December 2, 2014
Able Building and Roofing Services were caught on camera working unsafely
A Berkshire construction firm has been fined after three workers were photographed on a roof and ladder platform in Windsor without any safety measures in place. The HSE said that the company “failed to follow basic, and well known, safety precautions”.
Able Building & Roofing Services Ltd, which operates across the South East, was prosecuted by the HSE following the incident at a two-storey house in Windsor between 16-18 October 2013.
Reading Magistrates’ Court heard on 1 December that the householder, who hired the firm for roofing work, was so concerned by the obvious dangers faced by the workers, he took photos and sent them to the HSE, which investigated.
The photographs showed workers using an unguarded ladder platform that had not been erected properly, and also working on top of the main roof without any means of preventing falls.
HSE told the court that the company had failed to plan the work at height, which is inherently hazardous, leaving their workers without adequate protection against falls of up to six metres.
Able Building and Roofing Services Ltd, of Nine Mile Road, Finchampstead, near Wokingham, was fined a total of £10,000 and ordered to pay £986 in costs after pleading guilty to two breaches of the Work at Height Regulations 2005.
After the hearing, HSE Inspector Dominic Goacher said: “The company put the lives of three of their workers at risk by carrying out the roofing job in a totally unsafe manner. Anyone falling from the roof of a two-storey house would likely be killed and that type of disregard for safety is totally unacceptable.
“Able Building and Roofing failed to follow basic, and well-known, safety precautions and heed the guidance available to roofing companies.
“If the work had been planned correctly, more suitable equipment, such as a scaffold, and effective fall protection measures would have been in place. Where practical when working on roofs, there should be fully-guarded platforms or good edge protection in place to stop falls happening.”
Information on working safely at height is available at http://www.hse.gov.uk/work-at-height
