Lord Hunt's call came following the death of Kevin Arnup at paper reprocessing plant MW White, which ultimately led to company director Paul White being jailed last week (see letsrecycle.com story).
” All employers must make the welfare of their employees a top priority by ensuring that safe systems of work are provided.“
– Lord Hunt
Commenting on the case, minister for Health and Safety, Lord Hunt said: “Tragic incidents in the workplace such as this are totally preventable. All employers must make the welfare of their employees a top priority by ensuring that safe systems of work are provided and maintained.
“There is also a need to make certain that employees are properly instructed in how to operate machinery to guard against any threat of injury or death,” he added.
HSE
The Health and Safety Executive said the death of Mr Arnup had been the result of a faulty switch that would have cost just 100 to replace. Despite the faulty switch, the HSE said it was common place for employees at MW White to climb into the shredder machine to clear jams.
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HSE investigating principal officer, Paul Carter, said: “This was a horrific accident that was entirely foreseeable. Isolating the machinery, a safe system of work for clearing blockages, together with adequate instruction, training and supervision of Paul White's staff would have prevented the accident.
“Evidence showed that Paul White chose not to follow the advice of his health and safety consultant and instead adopted a complacent attitude allowing standards in his paper recycling business to fall,” he added.
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