19 April 2021
Construction company J P Mauger Limited (JPM Ltd) was fined £25,000 and ordered to pay costs of £5,000 by the Royal Court on 18 February 2021, after pleading guilty to a breach of Article 3 of the Health and Safety at Work (Jersey) Law 1989. In that the company failed to provide a safe access and workplace for work at height.
The prosecution followed an incident that occurred on 27 January 2020 when two employees of the company were installing new timber joists to the first floor of a property in St Martin. To access the floor joists work was carried out from below via a makeshift and poorly constructed trestle work platform which failed to meet the required level of safety.
Whilst working on the trestle work platform one employee slipped off the edge off the working platform. A second employee, who was standing close to him on the trestle scaffold, moved towards him to help. The trestle work platform started to suddenly tip over and collapsed, resulting in both operatives falling approximately 1.5 metres to the concrete floor below.
One employee sustained minor injuries, the second employee was seriously injured and required 7 days hospitalisation for treatment of head injuries and multiple broken ribs.
Investigation by the Health and Safety Inspectorate (HSI) identified that on the day of the incident the trestle work platform was of poor construction and was not adequately guarded on any side to prevent persons falling. Top or mid-rails had not been installed. A toe board only had been installed; this would have the effect of acting as a tripping point.
Access to and from the work platform was via a set of step ladders, positioned sideways on to the work platform, and unsecured making them an unsafe means of access. This is clearly show in the photograph below.
Fig 1: Access to unguarded work platform
At the time of the incident, the workers were unsupervised at the site. The work platform they worked from had not been inspected by a competent person, prior to being put into use to gain access to the work area. They had been left to simply get on with the work without any specific information or instruction on how this was to be safely achieved.
The court heard evidence that aggravated the offence. Previous warnings about unsafe trestle scaffolds being seen on JPM Ltd sites from the HSI and the company's own independent health and safety advisers had been ignored.
Despite these previous warnings, a situation developed leading to serious injury before positive action was taken to prevent further work from unsafe trestle work platforms being carried out.
All work at height must be planned and carried out to comply with Regulation 27 of the Management in Construction (Jersey) Regulations 2016
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