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.   

As we approach the anniversary of the Grenfell Tower fire, we look at progress in tackling widespread safety failings, and at the wider lessons for OSH professionals.  In September 2021, an article in The Times trailed government plans to demolish the charred remains of Grenfell Tower in west London (Wheeler et al, 2021). The suggestion was greeted with protests from Grenfell United, a group of survivors and bereaved families of the 72 people who died in the fire that engulfed the 24-storey local authority apartment block in June 2017. ‘How can the tower be demolished before the legal process concludes,’ the group asked, ‘when no judge in the land can confirm it won’t hinder future criminal prosecutions?’

Findings from a new research report* reveal the majority (78 per cent) of environment, health and safety (EHS) professionals surveyed believe a failure to manage and address health and safety risks could see their company lose business to competitors who can better demonstrate success in this area.

Abbots Mead Limited, a building maintenance company based in Cheshire has been fined £20,000 for poorly managing work at height while carrying out repairs to a roof and cleaning the gutters of a commercial unit in Wolverhampton.  While carrying out repairs works to a fragile roof of a commercial unit, an apprentice employee fell through a skylight, Dudley Magistrates Court heard. The employee fell approximately six metres to the concrete floor of the warehouse below contacting the racking on the fall, on 29 January 2021. His injuries included fractures to the hip and wrist.