at Pilkington premises in St Helens and fell nearly three meters to the floor below.  He sustained life changing injuries including a fractured lower back and right heel plus injuries to his shoulder and elbow. The court heard he was unable to return to his job, forcing him to retire early.

A Leeds based company has been fined £850,000 after an employee sustained fatal injuries while undergoing training.  Hermes Parcelnet Limited pled guilty to health and safety breaches committed between 1 August 2018 and 19 March 2019 at Hamilton Sheriff Court.  The court heard that at around 10.15pm on 19 March 2019 at the company’s Eurocentral depot David Kennedy sustained crush injuries while undergoing training on the operation of a trailer mover.

Railway infrastructure contractor VolkerRail Ltd has been fined £550,000 after a trench collapsed onto a railway worker, causing life-changing injuries and resulting in him being placed in a medically-induced coma. We spoke to Simon Barber, HM Inspector of Railways at the Office of Road and Rail (ORR), about what happened.

A Blackburn based warehouse owner has been fined after an employee of a roofing contractor Nizamuddin Gorji fell approximately 30 feet through a glass skylight on a warehouse roof resulting in severe life changing injuries.  Preston Crown Court heard that roofing contractor Nizmuddin Gorji was engaged by Floors ‘n’ Carpets Limited of Gate Street, Blackburn to over-clad the existing roof.  Three operatives were employed to carry out the work which started on 13 May 2020.  The following day, one of the employees, Taj Zahir fell through the roof sustaining serious injuries to his pelvis, arm, knee and face and has undergone extensive surgery since.

Plastic Water Piping (PWP) Limited pleaded guilty to three charges of breaching the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 and were instructed under the Probation Act to donate €1,000 to charity.  The case follows an incident in which Thomas O ‘Mahoney, a member of the public, was fatally injured on 14 August 2020 when he was struck by a reversing Nightline/UPS courier van collecting and delivering parcels at the Plastic Water Piping Limited premises in New Ross, Co. Wexford.

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), more than 8 in 10 (84%) of pandemic home workers said they planned to carry out some form of hybrid working in the future, spending their working hours between their workplace and home.  Around four in ten people who had to work from home because of the coronavirus pandemic said they planned to work mostly from home in the future, when asked in February 2022. This was a rise of over ten percentage points since April 2021.

A product surveillance study of telescopic leaning ladders sold online and in-store has found that 80% of the work at height equipment tested failed the required safety tests designed to keep users safe.  The Ladder Association report, which has been produced in partnership with the East of England Trading Standards Association (EETSA) and Suffolk Trading Standards Imports Team, also reveals that more than half of the failed ladders were certified and sold as ‘compliant’ to standards such as CE marking. 

 A worker died from blood loss after severing his ankle in a baling machine accident at a recycling plant where safety was described as 'shockingly bad', a court has heard. The boss of Recycle Cymru Ltd (RCL) didn't even have the machine's 78-page safety manual and lied to a health and safety inspector the day before the accident, Mold Crown Court heard. 

A dismantling and demolition company has been fined after a worker fell 30 feet to his death when part of a pipe bridge platform gave way.  Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court heard that John Gary Robertson, known as Gary Robertson, employed by CBR02 Limited (formerly known as Brown and Mason) suffered multiple injuries following a fall from height at Longannet Power Station, Fife on 6 February 2019.

As part of its continuing commitment to raising safety standards across the material handling sector, the UK Material Handling Association (UKMHA) – the UK trade association for manufacturers, truck users and suppliers of forklift trucks and associated components and services – is once again championing the cause of National Forklift Safety Day.