New law introduces stiffer penalties

As reported in the Risks Newsletter 378…

The Health and Safety (Offences) Bill became law on 16 October, when it received Royal assent. The Bill, put forward by Labour MP Keith Hill cleared it last hurdle earlier that month, when it passed a third reading in the House of Lords. Under the new legislation, the Health and Safety (Offences) Act 2008, the maximum fine in magistrates’ courts will be raised to £20,000 for most offences and imprisonment will be made an option for a wider range of breaches. The Act, which applies throughout the UK, makes most offences triable either way’, which in effect means unlimited fines. TUC head of safety Hugh Robertson said the realising the benefits of the new law would require the courts to treat safety offences as serious crimes.

The TUC welcomes the fact that this bill has finally made it on to the statute book,’ he said. ‘The need to increase fines was first recognised by the government over eight years ago and trade unions have been campaigning hard for stronger penalties to be available for those who are convicted of criminally putting the health or safety of their workforce at risk.’ He added, however, ‘these increased penalties will only make a difference if courts actually impose fines that act as a meaningful deterrent rather than just a slap on the wrist as is so often the case today.’ Health and safety minister Lord McKenzie said: ‘These changes will insure that sentences can now be more easily set at a level to deter businesses that do not take their health and safety management responsibilities seriously and further encourage employers and others to comply with the law.’ The minister added: ‘Furthermore, by extending the £20,000 maximum fine to the lower courts and making imprisonment an option, more cases will be resolved in the lower courts and justice will be faster, less costly and more efficient. Jail sentences for particularly blameworthy health and safety offences committed by individuals, can now be imposed reflecting the severity of such crimes, whereas there were more limited options in the past.’

• DWP news release. Health and Safety (Offences) Bill [pdf].

#

TUC guide to risk assessment

The TUC has produced a guide to risk assessment. It says the new resource provides safety reps with the tools to ensure their employer has done a suitable risk assessment and taken appropriate measures to implement the measures required. TUC adds that the guide ’should also help safety reps to challenge the employer if they do not do a suitable assessment or do not act to remove the hazards identified in the risk assessment.’

TUC guide to risk assessment [pdf]
TUC guide to inspections [pdf]
TUC risk assessment courses

#

Most workers turn in when sick

As reported in the Risks Newsletter 375…

Nearly threequarters (72 per cent) of UK employees go to work despite feeling so ill they could legitimately stay at home, a survey has revealed. The poll of 2,000 workers by medical insurance provider Axa PPP Healthcare indicated that the main reason for this ‘presenteeism’ was people saying they didn’t want to let down their colleagues. A quarter of respondents said they just had too much work to do to take time off. One in seven were worried their sick leave records could be used against them if their employer came to making people redundant. One in five also admitted to using some of their annual leave days to cover up sick days, for fear of not getting paid or losing their job. Dudley Lusted of AXA PPP Healthcare said the survey showed ‘most employees continue to turn up for work when they’re feeling under the weather. And, if they do have to take time off, they can be trusted to come back as soon as they feel well enough to work again.’ He added: ‘It’s wrong to subject hard working people to over zealous absence management methods such as having to report in sick to an occupational nurse ‘helpline’ or even be subjected to a lie detector test! Smart employers will make sure their managers are properly trained and supported to manage  attendance positively and, when people are off work sick, concentrate on managing those employees those attendance should give genuine cause for concern.’ The report echoes the findings of TUC research, that concluded punitive sickness absence policies were counter-productive, forcing the working wounded to take their bugs to work with them and hampering a proper recovery.

• Personnel Today. The Telegraph.

#

Safety reps in warehouses

Retail union Usdaw has produced a guide for safety reps working in warehouses. ‘Distributing safety’ says 10,000 work-related accidents in storage, warehousing and road haulage were reported to health and safety watchdog HSE in 2005/6. Over 1,700 of these accidents were classified as major injuries such as fractures and amputations. The main causes of deaths are being run over by workplace vehicles and falls from height. The union says it has over 20,000 members working in the sector. The guide contains guidance on slips and trips, manual handling, vehicle movements, lift trucks, falls from height, work in chillers and freezers, storage systems and welfare.

• Usdaw news release and Distributing safety guide.

#

Most workers won’t blow the whistle

As reported in the Risks Newsletter 372…

Fewer than one in every three workers would blow the whistle on their employer if they broke health and safety laws, according to the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH). A YouGov poll commissioned by IOSH found that only 28 per cent of people would report their company or organisation to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) if it was in breach of health and safety legislation. The survey of 1,332 employed people from across Britain found that 35 per cent would report their line manager or supervisor to their boss if they felt there was a risk they or a colleague could get hurt at work. Almost threequarters (74 per cent) said they would tell their line manager or supervisor if they felt there was a risk they or a colleague could get hurt at work. And just 50 per cent said they would tell their colleagues if they felt there was a risk they or a colleague could get hurt at work. Five per cent said they wouldn’t do any one of these. The poll found workers massively under-estimate the numbers killed and injured at work each year. ‘The fact that more than two-thirds of people said they wouldn’t blow the whistle on their employer for doing something illegal suggests a few things,’ said IOSH president Ray Hurst. ‘It could be that people are very loyal to their employers or, more likely, that they’re scared of the consequences if they get found out having told. It’s also quite possible that people don’t know how to report to the HSE.’

• IOSH news release.

#

USA: How manufacturing doubt kills workers

As reported in the Risks Newsletter 370:

It happens all the time. When a study is published linking a workplace chemical to serious disease, a scientist working for the industry disputes the finding. Writing in the current issue of Hazards magazine, US academic David Michaels reveals industry has taken its lead ‘directly from the tobacco industry’s playbook’, employing the same tactics and the same public relations firms. Michaels, who heads up the Washington DC-based Project on Scientific Knowledge and Public Policy (SKAPP) and is the author of the acclaimed book ‘Doubt is their product: How industry’s assault on science threatens your health’, obtained thousands of secret documents that reveal how this ‘product defence’ strategy has ensured the continuation of high workplace exposures to substances including chromium 6, beryllium, dyestuffs, lead, benzene and other potent causes of cancer and other occupational diseases. In one example, a DuPont factory in the US, he obtained a letter sent by the firm’s medical director admitting 100 per cent of the workers manufacturing a particular chemical developed bladder cancer; as is the norm, the workers were unaware of the risks they faced. Michaels concludes: ‘If a scientist is paid by a polluter or a manufacturer of dangerous products, her or his judgment is inevitably clouded by that financial relationship; this is true even for scientists who have great integrity and who try to be honest.’ In the future, he says, there must be a strategy designed to ‘reduce hazards before people get sick or the environment is irreparably damaged. We don’t need certainty to act. It is time to return to first principles: use the best science available, but do not demand certainty where it does not exist.’

• Spincycle: Product defence – how industry money protects killer chemicals,
• Project on Scientific Knowledge and Public Policy (SKAPP).
• Doubt is their product: How industry’s assault on science threatens your health

#

Two companies fined £44,500 after man paralysed in fall at work

HSE Press Release:

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is urging employers to ensure safe working at height after a man was left paralysed from the waist down following a fall of two storeys at a construction site in central London.

T. J. Myles & Co (Contractors) Ltd of Ickenham, Hillingdon, was found guilty of breaching section 2 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. They have been fined £20,000 and ordered to pay costs of £7,339.20 at City of London Magistrates Court.

Crispin & Borst Ltd, of Watford, was found guilty of breaching section 3 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. They have been fined £10,000 and ordered to pay costs of £7,155.20 at City of London Magistrates Court.

HSE Inspector Lisa Chappell said: “The risks of working at height are well-known, yet falls from height remain a common cause of death in the construction industry.  The victim suffered serious injuries, which have left him paralysed, but this incident could well have resulted in his death.  This case again highlights the absolute necessity for the creation and implementation of a site-specific assessment of work at height that is fit for purpose in order to identify appropriate measures to prevent injury.”

On the 11 January 2007, the victim involved in the incident, was working on a construction site at Grosvenor Street, London W1, where two buildings were being converted into one. A steel structure was being installed to support the building and being lifted into place by a hoist from the ground floor.

Whilst part of the structure was being moved it became stuck and when freed moved very quickly out of place. The individual was struck and dragged through a hole in the floor, falling 7.3 metres down two storeys to land on the ground floor and as a result is now paralysed from the waist down.

#

Following death of a man in Smethwick HSE warns of the dangers of working at height

HSE Press Release:

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is warning of the importance of carrying out risk assessments and implementing safe systems for working at height following the prosecution of a company and one of its employees after an incident in which an elderly man died.

Pervez Mohammed Iqbal, was (on Friday 21st November) ordered, by Wolverhampton Crown Court, to pay £15,000 in fines, with £2,800 costs after earlier pleading guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. This case followed a Police and HSE joint investigation into a fatal incident on 20 April 2007.

The court heard that, on that day, Mr Satnam Singh, 62, fell 5-6 metres (16-20 feet) through a fragile rooflight whilst preparing to undertake work on the roof of a textiles factory in Smethwick. Work had already been undertaken to replace plastic rooflights following a burglary at the site and further work was being undertaken by Kundi Electrical to repair recurring roof leaks. Mr Singh was working under the direction of Pervez Mohammed Iqbal who was carrying out the work for Kundi Electrical.

In undertaking this roofing work, equipment and building materials were being carried across roofs, which are well known in roofing and building industries to be fragile, when Mr Singh fell through and died later in hospital from the injuries sustained.

The roof of the textiles factory was being accessed up a ladder and across several different types of pitched roofs of several factory units and an adjacent engineering company, below which employees were working.

At an earlier hearing, on 11th February 2008, Surjit Singh Kundi trading as Kundi Electrical, from a base in Oldbury, had been ordered, by West Bromwich Magistrates, to pay £25,000 in fines, with £2,301 costs after pleading guilty to breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. This case followed the same investigation into the fatal incident on 20 April 2007.

HSE Inspector Georgina Speake said:

“The roofs which were being repaired and those being used for access were totally unprotected, exposing anyone crossing them to the most serious risks.  Iqbal had failed to undertake a suitable and sufficient risk assessment to identify the risks associated with the work being undertaken. Findings should have been passed on to employees so that they were aware of the hazards and then measures needed to minimise the risks put in place. The risk was wholly predictable, therefore avoidable. Such falls remain one of the biggest killers in the construction industry and last year, across the country, 45 people died after falling while working at height.

“Many incidents can be avoided if employers identify a safe way of tackling a job, provide all necessary protective equipment and ensure that workers or casual employees are fully trained and properly supervised. In this instance there were a number of optional methods and routes of access which would have greatly reduced the risk. Precautions that need to be taken to prevent falls are often simple and there is free guidance readily available to help employers take the right action.”

#

New HSE figures confirm work deaths plateau

The workplace fatality rate has not changed appreciably in the last six years, latest Health and Safety Executive figures show (HSE). Statistics released in November reveal 229 workers were killed in 2007/08. This is down five per cent on 2006/07 when 247 workers died, but higher than the figure for either 2004/05 or 2006/07. HSE says reported major injuries at work fell by around 9 per cent since the start of the decade and this trend continues. Work-related ill-health has also fallen across the period, ‘although the rate of improvement here is not as great as hoped,’ HSE concedes, admitting it is ‘probably not on track’ to meet its ill-health reduction targets. HSE chair Judith Hackitt said: ‘Any improvement in the number of people being injured or made ill by work must be welcomed. However, there is a need for a step change. Of particular concern are the agriculture, construction and waste and recycling industries.’ She added: ‘HSE is developing a new strategy that seeks to renew commitment from all those involved in health and safety to tackle these challenges and more. In the difficult and uncertain months ahead I urge employers not to take their eyes off the ball. Good business management will be vital and good health and safety management is an integral part of that. Health and safety contributes positively to competitiveness and should not be sacrificed in times of financial pressure.’

The number of HSE prosecutions, convictions and enforcement notices were all lower than 2006/07.

• HSE news release. HSE statistics 2007/08. HSE statistics webpage.

As reported in the Risks Newsletter 380 –  see post below, ‘Health & Safety Statistics’
#

TUC charter for safety reps

TUC’s action plan, ‘Safety reps: A charter for change’, calls for:
• Safety enforcers to ask all employers how they consult with their workforce
• A campaign to show employers the value of consultation and remind them of their legal obligations
• More support for safety reps from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE)
• A recognition that the union model is the most effective one in protecting the health and safety of workers
• Free access to all official approved codes of practice (ACoPs) and guidance for safety reps
• Increased training for both HSE and local authority inspectors on the role and function of safety reps
• Greater enforcement of legal consultation requirements
• New sanctions against employers who deny safety reps paid release for training
• Penalties on employers who victimise a safety rep
• A new legal duty on employers to respond to issues raised by safety reps
• A duty on enforcing authorities to react to a complaint from a safety rep when their employer has not responded adequately
• A specific requirement on employers to consult safety reps on risk assessments and controls arising out of them
• An extension of Regulation 8 of the safety reps’ regulations to cover other industries with large numbers of short-term, temporary ’self-employed’ or freelance workers
• An extension of the ability of safety reps to act outside their immediate workplace or employer in certain circumstances
• The right for safety reps to stop unsafe and dangerous work
• A legal requirement on all employers with more than 20 employees to have safety reps and all employers with more than 50 employees to have a safety committee.
• Continuation of the Workplace Advisers scheme in construction
• A national worker adviser scheme for small and medium sized firms, using union appointed and supported safety reps

Safety reps: A charter for change – full document [pdf]

#