lancashire skip hire firm fined again

After receiving a warning just over two months before the incident for the same reason, the owner of a Lancashire skip hire firm has been ordered to dig out just over 6 thousand pounds after he was filmed putting an employee’s life in danger from heights at work.

Christopher Jones, the owner of the Lancashire skip hire firm known as ‘Bacup-based Shadlock Skips’ was prosecuted by the HSE after a concerned member of the public raised awareness over the issue of what they caught on film.

The incident involved an employee at the firm and Christopher Jones himself at work attempting to go the quick way around a job. The employee was filmed trying to remove a small piece of damaged plywood above the main shutter doors but with no safety measures in place to prevent what could have been a nasty fall. He was seen in the bucket of a telehandler however this is nothing new to the employee as of before this recent incident, the same employee was witnessed riding on top of a fully laden skip wagon as it reversed into the work site.

Even though the employee is okay and unharmed, Mr Jones took the risk of that one minute job which has cost him a great expense and also the risk he put his employee in. Mr Jones pleaded guilty to a breach in the Work at Height Regulations 2005 after his first incident yet the HSE inspector David Myrtle said: Falls from height are a major cause of workplace deaths in Great Britain alone. HSE takes work at height seriously and expects employers to do the same.

Since receiving a warning for a very similar approach which was equally as dangerous and with it being just over two months ago, you can see why he wasn’t entitled to another warning. If the employee was to have fallen – Mr Jones would have lost probably not just his business, but the cost to him and his family and the employee’s family would have been immeasurable and unforgiveable.

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