Shropshire scaffolder calls for new laws after firm fined £28,000 over worker's fall
A scaffolding firm from Shropshire has been fined £28,000 after a contractor slipped and fractured his spine.
Oswestry Shropshire Scaffold Ltd admitted health and safety breaches at court last week, but now says there needs to be change in the law.
The court heard a sub contractor working for Centreco UK Ltd was installing solar panels on the roof of Firth Steels in West Yorkshire in December 2015, when he slipped on the roof and fell through scaffold, landing on a sub station roof. He suffered life changing injuries including a fractured spine, broken coccyx, nerve damage and was in hospital for three months.
Centreco Ltd, of Lancashire, also pleaded guilty and was fined £33,500 and ordered to pay £945 costs. Oswestry Shropshire Scaffold Ltd was also ordered to pay £945 costs.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive found the Oswestry company had not erected the scaffold to industry standards, and failed to take effective measures to prevent workers falling through.
However, speaking after the case, Lee Roberts of the company said a ‘scaff tag’ had been put on the scaffolding informing contractors the scaffolding was not complete and they would be returning to do the work.
He said because there wasn’t an email trail proving he had informed contractors to get off the roof, he had to plead guilty to the offence.
He said: “We had put a scaff tag on there which said the work was not complete, and we would be returning to finish it. But because there wasn’t an e-mail trail from me saying to stop any work there, I had to plead guilty or the fine would have been £120,000.”
He said more protection was needed for contractors. Mr Roberts, whose firm is based at Top House Farm, Woolston, added: “There are not enough laws to protect companies from types of incidents like this. We have done 2,700 jobs and nothing like this has happened before.”
However in a statement John Williams, managing director of Centraco, said: “A green scaff tag was put on which is to handover the scaffolding. It had a green tag, and a certificate was handed over and signed off.”
