CAN U SPARE £280K PLEASE
I wonder how many Companies can answer YES to that question? My guess is not that many and if you have it lying around in the bank, how does the thought of handing over, uninsured, to a court sound?
MASSIVE FINE FOR PARALYSED WORKER
Mr Rizzotti was a contractor working on a Shell oil refinery refurbishment project in Cheshire when he walked into a regenerator unit to carry out his work. A rope holding a hoist in position 30 metres above him failed and a massive amount of waste materials fell on top of him breaking his back, pelvis and both legs. He is now paralysed and confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life.
Shell Oil pleaded guilty to breaching the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 for failing to ensure that lifting operations are carrried out safely. Shell was fined £166,000 with £16,000 costs. Dalprop, the contracting Company was also fined in the sum of £83,333 with £11,000 costs. A Company that installed the scaffolding that was also part of the cause of the asccident was fined £83,333 with £16,000 costs.
All in all quite an expensive day out really, imaging if this or a similar incident occured in your business, it does not need to be on this scale, it could simply be someone falling down the stairs, or slipping over a cable in the office, would you be able to continue in business if the fine was as low as, say £5000?
These are the risks faced everyday by UK businesses. The solution is quite simple, very cheap and easy to achieve.
Do a comprehensive risk assessment that takes into account all of the activities undertaken by you or your staff, write it down and train people to enable them to be aware of the risks and the required controls. Then simply monitor those controls to ensure that they are followed by staff.
The management of health and safety reaally is easy yet so many companies fail to get the basics:
POLICY
ORGANISATION
PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTATION
MONITORING AND REVIEW
SIMPLES !!!!yet there are still over 2 million accidents every year in UK!!!!!!
