Roofing company ignored order to keep workers safe

Date:

5 April 2011

A Cowbridge roofing company has been sentenced after repeatedly putting its workers at risk by ignoring urgent orders to improve safety.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) issued a Prohibition Notice to CFR Flat Roofing after finding employees were being put at risk of a potentially fatal fall from height.

Three workers were spotted replacing tiles on a sloping roof near an unprotected gable end of a three-storey building at Thornhill Court in Cardiff on 5 August 2010.

Cardiff Magistrates Court heard the employees were working between eight and ten metres above the ground. A visiting HSE inspector issued the notice ordering work to stop immediately until safety barriers were put in place on the roof.

HSE told the court that CFR Flat Roofing had previously received a prohibition notice for breaching the Work at Height regulations in January 2010, and had been made aware of their duties under regulations.

However, on the return visit HSE found the firm had again failed to ensure work at height was carried out safely with suitable equipment, and no precautions were in place to prevent any of their three employees from falling off the roof.

Martin Nealon, trading as CFR Flat Roofing, of Vale Business Park, Llandow in the Vale of Glamorgan, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 6(3) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005, and was fined £5,985 and ordered to pay costs of £1,800.

HSE Inspector, Simon Breen said:

"Falls from height are the single biggest cause of fatalities in the construction industry. CFR Flat Roofing had no excuse in this instance - they knew how to ensure the safety of their workers but decided to not to. If work is carried out at height then all appropriate measures should be put in place to reduce the risk of falling. Common sense and practical solutions exist to prevent fatalities.

"All employers have a duty to assess risks in the workplace and put in place sensible health and safety measures to manage them. More information on practical solutions to ensure the health and safety of workers in the construction industry can be found on the HSE's website at www.hse.gov.uk/construction/index.htm."

All employers have a duty to assess risks in the workplace and put in place sensible health and safety measures to manage them. More information on risk assessment can be found on the HSE website at http://www.hse.gov.uk/risk/index.htm.

Notes to editors

1. The Health and Safety Executive is Britain's national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to reduce work-related death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice; promoting training; new or revised regulations and codes of practice; and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement. www.hse.gov.uk
2. Regulation 6(3) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 states: "Where work is carried out at height, every employer shall take suitable and sufficient measures to prevent, so far as is reasonably practicable, any person falling a distance liable to cause personal injury".
3. For guidance on working from height please see: http://www.hse.gov.uk/falls

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Issued on behalf of the Health and Safety Executive by COI News and PR Wales