Veolia ES (UK) Limited and Croydon council were both fined a combined total of more than £350,000 in a hearing at Southwark Crown Court earlier this week. The incident occurred in May 2016.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found the workshop cleaner, who has not been named, was employed as a ‘supported employee’ due to his learning difficulties, with a “recognised need” for heightened supervision.
Due to his work, he was often required to work in parts of the site, such as the workshop, where large vehicles with low rear visibility for drivers were manoeuvring.
According to HSE, he was known to have a history of standing in the path of moving vehicles, an issue known to both duty holders which they “failed to address adequately”.
Historical agreement
It was later claimed that London Borough of Croydon had relied upon a historical ‘agreement’ from 2003 whereby their previous waste contractor had agreed to supervise the workshop cleaner.
The court heard that direct management or supervision of the individual had “diminished over time” and the worker was left with no active management.
It was found that London Borough of Croydon failed due to their presumption that Veolia were managing the injured party and that they should have communicated with Veolia to keep their employee safe.
Veolia said it did not recognise this ‘agreement’ nor did they require the services of the workshop cleaner but, nevertheless, the worker continued to operate within their workshop and had done since their contract began.
Commenting following the case, a spokesperson for Croydon Council said: “We fully accept the Health and Safety Executive’s findings and the court’s decision. We are extremely sorry that we let our employee and his family down. Since this accident we have continued to support him, and we have also reviewed and improved all relevant health and safety practices so this never happens again.”
Costs
Veolia pled guilty to a breach of the Health and Safety Act and was fined £250,000 and ordered to pay costs of £11,359.83. Croydon council was fined £100,000 and ordered to pay costs of £10,842.83 after also pleading guilty.
A Veolia spokesperson said: “We deeply regret the incident of 9 May 2016 with a London Borough of Croydon employee, in the workshop of our Stubbs Mead depot. We note the findings of the court on Wednesday 31st January 2018. “As a responsible company we take health and safety extremely seriously. This was acknowledged by the judge during the sentencing hearing. We have since made changes to our procedures to help ensure that an incident of this nature can’t happen again. These steps were also recognised in the judge’s final decision.”
Speaking after the hearing, HSE inspector Megan Carr commented that the “serious workplace transport incident could have been avoided” if both duty holders had taken the appropriate safety precautions when planning this activity.
“Failing to identify the risks led to this man suffering serious life changing injuries,” he concluded.
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