The company based in Northern Ireland was working on a refurbishment in a retail outlet in County Antrim.
Ballymena-based Asbestos Management Services (AMS) Limited pleaded guilty to a breach of the Health and Safety at Work (Northern Ireland) Order 1978 and was fined £7,500.
Antrim Crown Court heard that the Health and Safety Executive of Northern Ireland (HSENI) were made aware that employees of two separate contractors were put at risk of exposure to asbestos fibres while refurbishing a shop in Antrim on 7 January 2016.
Asbestos Management Services Limited had been contracted to conduct an asbestos survey during which a number of samples were taken.
The investigation found that an AMS surveyor had given the go ahead for work to take place before receiving the results of the sample analysis. Asbestos was later found to be present in the samples that had been taken by the company.
HSENI inspector Kyle Carrick said: “It is essential that asbestos surveys are always conducted in a structured, methodical and systematic manner so as to minimise the risk of exposure to asbestos from subsequent work activities.”
According to HSENI, in 2016 asbestos related disease was recorded as the primary or secondary cause of death for 63 people in Northern Ireland.
In this episode of the Safety & Health Podcast, ‘Burnout, stress and being human’, Heather Beach is joined by Stacy Thomson to discuss burnout, perfectionism and how to deal with burnout as an individual, as management and as an organisation.
We provide an insight on how to tackle burnout and why mental health is such a taboo subject, particularly in the workplace.
