Prosecution Details

Being an employer, failed to provide and maintain, so far as was practicable, a working environment in which its employees were not exposed to hazards.

The defendant was contracted to carry out roofing work associated with the construction of a primary school. The defendant employed a number of subcontractors to perform the roofing work.

On 8 November 2000 two workers were observed on the roof, approximately six metres high, without any safe system for working at heights. One worker was wearing a safety harness, however, it was not attached to anything. An investigation revealed that employees of the contractor had also worked on the roof on 7 November 2000 without a safe system of work. On that day the workers were required to lay roof mesh, lay the insulation and roof sheets onto the mesh using fall arrest harnesses, although no anchor points for fall arrest harnesses had been provided and no instruction or training on the use of fall arrest systems had been provided.

It was practicable for the defendant to have provided scaffolding or elevated work platforms in order to fix the mesh to the roof, or to have ensured that either of those was provided. Further, it was practicable for the defendant to have provided perimeter scaffolding or a perimeter handrail, or to have ensured either of those were provided. Alternatively, a suitable fall arrest system could have been installed. It was also practicable for the defendant to have provided its employees with training and instruction on the use of fall arrest systems and to have instructed them not to work on the roof without a safe system of work.

The defendant pleaded guilty. The penalty was imposed under section 19(6).

convicted