A company which manufactures and installs windows has been fined £36,000 after carrying out unsafe work in the West End of London . A member of the public alerted the HSE after it became clear that there were no measures to prevent workers falling eight metres and after part of a window was dropped onto the public area below.
Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard Ideal Glazing (Euro) Ltd carried out window installation work at Aldford House, Park Street, London, between 19 and 20 January 2015 that put their workers and members of the public at risk of suffering serious injuries or a fatality.
The HSE praised the member of the public who reported the dangerous works.
The HSE carried out an investigation into the work after a member of the public provided photos of workers leaning out of window openings eight metres above the ground. They also provided a video showing the workers dropping part of a window which fell to the ground and missed a nearby pedestrian.
It was heard in court how the company had:
The work at Aldford House was halted when HSE served a Prohibition Notice (PN) . The court heard the company had previously been given advice by HSE in connection with work at height and that an audit by Ideal Glazing’s bank had previously identified a range of relevant health and safety failings. The court heard that neither written warning was heeded by the firm.
Ideal Glazing (Euro) Ltd of 29, The Green, Southall, Middlesex, pleaded guilty to breaches of Regulation 6(3) and 10(1) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 and was fined £36,000 and ordered to pay £1,386 in costs.
HSE inspector Andrew Verrall-Withers commented after the hearing: “Ideal Glazing (Euro) Ltd put the lives of workers and members of the public at risk. People should be able to walk down a pavement without being exposed to the risk of a heavy window falling eight-metres onto them.”
“The company’s standards were appalling, and this was particularly unacceptable as previous warnings had been blatantly disregarded.”
“This is a case where equipment such as scaffolding was not provided. It’s vital that law abiding companies have confidence they will not lose work to others who underquote them because they take shortcuts at the expense of safety.
“Thanks to the member of the public who alerted us, we were able to avoid the workers or any pedestrians being injured or killed. We encourage people to report unsafe work to us so we can act to protect workers and the public.”
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In the UK, we spell the unit of length “metres”!!! Surely it should read “It was heard in court” and not “I was heard”. Who proof reads these articles?
Thank you for bringing this to our attention. The corrections have been made.