When the employer does everything reasonable to ensure competence, but the individual just ignores his training
What happened?
Terrance Murray, a 27 year-old scaffolder, with eight to nine years of experience, was standing on a scaffold platform in June 2017. He was working at a height of between 13 and 18 metres, but there was no edge protection, and the harness he was wearing was not secured to anything. He was accompanied by a trainee scaffolder on a lower platform.
Watching this was a former Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspector who photographed the man. The photo shows him looking directly into the offices of the Crown Prosecution Service.
The HSE found that the man’s employer had taken reasonable steps to reduce the risk of any of its employees falling while working at height. He had been well trained and given the correct personal protective equipment to carry out the job safely.
The HSE said the man had not been under pressure to complete the work quickly: “We believe it would have been more than reasonable to expect the man to follow his training and experience to carry out his job correctly rather than deliberately cut corners. It was likely he would have died from his injuries had he fallen on to the car park below,” the HSE said.
Legal Outcome
Terrance Murray, who no longer works as a scaffolder, pleaded guilty to breaching s 7(a) of the Health and Safety at Work Act, for failing to “take reasonable care for the health and safety of himself and or other persons who may be affected by his acts or omissions of work”, in February 2018.
He told district the judge that it was a ‘moment of stupidity’ before being was sentenced to twenty-six weeks in prison, suspended for twelve months, and one hundred hours of community service. He was also ordered to pay £615 in costs and victim surcharge.
The HSE inspector said the case “serves to remind employees that they have a duty to look after themselves.”
What can we learn from what happened?
The reports on this case made it clear that the man’s employer’s had done everything they are meant to do – they had employed an experienced scaffolder, he was trained, and he had the correct safety equipment. So, this is a relatively rare example of Section 7 being used because the man didn’t take reasonable care for himself.
There are other examples of employees breaching this duty when the injury they have suffered is punishment enough. In this case, no-one was hurt – the prosecution was for unsafe working. There was a risk to ‘other persons’, which is also covered under S7, but the HSE highlighted the ‘duty to look after themselves’. The potential for the trainee scaffolder being influenced by the poor working practices would also have been a factor.
He said it was ‘a moment of stupidity’ – it takes more than one moment to build a scaffold. And lastly, he was photographed by a former HSE Inspector, and he was looking into a CPS office – you couldn’t make it up!
Source of Information
IOSH Magazine
Rescue2 Website