HSE press release E069:05 - 18 May 2005
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) today warned that it is essential that employers sharing a workplace co-operate with each other in order to communicate the risks arising from their respective undertakings and coordinate appropriate measures to control those risks.
The warning came after Greater Manchester Waste (GMW) Ltd of Higher Swan Lane in Bolton was fined a total of £3350 and ordered to pay £2068 costs after pleading guilty, at Trafford Magistrates' Court, to two charges following HSE's investigation of an incident at its South Manchester Materials Recovery Facility at Longley Lane, Sharston in south Manchester on 17 May 2004.
The company was fined £2500 after pleading guilty to a charge under section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 in that it failed to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that those persons not employed by it, who may be affected by the conduct of its undertaking, were not thereby exposed to risks to their health and safety.
It was fined £750 after pleading guilty to a charge under regulation 11(1)(c) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 in that it did not take all reasonable steps to inform TJ Brent Ltd, an employer with whom GMW shared a workplace, of the risks to their employees' health and safety arising out of the conduct by GMW of its undertaking.
The prosecutions resulted from an incident on 17 May 2004 when Michael Rafferty, a site agent employed by TJ Brent Ltd, was struck from behind by a wheeled loader as he walked down a service road on the site.
He was "scooped" into the loading bucket, sustaining cuts, bruises and strain injuries that were sufficiently serious for him to be off work for several months.
TJ Brent Ltd had been awarded a contract to make changes to the civic amenity compound which involved installing a number of dividing walls to create several bays.
HSE Inspector Tom Merry who investigated the incident said:
"This incident was not the result of the actions of an individual. Rather it is the result of systemic failures, which gave rise to the circumstances in which the incident occurred.
"Whilst TJ Brent also had a duty to ask about the risks to their employees, the greater burden was on Greater Manchester Waste. As the operator of the site it should be familiar with all the activities on site and the attendant risks to health and safety. In meeting its obligations under health and safety legislation, GMW should have ensured that information about those risks was communicated to TJ Brent. If that had been done it is unlikely that Mr. Rafferty would have been injured.
"The site was busy with a considerable number of vehicle movements, which present well-known risks to safety. The loader driver was involved in a routine task. However the detail of task were not communicated to TJ Brent Ltd.
"Employees from TJ Brent had visited the site prior to work commencing and developed a method statement and risk assessment for the job but were not made aware of the procedure for loading waste out of the civic amenity compound. Therefore this was not reflected in the documents prepared.
"These documents were then passed to GMW for comment, but none was made. There was a lack of clarity over the project supervision that allowed the job to go ahead without adequate comment on the method statement and risk assessment. This allowed the risks associated with a routine activity to go ahead unchecked, leading to the incident in which Mr. Rafferty was injured.
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