West Yorkshire firm prosecuted over unacceptable working conditions

Date:

18 July 2012

Release No:

Y&H/136/12

A Keighley lighting supplier has been fined for subjecting its staff to 'appalling' working conditions and exposing them to risks from defective electrics and welding fumes.

A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspector visited the premises of Keylighting Ltd as a result of a number of complaints about the working conditions at the site on Alincote Street.

A catalogue of health and safety failings was uncovered and specialists were called in to examine the electrical systems, a range of hygiene issues, and to assess the safety management of the welding and powder spraying process.

Bradford Magistrates' Court was told that during an occupational hygiene inspection in December 2010 an expert found temperatures in various parts of the building ranged from just four degrees centigrade in the toilets to ten degrees in the stores and welding areas.

As a result of these findings five Improvement Notices were served on Keylighting by HSE.

Seven more Improvement Notices were served by HSE after an electrical specialist found an eight-month-old report from a separate company had revealed 70 defects on the electrical system, seven of them requiring urgent attention. Not one of the faults had been acted upon.

The various investigations also found the toilets in a dire state with blocked sinks, out of order cisterns which were still being used, no running water for hand-washing and rubbish strewn around. They were deemed to be a high disease risk to anyone using them.

In the welding area, there was no ventilation to remove fumes and the protective equipment for the workers was ineffective. In one of the spray booths, an operator was found with powder contamination around his face, neck and hands and extensive powder dust had escaped from the booth.

Keylighting Ltd, of North Brook Works, Alincote Street, Keighley, was prosecuted by HSE for breaching the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 between 25 May 2010 and 25 January 2011. The company pleaded guilty and was fined £8,000 with £20,000 to pay in costs.

After the hearing, inspector Morag Irwin, who made the first visit to the premises following the complaints, said:

"This was, without doubt, the worst workplace I have inspected in more than ten years with HSE. The conditions the employees had to endure at work were totally unacceptable, a threat to workers' health, and in breach of many health and safety regulations.

"During the coldest December in more than a century, some employees were working in temperatures only a few degrees higher than they were outside. A report highlighting serious electrical hazards had been allowed to gather dust.

"There was no one at the company with the competence to manage even the most basic levels of health and safety. If any employer shirks their responsibility and ignores legislation, putting their workers at risk, it is only right that HSE takes enforcement action."

According to the latest HSE statistics, 100,000 people in Yorkshire and Humber suffered from work-related illness in 2010/11.

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. Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 states: 'It shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees'.
3. HSE news releases are available at www.hse.gov.uk/press.

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