A Coventry-based housing association has been forced to pay over £20,000 in fines and costs after a worker fell nearly four metres off a ladder.
The 52-year-old man from Solihull was inspecting the guttering at one of the company's houses on 6 June 2011 when the accident occurred, resulting in a broken pelvis and four months in hospital.
The company was prosecuted in Coventry Magistrates’ Court after an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that the base of the ladder hadn’t been secured properly.
It emerged that the firm had failed to provide its workers with any instruction or equipment to enable them to secure ladders effectively. Standoff devices to avoid the need to rest ladders against unstable guttering had also not been issued, and the company did not carry out routine monitoring to ensure that their employees were working safely.
Despite undertaking a significant amount of work at height, the company's management of this type of risk was deemed to be well below the standard expected.
The company pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, and was fined £15,000 and ordered to pay £5,980 in costs.
The 52-year-old man from Solihull was inspecting the guttering at one of the company's houses on 6 June 2011 when the accident occurred, resulting in a broken pelvis and four months in hospital.
The company was prosecuted in Coventry Magistrates’ Court after an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that the base of the ladder hadn’t been secured properly.
It emerged that the firm had failed to provide its workers with any instruction or equipment to enable them to secure ladders effectively. Standoff devices to avoid the need to rest ladders against unstable guttering had also not been issued, and the company did not carry out routine monitoring to ensure that their employees were working safely.
Despite undertaking a significant amount of work at height, the company's management of this type of risk was deemed to be well below the standard expected.
The company pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, and was fined £15,000 and ordered to pay £5,980 in costs.
