A salad company has admitted failing to put a safe system of work in place prior to an incident in which a worker fell through a greenhouse roof.
The 44-year-old man was part of a team cleaning and repainting 20 greenhouse gutters at Hedon Salads Ltd’s premises in Burstwick, Hull, when the incident took place on 26 August 2010. The greenhouses are used for cultivating tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers and have an average size of 5000 square metres.
The team was instructed to walk heel-to-toe along the gutters and to use a long-handled brush to steady themselves against the glazing bars. The worker had completed a short length of paintwork when his right foot went through the glass, causing him to fall through the fragile roof. He landed on the ground more than four metres below and suffered a broken wrist and a head wound, which required 20 staples. He was unable to return to work for nearly four months owing to his injuries.
The HSE investigated the incident and found the company hadn’t trained the team how to work at height and failed to provide them with any fall-prevention equipment. A Prohibition Notice was subsequently issued to the firm, which required the work to stop until adequate safety measures were put in place.
HSE inspector Andrew Gale said: “This employee was extremely lucky not to have suffered more severe injuries, or even lost his life, in a fall of more than four metres. It could have easily been prevented by providing the proper equipment, such as a lightweight walking frame.
“This case highlights how important it is for employers to identify the risks involved in working at height, particularly near fragile materials, and taking the necessary steps to reduce those risks and prevent falls.”
Hedon Salads Ltd appeared at Hull Magistrates’ Court on 2 November and pleaded guilty to breaching reg.9(2)(a) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005. It was fined £12,500, plus £3921 in costs.
The firm said it complied with the enforcement notice by purchasing a lightweight balancing frame, which spreads the weight of workers over a larger area of the roof. It had no previous convictions and cooperated with the investigation.
The Safety Conversation with SHP (previously the Safety and Health Podcast) aims to bring you the latest news, insights and legislation updates in the form of interviews, discussions and panel debates from leading figures within the profession.
Find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Podcasts, subscribe and join the conversation today!
Lettuce hope they learn from this. Safe Systems of Work are not just an cucumberence to getting the job done
The team was instructed to walk heel-to-toe along the gutters and to use a long-handled brush to steady themselves against the glazing bars?
I fail to understand how anyone can accept this as an acceptable SSoW let alone a team of people.
Those instructing this lunatic method of work should be used as fertilizer for the salad, because they are evidently full of Sh- –
As for those that chose to do it, they are more suited to a vegetable patch I think?
The suggestion of a light weight walking frame is questionable?
Strutural integrity under addditional loading must be assured prior to applying any load onto glazing bars or trusses etc. The whole bloody roof is fragile.
And additionally, how do you get it up there in the first place without risk?
Yes they certainly made a meal of it.
And they say salad is the healthy option, I beg to differ?
Yet another example where ‘common sense’ does not prevail !
On a lighter note, it’s nice to see SHP adopting the ‘play on words’ system for its headlines, as previously seen in comments on a cheese related report. It certainly makes a change from using biased political statements…….. 🙂
At the risk of adding to a pun war, I thought your comment was treemendous, really got to the roots. Perhaps offering incentives like carrot on a stick or possibly some other radishcal methods could have bean used to fertilise some positive management growth!