Employers must take proper precautions to ensure the safety of their employees, especially when they are involved in tasks requiring them to work at heights. This was reinforced after a recent judgement by the court, whereby a farm employer named Francis Caley was held guilty of breaching section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act, 1974. A fine of £8,000 was imposed on Caley and he also had to pay £1,858 as costs at
The judgement was related to the incident that occurred on May 13, 2008 when one of Caley’s employees, Charles Leslie Nendick, was repairing the roof of a farm building. The roof was not strong enough to sustain his weight and as a result, Nendick fell down from a height of 4.5 metres just as he stepped onto the roof from a ladder. The fall left him seriously injured with fractures to his hip, pelvis and spine as well as a cut on his head.
HSE Inspector Alan Sheldon, while commenting on the judgement, said it is a well-known fact that working on roofs is risky. He said figures from the past ten years show accidental falls have resulted in around 70 deaths in the agriculture industry, and nearly 50% of these involved falls through fragile surfaces.
He also mentioned that HSE provides adequate guidelines to prevent such incidents (Working at Height Training). According to Sheldon, in this case, the employer did not take adequate preventive measures for which Nendick met with the serious accident.
