HEALTH AND SAFETY WORLD
Client news briefing from Inspection Services International

STRESS - APPEAL COURT DECISION

At last there are signs that the Courts are taking a more common sense approach to the “compensation culture” that has developed in recent years. The Court of Appeal have recently overturned three claims for work related stress.

Key issues include the feasibility of harm, the need for actual injury (as distinct from just stress) and the existence of non-work related stress.
HSE are currently consulting on stress with a view to formulating an Approved Code of Practice. In the meantime it is crucial that employers and employees work together to identify and control workplace stressors in exactly the same way that they risk assess premises, equipment or operations.

The CIEH have recently launched a one day level one qualification of stress awareness.

Click for course details

RECENT COURT CASES

RECORD FINE FOR NONE-FATAL ACCIDENT. BP have been fined a record £1 million for an explosion at their plant in Grangemouth Scotland where no one was killed (albeit a member of the public some 300 metres away suffered broken ribs). BP accepted the management on site had not met their normal standards and they were actually praised for their co-operation with HSE after the incident.

FAILURE TO LEARN COSTS DEARLY. A £9000 fine plus costs for a company where an employee had his fingers trapped in a conveyor system (one finger was subsequently amputated). Amazingly, an almost identical accident happened some two years earlier but the company had still failed to provide suitable guards.

DIRECTORS HELD LIABLE. A breakfast cereal manufacturer has gone into voluntary liquidation after an accident when the lid of a commercial pressure cooker was blown off. A worker suffered severe head injuries. Apparently the pressure vessel had not been examined by a competent person and was commonly in use with as few as 7 of the 16 clamps in operation. Fines of £11,000 were imposed on the company and its two Directors

MICE TROUBLE. A bakery in Dagenham has been fined £1500 plus £1932 costs because of a mouse infestation. The premises had previously been closed for 2 weeks until the infestation was eradicated.

The owner of a café in North Ormesby was only given a conditional discharge for a similar offence because she was unemployed (we assume this means the café went out of business).

Further information is available on this website or from ISI's corporate headquarters at:
10 Saville Place, Clifton, Bristol, BS8 4J England