Company fined after two employees have work accident

A work accident suffered by two employees has led to their employer, a plastering contractor, being fined.

Clark & Fenn Skanska Ltd of Ricksmansworth, Hertfordshire, was fined £5,000 by Derby magistrates this week, as well as being told to pay £11,348 in costs.

The company admitted to breaching Regulation 8(1) of the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 by not properly planning the lifting of materials and making sure that the operation was carried out safely and was supervised.

In August 2007, two workers, who have not been named, were constructing the Westfield shopping centre in Derby when the scissor lift they were using to move plasterboards overturned.

They fell about seven metres and had to be hospitalised as a result of the work accident.

A subsequent investigation by the Health and Safety Executive discovered that the two had not been using the correct type of transportation equipment.

Elsewhere in the East Midlands, Environcom England Ltd was fined £7,000 after a worker was injured when a stack of appliances fell on him.

Published by Hannah Carr