Company fined £100,000 after worker’s roof plunge

A BIRMINGHAM maintenance company has been fined £100,000, and has to pay costs of £25,000, for safety failures that led to the death of a worker.

Staff from H20 Plumbing Services had been repairing motor rooms on the roof of a five-storey building on Hagley Road, Birmingham, in October 2014.

As they were cleaning up at the end of the working day, a sheet of tarpaulin blew open due to the wind and landed over the edge of the building. One of the workers attempted to retrieve the sheet but he stepped off the side of the building, falling 14 metres and suffering fatal injuries.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive found H20 Plumbing Services had failed to ensure the safety of its employees during the external repair work. The company pleaded guilty at Birmingham Crown Court to breaching section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.

HSE Inspector Amy Kalay said: “This incident was obviously foreseeable. The employees of H20 working at the site were effectively left to their own devices with equipment and a system that was not wholly suited for the task at hand.

“A suitable and sufficient assessment of the risk, suitable planning, implementation of suitable control measures and adequate and effective site supervision would have prevented this incident from occurring.”