Firm fined £7,000 after worker's factory fall

Alan Sweet broke eight ribs when he fell from an extendable ladder at A Edmonds and Co Ltd's factory in Birmingham.

Mr Sweet, aged 55, from Great Barr, also cut his head, broke a finger and suffered lacerations to his shin, knee and elbow.

Birmingham Magistrates' Court heard the wood machinist was removing redundant electrical cabling and conduits within the factory's roof space, working off one half of the ladder footed by a colleague.

He was using both hands to saw through a large section of pipe when he overbalanced and fell more than three metres to the floor below.

A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found neither Mr Sweet nor his colleague had any experience or training for work at height, and the equipment was not suitable for the task in hand.

The company failed to organise, plan and appropriately supervise work at height, it said.

A Edmonds and Co Ltd pleased guilty to breaching safety regulations.

In addition to the fine, A Edmonds and Co Ltd must also pay a £1,198 in court costs.

After the hearing, HSE inspector John Glynne said Mr Sweet could have been killed in the fall.

"The factory had been rewired by an electrical contractor but A Edmonds and Co decided to task its employees with stripping out the redundant material in preference to them being laid off on a three-day week," he said.

"However, the company failed to effectively organise and plan the work, gave them an inadequate ladder to use rather than a more suitable aluminium tower and failed to appropriately supervise and monitor what was going on.

"Untrained and inexperienced employees were left to their own devices to get on with the job, one they felt compelled to perform rather than being laid-off with reduced wages.

"Mr Sweet was extremely lucky not to have suffered more serious injuries or even been killed."