Homes for Haringey fined £10,000 over injured worker
4:27pm Monday 7th July 2008
A housing company has been fined £10,000 after a worker suffered a spine injury in a fall.
A trainee plumber was unable to work for a year after falling through a flat skylight in January last year.
Homes for Haringey, which managed the flat for Haringey Council, has been blamed for the fall because it broke health and safety laws and fined £10,000.
The arms-length management organisation, Homes for Haringey, was found guilty by City of London Magistrates last Tuesday and ordered to pay an additional £3,562 in costs.
On January 18, 2007, a trainee plumber was working with a colleague in a council-owned loft when he fell 10ft through a skylight, hidden by insulation material, and onto stairs below.
He was left him with serious injuries to the spine and unable to work for a year.
HSE inspector John Crookes condemned Homes for Haringey for failing to prevent the accident. He said: "It is totally unacceptable that so many lives of employees who work from height continue to be put at risk.
"Falls from height remain the most common kind of accident causing fatal injuries. Last year, 45 people died and more than 3,000 suffered a serious injury after a fall from height in the workplace.
"All companies must assess the risks from work that they are undertaking at height, ensuring that the work is planned properly and appropriate measures are taken so that workers are not exposed to risk of falling.
"Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) were set up to bring improved business practices into managing local authority housing stock. This includes effectively managing the health and safety of their employees.
"This unfortunate accident could have been prevented had a simple safe system of work been followed, such as using secured boards to create a stable working platform, and crawling boards where access across the unboarded parts of the loft was required."
Homes for Haringey has admitted there was a "gap" in their safety procedures and has put improvements in place.
Bob Watts, Homes for Haringey's director of building services said: "We are very sorry that one of our employees was injured in an accident at work.
"The health and safety of our employees is always of paramount importance and the robust risk assessments and training regimes we have in place have been a major factor in preventing such accidents. In fact the service achieved the Bronze Award for Occupational Safety from ROSPA in 2005.
"Our safety record is extremely good. The work area around the water tank was boarded and safe but the situation in this case was very unusual. The presence of an internal skylight is uncommon and in addition loft insulation material concealed it.
"However, we accept that there was a gap in our system and have followed HSE recommendations. We have now carried out a risk assessment and trained staff to do a thorough check on a loft space to make sure they can do their job safely before starting any work there.
"Thankfully our member of staff has fully recovered from his injuries and has been back at work for some months."