A maintenance man carrying out regular, routine work was using a ladder to access an area above a newly refurbished small production area of a pharmaceutical company, whose primary activity was as a warehouse and distribution centre. The ladder was not secured but had suction pads attached to the feet to prevent slipping, as he thought that this would save having a second person present while the task was being undertaken.
However, the ladder slipped down the wall and ended up flat on the ground. The employee broke both wrists: one had to be pinned. The accident investigation found that the smooth floor, necessary for hygiene standards in the production area, had compromised the performance of the grippers. The Client had not considered all elements of the work area, including routine and non-routine uses and suitable access to the high areas for maintenance works.
Setting aside issues such as that of inappropriate use of unsuitable work equipment to carry out a hazardous task, the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 (CDM 2007) require construction Clients to ensure that the finished premises will comply with the Workplace (Health Safety & Welfare) Regulations 1992, in respect of the design and materials used.
If the project had been notifiable under CDM 2007, an appointed CDM Co-ordinator would have had a duty to ensure that the health and safety information needed to identify hazards and associated risks was provided to the Designer. The Designer should then have complied with the designer’s duties under Regulation 11 (i.e. the design shall avoid foreseeable risks to health and safety; the designer shall eliminate hazards which give may give rise to risks).
In this particular case, as the project was not notifiable, there was no CDM Coordinator. The Client did not recognise all the hazards and consequently did not fully brief the Designer. Thus the Client appeared to have failed in his duty under Regulation 10 to provide the Designer with pre-construction information to enable the Designer to fulfil his duties under Regulation 11.
In terms of rectifying the current situation, enforcing the Workplace Regulations (through use of an Improvement Notice if required) is a straightforward matter. Under CDM 2007, the H&S Enforcement Officer may also choose to enforce failures in the Client’s duties over design issues retrospectively. The matter should be brought to the attention of a LAPS or LOPP Partner if there is one. For proactive action under CDM, advice should be sought from the LA’s local HSE Construction team.