Court action for refinery bosses

The owners of Grangemouth’s oil refinery have been accused of breaching health and safety and environmental legislation, it has emerged.

Site operator Ineos faces court action after oil from the plant polluted the River Forth in July and August 2007.

The company also faces action dating from November 2006 when a worker sustained burns as a result of an explosion in the refinery.

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Disabled grandmother wins £1,000 payout from Tesco for discrimination after forecourt staff refuse to pump up her car’s tyres

disabled woman was awarded £1,000 after suing Tesco because it ordered staff not to help pump air into her car tyres, it was revealed today.

Jenni Crowly, 52, from Welland Drive in Connah’s Quay, Deeside, said she was delighted with the result and hoped the supermarket would change its policy nationally.

She sued Tesco under the Disability Discrimination Act after staff at the Mold superstore petrol station refused to check her tyre pressure, saying they wouldn’t be covered by insurance.

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Firm guilty after overhead crane death

Liverpool, UK-based company has been fined £100,000 and ordered to pay £16,941 in costs after a man was killed and another seriously injured when they were struck by a load that fell from an overhead crane.

The UK’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has warned of the dangers of allowing cranes to operate over the heads of employees.

MRX Engineering Support Services Ltd., trading as Stackright Building Systems of Charleywood Road, Kirby, was fined at Liverpool Crown Court of breaching S 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 in that it failed to ensure the safety of its employees. The company pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing at Knowsley Magistrates Court.

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HSE Chair’s reminder on leadership agenda

The Chair of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), Judith Hackitt today reminded board members and senior business directors to put effective health and safety performance high on their agendas. Speaking at Capita Senior Directors’ Health and Safety Briefing in London Ms. Hackitt said, “No matter how good the health and safety system, nor how competent those who manage it, without effective board-level leadership and oversight, the competing demands of running a business can push health and safety into a back seat.”

The Corporate Manslaughter & Corporate Homicide Act, has focused the attention of directors on their responsibilities for health and safety. Now that the Act has entered into force, organisations should be re-examining their health and safety performance – and asking ‘Are our board and board members playing an appropriate and effective role?’”

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Young ’so vulnerable’ at work

As the British Safety Council says 66 young people have been killed at work in a decade, bereaved parents reflect on their loss and training that could have saved their sons.

“He was a young lad in his first job and he just wanted to please,” says the father of one teenager who died at work.

But 17-year-old apprentice Daniel Dennis never got the chance to prove himself at his new company.

In 2003 Daniel died when he fell 28ft (9m) from a roof and landed on the shop floor.

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Workplace death toll must not be ignored

The equivalent of a jumbo-jet-load of passengers dies every fortnight in Britain because of the failure to ensure safe and healthy conditions in workplaces, RoSPA said as Workers’ Memorial Day (April 28) approaches.

Roger Bibbings, Occupational Safety Adviser for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, said: “Because workers rarely die in high-profile disasters, their plight and the silent suffering of their families tends to go unnoticed.

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MAN KILLED IN LIFT TRAGEDY

Man was tragically killed yesterday in a lift shaft.

The fatal incident happened at A &F Carpets, on Bridge Street, Brigg, where it is believed the man got trapped as he tried to dismantle a lift.Humberside Fire and Rescue service group manager Nick Grainger said: “The family were here on the scene. They initially thought he was just injured.

“Very sadly, they had to be told he had died, so it’s been so difficult for them.”

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Proceedings lined up after inflatable art show tragedy

A COUNCIL, a senior official and an events company face crown court proceedings on charges relating to the Dreamspace inflatable art tragedy.

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HSE leads charge on non-compliant kit clampdown

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has written to all UK buyers of non-CE marked equipment purchased at the recent Euro Auction to remind them that the machines must be made compliant before they can be used.

In addition, the HSE said its counterparts in Ireland are taking similar steps and that the authorities in Finland are also checking to see whether any non-approved machinery has entered the country.

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Fork lift safety conference set for September

Fork Lift Truck Association 2008 safety conference set to focus on truck tipping dangers
Announcing the key topics for Safe Operations – this year’s National Fork Truck Safety Conference at Warwick University on September 25 – the fork lift truck Association has a hard-hitting message for those who underestimate the possibility of a truck tipping over in their workplace.

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Don’t blame HSE for workplace deaths

Libby Brooks (Ten years on, the echoes of Simon’s death are deafening, April 17) is absolutely right to express concern about deaths in the workplace; however, it is neither fair nor productive to blame the Health and Safety Executive as the regulator.

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MPs call for HSE to flex muscles over breaches

Tougher penalties for breaches of health and safety rules and more regular and rigorous inspections are being urged by the Commons Work and Pensions Select Committee.

MPs want the Government to increase penalties because of a rise in the number of fatalities in the construction industry, and for what it says is the failure of the offshore industry to manage risks and the way migrant workers are exposed to workplace dangers.

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‘Crazy’ health and safety advisers must go

A group of MPs is urging the Government to crack down on “crazy” health and safety advisers.

The work and pensions select committee is calling on ministers to stop independent advisers encouraging employers to be “over-cautious” in their interpretation of health and safety duties.

In a report published today, the committee recommends ministers introduce an accreditation system for health and safety consultants to weed out rogue operators.

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Tragic births case reveals dangers of HSE staff cuts

Hospitals in the north-east are struggling to deliver even basic services as capacity falls and the birth rate doubles.

Five years ago, a mother who gave birth in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda had the following experience: ‘‘I’d had a blood transfusion after the birth, and I needed another one’’, she told The Sunday Business Post. ‘‘But the staff were under such pressure they had forgotten. A member of my family with a medical background visited, realised what was happening and alerted the staff.

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Manslaughter: Bosses beware

From 6 April, if a worker is killed in the workplace, it’s no longer the men in suits from the HSE that will come knocking on your headquarters’ door. Instead, warns Michael Glackin, it’s more likely to be the police, who will be asking…

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