As the rugby world cup has kicked off this week, your attention may not be 100% on health and safety. You may have known that they have changed the "law" for the rugby scrum and now has a "crouch, bind, set" instructions - this change alone has reduced accidents and injury in the scrum by 50%. But unfortunately not all companies this week have changed their procedures to keep their players (employees) or even their customers safe:
Keeping with the rugby theme, A restarant in Rugby was fined thousands of pounds for having mold growing on the kitchen walls, keeping utensils on the floor and more hygine issues. The restaurant was issued a health and safty warning with an outline of the improvements needed to ensure that the restaurant wasnt closed down. However, when the health and safety officers revisited the kitchen they were shocked to see that instead of improving it had infact deteriorated, there was no hot water in the hand wash basin, a hole in the kitchen door and food waste out to the rear of the kitchen. The owner was fined a total of £3,500 and ordered to pay £913.57 in costs. You can read more of the stroy here.
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A director of a zoo has appeared in court due to a string of health and safety breeches after a Sumatran tiger mauled and killed one of its keepers. It is said that the zoo director has failed to act on the previous notices to make improvements to his health and safety, not only for is employees but for people not in his employment to ensure their safety when visiting his park. Notices were sent after a tragic accident where a zoo keeper fell from a ladder while preparing food for the large cats last year. The case will be in the courts in October.
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A bricklayer tragically lost his life this week after a wall collapsed and fell on top of him. The building contractors who had been working on building a 3 bedroom house and a storage room in the garden, the storeroom was planned to be built next to a wall that was built a year previous, however the wall was not built as a retaining wall, and when the ground was being levelled the soil that was supporting the wall collapsed. The company failed to complete the correct health and safety checks on the wall and did not put in place structural support to prevent this accident from happening. The company has now been fined £200,000. You can read more on this story here.
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A polythene firm has been fined a total of £50,000 following serious safety breeches which has left an employee with life changing injuries after they got trapped in a machine. The business was charged for breaching the provision and use of work equipment regulations and the management of health and safety at work regulations. For these two breeches the company pleaded guilty and was fined a total of £40,000. They were also ordered to pay a total of £10,000 for costs. to read more about this story click here.
