05 July 2019
Sonnic Support Solutions (Jersey) Limited was fined £40,000 and ordered to pay £5,000 costs by the Royal Court on 28th June 2019 after pleading guilty to a breach of Article 3 of the Health and Safety at Work (Jersey) Law 1989. A manager at the company was also individually fined £3,000 by the same court under Article 23 of the Law for his own failings, following an accident in which an employee was injured in a fall from a roof.
The prosecution followed an incident that occurred on 12th July 2018 when two workers from the company were sent to a two storey domestic property to clean moss from the roof. The men accessed the sloping roof from an extension ladder and began cleaning using a wet brush ‘reach’ system usually used for cleaning windows. Unsurprisingly, as the tiles became wet from the cleaning, the worker on the roof slipped and fell to the patio below sustaining broken ribs and severe bruising.
Investigation by the Health and Safety Inspectorate into the accident revealed that it had been identified by the manager in charge of the job that a scaffold tower would be needed to work from to clean the roof. He had included the need for a scaffold tower in his quote to the customer but despite this, sent workers to the property on two occasions equipped only with a ladder. Following the accident the same manager attended the site, and once the ambulance had left, instructed the remaining worker to carry on with the work in the same unsafe fashion.
Article 23 of the Health and Safety Law enables both a body corporate and an officer of that body corporate, such as a director, manager, secretary or similar to be proceeded against should it be identified that the offence was committed with the consent or connivance of the officer of the body corporate, or be attributable to any neglect on their behalf.
This case illustrates that the Health and Safety Inspectorate will hold those individuals to account whose neglect causes serious breaches of the Law.
Further information
Health and safety at work law guidance
Guidance on the safe use of ladders
gov.je