Builders fined for safety breaches
29/06/2010
A building firm has been fined £6,600 for putting its employees at risk while they were dismantling a roof.
Alexson Homes pleaded guilty to breaching two sections of Work at Height Regulations 2005 at Stafford Magistrates' Court.
It comes after an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive found there were no measures in place to prevent three members of staff, two of which were company directors, from falling from the roof of a former children's home in Brereton, near Rugeley in February.
It also said they were putting other workmen on the site at risk by dropping materials off the side of the roof.
The HSE concluded that the roof edge should have been fitted with scaffold edge protection and a rubble chute to protect other workers on site.
Alexson Homes was fined and ordered to pay costs of £900.
HSE inspector Martin Overstall said: "All too often HSE inspectors are called out to serious or fatal incidents in roof work where the precautions are minimal or absent - it is simply not good enough.
"Alexson Homes was extremely lucky that no one was injured when working in such unsafe conditions.
"Building firms must plan a safe method of working, before starting to work on a site.
"They must put the right precautions in place to protect their workers and others in what can be a highly dangerous industry."
Copyright © Press Association 2010