Company Sentenced After Worker is Electrocuted
Date 21st September 2015
A UK based company; Berneslai Homes limited has been fined following a safety standard audit carried out by the HSE during the maintenance duty of council owned personal and domestic properties. The court was informed that HSE carried out the risk assessment following reports that an employee belonging to Berneslai Homes Ltd had been electrocuted while in the course of duty. According to the HSE finding the worker got an electric shock while he was busy repairing a wooden garden fence. The incident occurred on 26th November 2013, even though the harm wasn’t severe, it posed a great risk to the employer.
The injured employee was electrocuted when he struck an underground electric cable with a metal spade which he was using in a digging post hole. However, the electrocution did not last for a long period and hence as a result it did not causing serious injury to the worker. The court was informed by the HSE that such occurrences pose fatal risks to employees especially in the line of duty. It was also noted that employers should assess possible causes of risks within their business operation in order to ensure safety of both the employees’ and their business clients. The report also implicated that the Berneslai Homes Ltd is in charge of managing 18,800 homes on behalf of the council. The UK court proved that the company had failed to assess and ensure safety of their workers considering the fact that work carried out near electric systems was not properly investigated and planned in order to minimize accidents due to cable strike. It’s the duty of the employer to ascertain that the workplace is safe and sound for all the workers by carrying out preliminary investigation of the place to be worked on. For instance the incidence of an employee being electrocuted could have been minimized had the company assessed the risks involved before the repairing of the fence.
During the hearing held on Friday 18th September 2015 Bernselai Homes Ltd that is located in Gateway Plaza ,it was fined a total of £7500 with £8,562 in costs after they pleaded guilty to breaking the electricity at work regulations of the year 1989,regulation 4(3).
