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PRO INSTALLER APRIL 2016
PRO NEWS
@proinstaller1
Company fined after carrying
out ‘dangerous window work’
A company which manufactured and installed
windows has been fined
£36,000 after carrying
out work in the West
End of London with no
measures to prevent
the workers falling
eight metres and after
dropping part of a
window onto the public
area below.
Westminster Magistrates’
Court heard Ideal Glazing (Euro) Ltd carried out
window installation work at
Aldford House, Park Street,
London, between 19 and 20
January 2015 that put their
workers and members of the
public at risk of suffering
serious injuries or a fatality.
The Health and Safety
Executive (HSE) carried out
an investigation into the
work after a member of the
public provided photos of
workers leaning out of window openings eight metres
above the ground. They also
provided a video showing
the workers dropping part
of a window which fell to
the ground and missed a
nearby pedestrian.
The company had failed
to provide equipment such
as scaffolding which would
have prevented the workers
and window falling. None
of the workers had received
any formal training and
no one was appointed to
supervise the work.
The risks associated with
the work had not been
sufficiently assessed. The
court heard the company had failed to invest in
equipment for working at
height and had a health and
management system which
relied entirely on the company’s managing director Mr
Rashinda Joshi, despite his
lack of relevant training and
experience.
The work at Aldford
House was halted when
HSE served a Prohibition
Notice (PN) . The court
heard the company had previously been given advice
by HSE in connection with
work at height and that
an audit by Ideal Glazing’s
bank had previously identified a range of relevant
health and safety failings.
The court heard that neither
written warning was heeded
by the firm.
Ideal Glazing (Euro) Ltd
of 29, The Green, Southall,
Middlesex, pleaded guilty
to breaches of Regulation
6(3) and 10(1) of the Work
at Height Regulations 2005
and was fined £36,000 and
ordered to pay £1,386 in
costs.
HSE inspector Andrew
Verrall-Withers commented
after the hearing:
“Ideal Glazing (Euro) Ltd
put the lives of workers and
members of the public at
risk. People should be able
to walk down a pavement
without being exposed to
the risk of a heavy window
falling eight-metres onto
them.”
“The company’s standards
were appalling, and this was
particularly unacceptable as
previous warnings had been
blatantly disregarded.”
“This is a case where
equipment such as scaffolding was not provided. It’s
vital that law abiding companies have confidence they
will not lose work to others
who under quote them be-
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“Thanks to the member of
the public who alerted us,
we were able to avoid the
workers or any pedestrians
being injured or killed. We
encourage people to report
unsafe work to us so we can
act to protect workers and
the public.”
Source: hse.gov.uk
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