Australia: Hardie 'set out to mislead investors'
Former directors and executives of Australian building giant James Hardie issued inaccurate, misleading and deficient public announcements about the company's ability to compensate asbestos victims, the country’s corporate regulator has claimed. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission this week launched its assault on former Hardie directors and executives in the NSW Supreme Court, which was overflowing with dozens of asbestos victims and their supporters.
The Australian plus follow up story • Sydney Morning Herald • Risks 376
Hazards news, 4 October 2008

Britain: Tories will ‘sweep aside’ safety laws
Conservative plans for education that include “sweeping aside” health and safety legislation have been condemned by teaching union NASUWT. In a speech this week to the Conservative Party’s Birmingham conference, shadow spokesperson for children, schools and families Michael Gove said “we will act to give teachers the power to take children beyond their comfort zone by sweeping away absurd health and safety regulations which attempt to squeeze all risk out of life.”
Speech by Michael Gove MP • Risks 376
Hazards news, 4 October 2008

Britain: Director banned for asbestos crimes
A company director has been banned from running a firm for four years after removing and transporting asbestos without a licence. Robert McCart must also pay over £44,000 in fines, costs and compensation after being prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and the Environment Agency (EA).
HSE news release and asbestos licensing webpages • Risks 376
Hazards news, 4 October 2008

Britain: Inadequate training led to forklift death
Two firms have been fined after a poorly trained worker was killed when the forklift truck he was driving overturned. Shane Neal, 34, was killed on 2 May 2003 when he was crushed by a truck in Hangar no.1 at the former RAF Cardington, Bedfordshire.
HSE news release and workplace transport webpages • Risks 376
Hazards news, 4 October 2008

Britain: Homicide charges call after tug tragedy
Clydeport should face culpable homicide charges relating to the deaths of three tug crew, a top union official has said. Unite Scottish secretary John Quigley called for immediate action after the release this week of the Marine Accident Investigation Branch’s (MAIB) report into the sinking of the Flying Phantom.
MAIB report • Risks 376
Hazards news, 4 October 2008

South Africa: Miners ‘dying like flies’
The horrific death rate in South Africa’s mines is seeing workers ‘dying like flies’, unions have said. The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) said 127 had died already this year, adding it “fully supports the NUM’s policy of downing tools every time a worker dies, as both a mark of respect and a protest at the excessive loss of life.”
Risks 375
Hazards news, 27 September 2008

Britain: Future of safety enforcement conference
A major conference organised by the Centre for Corporate Accountability (CCA) is to examine ‘The future of safety enforcement’. The event, which is supported by the TUC, will take place in London on 24 November.
The future of safety enforcement, Hamilton House, London, 24 November 2008. Cost: £50 (individuals/trade union representatives); £100 (public bodies); £150 (lawyers, private companies); £20 (unemployed). Conference programme and registration form • Risks 375
Hazards news, 27 September 2008

Britain: Laundry fined after neck-trapping incident
An Essex laundry has been fined £30,000 after an employee was seriously injured when his neck and hands were trapped in a conveyor. After pleading guilty to safety offences, Eastern Counties Laundries Ltd, of Coggeshall, Essex was also ordered to pay £15,000 costs at Colchester Crown Court.
Risks 375
Hazards news, 27 September 2008

Britain: Unilever doesn’t care for workers’ skin
A UK multinational with a multimillion pound trade in skin care products has been fined after trashing the skin of its own staff. Unilever was ordered to pay £28,000 in fines and costs after 25 Merseyside workers contracted dermatitis.
Risks 375
Hazards news, 27 September 2008

Britain: Leg loss costs firm £20,000
NYK Logistics has been fined £20,000 and £5,941 costs after an admin worker lost her leg after being hit by a forklift truck.
Risks 375
Hazards news, 27 September 2008

Britain: Corus in court again for safety failings
Steel maker Corus has been fined again for serious safety failings. It the latest in a long sequence of prosecutions, the firm was this week fined £15,000 at Hartlepool Magistrates’ Court and ordered to pay £6,248 costs after a crane operator was crushed and seriously injured.
HSE news release • Hartlepool Mail • Northern Echo •
More on recent Corus deaths and prosecutions • Risks 375
Hazards news, 27 September 2008

Britain: Bosses jailed for fireball death cover-up
Two directors of a Dorset firm that broke criminal safety laws leading to the death of an employee, then pressured staff to give “false and erroneous evidence” to cover their tracks, have been jailed along with an employee. Reliance Scrap Metal Merchants (Parkstone) director David Matthews, was sentenced to three years for perverting the course of justice, fellow director Michael Anderson received 15 months, while employee David Lomas was jailed for six months, after admitting the same charge.
Risks 375
Hazards news, 27 September 2008

Britain: Trust fined for hospital shock
A hospital trust has been fined after a cleaner suffered severe injuries from an electric shock suffered as he operated a steam cleaner. East Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust pleaded guilty at Hastings Magistrates’ Court and was fined £8,000 and ordered to pay costs of £8,466.71 for breaching the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.
Risks 374
Hazards news, 20 September 2008

Britain: Boss escapes jail for silica use
A company boss whose firm used deadly silica despite the process being banned for 58 years has received a £26,000 fine but has escaped jail. Andrew Thomson, trading as Thomson Sandblast, of Great Harwood, was also ordered to pay £24,000 costs and was told that magistrates had considered a custodial sentence.
Global Unions cancer campaign • Risks 374
Hazards news, 20 September 2008

Britain: Bootful of cement causes burns
An Oxford building company has been fined £500 after one of its employees sustained burns to his legs after wet concrete poured into his Wellington boots. In addition to the fine, O'Brien & McIntyre LLP was ordered at Stratford upon Avon Magistrates' Court to pay £150 prosecution costs after pleading guilty to breaching the Control of Substance Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (COSHH).
Risks 374
Hazards news, 20 September 2008

Canada: Inquiry call after mushroom farm deaths
The head of the union umbrella organisation in the Canadian province of British Columbia has called for an investigation into the deaths of three mushroom farm workers. “We need a public inquiry that's going to find out how we stop these deaths,” said Jim Sinclair, head of the BC Federation of Labour.
Risks 373
Hazards, 13 September 2008

Britain: £75,000 fine after quarry worker dies
A quarry company has been fined £75,000 after a man died at its plant in Cornwall. Robert Bickley, 42, died from head injuries in July 2004 after he became entangled in the fixed guard on a rock crushing machine – and the firm, Aram Resources Ltd, was reprimanded by the judge after it tried to pin the blame on the worker.
HSE news release and quarrying webpages • Risks 373
Hazards, 13 September 2008

Britain: Small fine after big fall
A Hampshire company has been fined just £234 after an employee was seriously injured in a workplace fall. Profile Construction & Interiors Ltd, based in Alresford, pleaded guilty this week at Basingstoke Magistrates' Court and was also ordered to pay £200 costs and a victim surcharge of £15 for a breach of the Work at Height Regulations 2005.
HSE news release and falls webpages • Risks 373
Hazards, 13 September 2008

Britain: Death fall after protection was removed
A construction company has been fined £125,000 for health and safety breaches after the death of a Polish worker. Witold Jellen, 56, died in July 2007 after falling eight metres during work to convert the former ABC cinema in Falkirk into a sports bar – but the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which says bad publicity is part of the punishment facing errant firms, issued no press release on the case.
Risks 373
Hazards, 13 September 2008

Britain: Fine after second blast at Glaxo plant
Multinational drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline has been fined £50,000 after a second explosion at its Ayrshire factory – but received the cut down fine because it pleaded guilty. Two workers suffered serious burns and others were treated for shock after the blast – but the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which says bad publicity is part of the punishment facing errant firms, issued no press release on the case.
Risks 373
Hazards, 13 September 2008

Britain: Firms fined over animal feeder deaths
Two Lanarkshire companies have been fined a total of £63,750 after two men were killed while cleaning an animal feeder which started up unexpectedly. Hamilton Sheriff Court heard the deaths of Charles Lee Hinshelwood and Peter Brown in 2005 could have been avoided if the power supply had been isolated; Galloway and MacLeod Ltd and Barr Electrical Contractors Ltd received penalties reduced by 25 per cent after entering guilty pleas.
Risks 373
Hazards, 13 September 2008

Britain: Companies fined after crane calamity
Two companies have been fined a total of £20,000 following an incident at a Lancashire construction site that could have ended in a multiple fatalities. The firms were prosecuted at Warrington Magistrates’ Court after a 35 tonne truck-mounted telescopic crane overturned.
Risks 373
Hazards, 13 September 2008

Britain: HSE passes on on-the-spot penalties
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has waived its right to apply for new civil sanctions open to enforcement agencies under the Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill, which gained Royal Assent at the end of July. The bill allows regulars to apply to the minister for new powers to impose fixed monetary penalty notices - on-the-spot fines, variable fines or enforcement undertakings, legal agreements where the offender has to carry out specific activities to improve health and safety.
Risks 373
Hazards, 13 September 2008

Britain: Union vigil for killed site worker
A minute's silence has been held in memory of a construction worker who died after an horrific incident on a building site in Oxfordshire last month. Altin Balla, 28, from Aberystwyth, died after he became trapped by steel girders against his neck.
Risks 373
Hazards, 13 September 2008

Britain: Demolition director done for fall
A director of a Surrey demolition firm has been fined £5,000 after an electrician was seriously injured in a fall. Nicholas Anderson was also ordered to pay £1,657 costs after pleading guilty to a safety offence and Wooldridge Ecotec Ltd was fined £15,000 and £4,971 costs.
Risks 272
Hazards news, 6 September 2008

Britain: BAE fined after worker badly burned
A major munitions company has been fined £50,000 after a 21-year-old agency worker was severely burned when pyrotechnic substances ignited. BAE Systems Land Systems (Munitions and Ordnance) Ltd was also ordered to pay costs of £15,000 at Cardiff Crown Court.
Risks 272
Hazards news, 6 September 2008

Britain: Most workers won’t blow the whistle
Fewer than one in every three workers would blow the whistle on their employer if they broke health and safety laws, according to the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH). A YouGov poll commissioned by IOSH found that only 28 per cent of people would report their company or organisation to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) if it was in breach of health and safety legislation.
Risks 272
Hazards news, 6 September 2008

Britain: More enforcement needed on opencast sites
A union leader who represents opencast mining workers in Scotland has called for a significant rise in the number of health and safety inspectors to patrol what he describes as “the most dangerous jobs in the country.” Jim Walls, a regional convener was the union Unite, was speaking after Scottish Coal was fined £400,000 for safety breaches in connection with the deaths of two men killed in an accident at the Pennyvenie opencast mine in Ayrshire.
Risks 272
Hazards news, 6 September 2008

USA: OSHA fiddles while workers die
A top US union safety official has accused the government of fiddling workplace death figures. Workplace fatalities figures released last week showed a 6 per cent fall in 2007, but a union official says the government had wrongly attributed the fall to its business friendly policies.
Risks 371
Hazards news, 30 August 2008

South Africa: Mine union protest at rash of deaths
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in South Africa has said a rash of deaths at mining giants AngloGold and AngloPlatinum are pivotal proof that the country is in need of rigid safety regulations. The spate of fatalities came earlier this month, in the same week the Chamber of Mines lobbied against tougher criminal penalties and corporate liability for workplace safety crimes during public hearings of the proposed Mine Health and Safety Amendment Bill
Risks 371
Hazards news, 30 August 2008

Nepal: Union victory for murdered bus driver
A planned national strike by transport workers in Nepal was called off after the government agreed to provide the family of a murdered bus driver with compensation. On 16 August, after eight days of strike action, the government and unions agreed on a six-point plan, which includes providing the family of Khawas with 1 million Nepalese rupees (£7,800) and arranging free education for his children; as part of the agreement, the government also agreed to bring the perpetrators of the crime to justice and to step up security for transport workers, particularly along highways.
Risks 371
Hazards news, 30 August 2008

Britain: Police fear officer death charge
Police bosses in Manchester have set up a £1m ‘contingency fund’ to pay for possible fines and legal costs after an officer was shot dead by a colleague during a training session, according to a report by the Manchester Evening News (MEN). A probe by the Independent Police Complaints Commission, with support from the Health and Safety Executive, is expected to identify a series of blunders which led to the death in June of Pc Ian Terry.
Risks 371
Hazards news, 30 August 2008

Britain: Firm fined after groin injury
A Lincoln firm has been fined after a worker suffered a severe groin injury while moving a 96 kilogram oven. Catering equipment manufacturer Lincat Limited was fined £19,400 and ordered to pay £4,800 costs at Lincoln Magistrates Court after pleading guilty to breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act and two contraventions of the Manual Handling Operations Regulations.
HSE news release and manual handling assessment guide • Risks 371
Hazards news, 30 August 2008

Britain: Site boss denies teen manslaughter
A building site boss has appeared in court to deny the manslaughter of a 15-year-old Essex boy crushed to death at work. Adam Gosling, from Latchingdon, was killed during the demolition of a brick wall at the site in Hadley Wood, Enfield, on 23 April last year.
Risks 371
Hazards news, 30 August 2008

Britain: Scottish Coal fined over deaths
Scottish Coal Company Ltd has been fined £400,000 for health and safety breaches over the deaths of two miners in Ayrshire. It admitted failing to ensure a safe system of working at Pennyvenie open cast mine near Dalmellington.
Risks 371
Hazards news, 30 August 2008

Britain: Call to link safety fines to share price
A simple change in the law to vary the powers open to Scottish judges in cases of death or injury at work could dramatically change the climate of corporate responsibility, a member of the Scottish parliament has said. SNP MSP Bill Wilson this week launched a consultation on a proposed Member's Bill to allow judges to fine companies on the basis of their share price rather than their running costs, and to give courts the power to scrutinise company books.
Bill Wilson MSP news release and Criminal Sentencing (Equity Fines) Bill – consultation [pdf] • The Herald • Press and Journal • The Scotsman • Risks 371
Hazards news, 30 August 2008

USA: How manufacturing doubt kills workers
It happens all the time. When a study is published linking a workplace chemical to serious disease, a scientist working for the industry disputes the finding. Writing in the current issue of Hazards magazine, US academic David Michaels reveals industry has taken its lead “directly from the tobacco industry’s playbook”, employing the same tactics and the same public relations firms.
Spin cycle: Product defence – how industry money protects killer chemicals, Hazards magazine, August 2008 • Project on Scientific Knowledge and Public Policy (SKAPP)

Doubt is their product: How industry's assault on science threatens your health, David Michaels, Oxford University Press, 2008. ISBN: 978-0-19-530067-3, £14.99 (hardback) • Risks 370
Hazards news, 23 August 2008

China: Coal mine explosion kills 26
Chinese rescuers have recovered the last four bodies of miners killed in an 18 August gas blast at a coal mine in northeast China, bringing the death toll to 26. A total of 81 miners were working underground when the incident happened at the Baijiagou colliery in Liaoning Province, said Sun Shikui, head of the general hospital affiliated to the Tiefa coal industry group.
Risks 370
Hazards news, 23 August 2008

Britain: Small fine after three are seriously hurt
A Wolverhampton scaffolding firm has been fined £3,300 after an incident in which three workers were seriously hurt. Pedley Scaffolding was also ordered to pay costs of £5,318 at Stafford Magistrates' Court after pleading guilty to safety breaches.
HSE news release and construction and falls webpages • Risks 370
Hazards news, 23 August 2008

Britain: Firms fined for ‘preventable’ death fall
Two firms have been fined more than £100,000 for the “entirely preventable” death of a Midlands worker and father of two who fell more than 20ft from a tower scaffold. Darren Handley, 36, died in October 2004. Smethwick-based Spanclad Ltd and its principal contractor, Derby-based Westminster Building Co Ltd were both fined at Northampton Crown Court earlier this month for breaching health and safety laws.
Risks 370
Hazards news, 23 August 2008

Britain: Scrapyard perjurers cleared of manslaughter
Dorset firm Reliance Scrap Metal Merchants (Parkstone), where bosses broke criminal safety laws leading to the death of an employee, then pressured staff to give “false and erroneous evidence” to cover their tracks, has been found not guilty of manslaughter. Thomas Mooney, 64, was helping to cut cylinders of highly dangerous gases when an acetylene cylinder exploded at the site in Poole, Dorset, in 2005.
Dorset Police news release • Morpeth Herald • BBC News Online • Risks 370
Hazards news, 23 August 2008

Britain: Company director jailed for manslaughter
Company director Sharaz Butt, 44, has been jailed for 12 months for manslaughter and barred from being a company director for five years after a Chinese builder died while working for him. Alcon Construction employee Wu Zhu Weng was pronounced dead at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital after the fall in January this year.
Risks 370
Hazards news, 23 August 2008

Britain: Trust fined for ‘appalling mismanagement’
‘An appalling catalogue of mismanagement’ at Boston's Pilgrim Hospital has resulted in a hospital Trust paying out £18,500 in safety fines. Boston Magistrates’ Court was told how necessary safety measures relating to the use of glutaraldehyde, a chemical used to develop film in x-ray machines, had not been in place.
HSE news release and COSHH webpages • Risks 370
Hazards news, 23 August 2008

Turkey: ‘Human sandbags’ die in shipyard
Workers were used instead of sandbags for a test run of the lifeboat of a ship in Istanbul's Tuzla shipyards resulting in three deaths and 12 injuries. During the test run, the rope tying the lifeboat to the ship snapped and the boat crashed into the water, causing the deaths of Emrah Vato?lu, 19, Ramazan Ergün, 36, and Ramazan Çetinkaya, 25.
Risks 369
Hazards news, 16 August 2008

Britain: Companies exposed workers to asbestos risk
Two companies in Essex have been fined after workers in their employment were exposed to asbestos containing materials. R Maskell Ltd of Loughton was fined £150,000 with costs of £30,000 at Ipswich Crown Court while LCH Contracts Ltd of Billericay was fined £70,000 and costs of £13,821.
Risks 369
Hazards news, 16 August 2008

Britain: £1,500 fine after fall from heights convictions
A court in Nottingham has fined the manager of a construction company, Real Estate (Midlands) Ltd. just £1,500 after he was prosecuted for four offences following an incident led to an employee at a site in Mansfield suffering severe injuries, including short-term memory loss. Ronald Cordon, aged 63, suffered major injuries when he fell two metres from an unprotected wall on 6 November 2006 while doing bricklaying work on a housing construction site in Mansfield.
HSE press release • Risks 369
Hazards news, 16 August 2008

Britain: Construction giant fined for fatal fall
One of Britain’s best known construction companies has been fined £70,000 after a worker died in a “wholly avoidable” workplace fall. Carillion JM Ltd, formerly known as Mowlem plc, was also ordered to pay £24,000 in costs at Maidstone Crown Court for a criminal breach of safety law.
Risks 368
Hazards news, 9 August 2008

Britain: Director admits manslaughter charge
A company director admitted manslaughter after a court heard how a Chinese worker plunged to his death at a Norfolk building site. Sharaz Butt was charged with the killing following a two month investigation by police and the Health and Safety Executive.
Risks 368
Hazards news, 9 August 2008

Britain: Three die during blaze on boat
Three trawler workers, believed to be two Filipinos and a Latvian, have died in a fire on a fishing boat moored in an Aberdeenshire harbour. It is believed that the crew lived on the vessel while it was not at sea, to save money.
Risks 368
Hazards news, 9 August 2008

Britain: Seafarer deaths hit new high
The number of merchant seafarer deaths recorded by the government’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) has hit an all-time high. Seafarers’ union Nautilus UK has said the figures are “disturbing” and have exposed “unacceptable” complacency on the part of some maritime authorities.
MAIB annual report 2007 • Risks 368
Hazards news, 9 August 2008

Britain: Union dismay at ‘dangerous’ report
Unions have reacted with dismay to a government report that says small firms who spend just minutes a day on health and safety admin should do even less. TUC said the Better Regulation Executive (BRE) report, ‘Improving outcomes from health and safety’, which considers the effects of the health and safety regulatory regime on smaller businesses, is a “disappointment” and UCATT general secretary Alan Ritchie said it was “dangerous”.
TUC news release • UCATT report • Risks 368
Hazards news, 9 August 2008

Britain: Less than three minutes a day for safety
The government says small firms spend under three and a half minutes a day on safety admin – but thinks this should be slashed further to reduce costs. A 6 August report from the Better Regulation Executive (BRE) found small businesses spend on average 20 hours a year on safety administration, or three minutes and 17 seconds per day – and it says paring this back to a daily average of under two and a half minutes – a 25 per cent reduction – “would save low risk businesses £150 million a year.”
BERR news release • Improving outcomes from health and safety, BRE, August 2008 • Risks 368
Hazards news, 9 August 2008

USA: $5m fine after 13 die in sugar blast
The US safety watchdog OSHA has issued 120 citations and a proposed $5m fine for safety violations at the Imperial Sugar Co plant in Port Wentworth, Georgia, where incredibly high levels of sugar dust fuelled an explosion on 7 February that killed 13 workers. Dozens of other workers suffered serious injuries, and three remain hospitalised, two in critical condition.
Risks 367
Hazards news, 2 August 2008

Britain: Acoustics firm didn’t listen to lessons
A Lancashire manufacturing firm has been fined £4,000 after two separate incidents in which employees were injured. Janesville Acoustics Ltd of Colne pleaded guilty at Reedley Magistrates’ Court to four charges resulting from the two incidents.
HSE work equipment and risk assessment webpages • Risks 367
Hazards news, 2 August 2008

Britain: Firm fined £5,000 for tree felling injury
A Sutton Coldfield engineering company has been fined £5,000 after a man suffered serious head injuries while he was helping to remove a branch from a tree. Pro-Mil Engineering Ltd was also ordered to pay costs of £3,314 at Nuneaton Magistrates' Court after pleading guilty to a safety offence.
Risks 367
Hazards news, 2 August 2008

Britain: Firms fined for fatal cradle plunge
Two firms involved in a workplace tragedy in Sheffield which killed one man and injured three others have been fined a total of £140,000. The incident happened when an access cradle suspended from the exterior of a Sheffield office building partially collapsed in July 2003.
Risks 367
Hazards news, 2 August 2008

Britain: Grieving family want manslaughter charges
The family of a GMB member killed by a mechanical digger when depositing grass cuttings at a Newbury recycling centre have said the firm responsible should face manslaughter charges. In a statement, widow Linda Krauesslar and her daughter Victoria called on the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to prosecute Biffa for manslaughter over the death of Dennis Krauesslar, 59.
Risks 367
Hazards news, 2 August 2008

Britain: ‘Disgraceful’ CPS failure on Lloyd killing
Journalists’ union NUJ has said it is appalled by a decision from the Crown Prosecution Service not to proceed with a prosecution over the shooting of ITN journalist Terry Lloyd in Iraq in 2003. A 2006 inquest into Terry’s death found that he was killed by a bullet to the head from an M63 machine gun fired by US Marines.
Risks 367
Hazards news, 2 August 2008

USA: Secret Bush rule to protect toxins
The Bush administration has been caught trying to introduce secretly an eleventh-hour rule that would make it harder to set new safety standards limiting workers’ exposure to chemicals. The Labor Department has refused to discuss or disclose the proposal, which has spurred anger and condemnation from unions, Democrats in Congress and public health scientists.
Washington Post and related earlier coverage • AFL-CIO Now • Requirements for DOL Agencies' Assessment of Occupational Health Risks. Action: Proposed Rulemaking. Department of Labor, RI 1290-AA23 [pdf] • Risks 366
Hazards news, 26 July 2008

Australia: Deadly work demands strong laws
Australia’s poor record on workplace death and injury underlines the need for the highest possible national workplace health and safety standards, the country’s national union federation has said. ACTU assistant secretary Geoff Fary was speaking after a national meeting of unions resolved to push strongly for new national laws that impose a duty of care on all employers and give unions the capacity to initiate prosecutions over breaches of workplace safety law.
Risks 366
Hazards news, 26 July 2008

Britain: Safety offences bill moves a step closer
The Health and Safety (Offences) Bill successfully completed its Committee Stage in the House of Lords on 18 July. The Bill, put forward by Labour MP Keith Hill, cleared the Commons in June after being given an unopposed third reading; the next stage of the process, Report and Third Reading in the House of Lords, is now expected to take place on 7 October.
Health and Safety (Offences) Bill • Risks 366
Hazards news, 26 July 2008

Britain: Chemical firm’s small fine over dust blast
A chemical company in Wales has been fined £12,000 following an “entirely foreseeable and avoidable” April 2006 dust explosion and fire. Warwick International Group Ltd has since changed procedures and spent £1.3 million in rebuilding the part of its Mostyn factory destroyed in the blaze.
Risks 366
Hazards news, 26 July 2008

Britain: HSE loses deaths information case
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) was wrong to withhold the names of people killed at work, the Information Commissioner has ruled. A decision by the Information Commissioner’s Office requires the HSE to provide the Centre for Corporate Accountability (CCA) with the names of those who have died in work-related deaths once the opening of the coroner’s inquest has taken place.
CCA news release and deaths, inquests and prosecutions database
ICO news release [pdf] • Decision notice, ICO reference FS50104541, 21 July 2008 [pdf] • Risks 366
Hazards news, 26 July 2008

South Africa: Union plans safety strike at Gold Fields
South Africa’s National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has said it is planning industrial action at Gold Fields’ four mining operations, in protest at its worsening safety record. Gold Fields is responsible for about a quarter of South Africa's 85 mine fatalities this year.
Risks 364
Hazards news, 12 July 2008

Australia: Bust up beckons on safety law
Big business in Australia is set for a bust up with unions over occupational health and safety laws, with the Australian Industry Group calling for a shake-up of standards and enforcement regimes. Australia’s safety regulation is currently set at state level, with safety rights for workers and unions and safety duties on employers varying markedly between states.
Risks 364
Hazards news, 12 July 2008

Britain: Firm fined £10,000 for trainee’s fall
A housing organisation has been fined £10,000 after a trainee council plumber fell 3 metres through a skylight onto some stairs. The Haringey Council employee, who was working for arms-length agency Homes for Haringey Ltd, was changing a water tank at a flat on 18 January 2007 when he fell through the skylight, which was covered by loft insulation material, and injured his spine.
Risks 364
Hazards news, 12 July 2008

Britain: Polish worker died in fireball
A Polish worker who died after a blast at a Sheffield metals factory was not wearing protective clothing that could have saved his life and had not received proper training. Patrycjusz Handzel, aged 24, suffered 80 per cent burns in the explosion at Transition International on 17 March last year.
Risks 364
Hazards news, 12 July 2008

Britain: Widow’s anger at crane ‘accident’ verdict
The widow of a Polish construction worker crushed to death on a Liverpool building site has expressed her anger at an inquest’s accident verdict. Father-of-two Zbigniew Roman Swirzynski was struck by a 2.4-ton concrete counterweight which fell from the crane on 15 January last year.
FACK/BCDAG news release • Risks 364
Hazards news, 12 July 2008

Britain: Bus bosses jailed for death cover-up
Two bus firm directors who lied about the hours their drivers worked following a crash in which a 27-year-old worker died have been jailed. Managing director Vincenzo Casale, 44, and his transport manager David Ellis, 37, both directors of UK North and GM Buses Enterprises, were each jailed for 15 months and were banned from being company directors for ten and five years respectively.
Risks 364
Hazards news, 12 July 2008

Britain: HSE relocation risks health and safety
Health and Safety Executive (HSE) administrative staff began a campaign of industrial action on 7 July to protest at plans to move hundreds of staff out of London. The union PCS said so far only 10 out of more than 300 staff had expressed an interest in relocating to HSE’s new Bootle HQ.
Risks 364
Hazards news, 12 July 2008

Britain: ‘Lax’ offshore safety enforcement warning
An offshore union has warned that the industry still does not pay enough attention to safety, two decades after the Piper Alpha disaster took the lives of 167 workers. RMT said safety enforcement is lax, and the number of safety inspectors has fallen by almost 40 per cent since 1994; it added that despite “significant” safety measures introduced after the 6 July 1988 tragedy, workers are still under threat of being told they are ‘Not Required Back’ (NRB) if they raise safety issues.
Commons debate, 2 July 2008 • Press and Journal and follow up article on the industry response • Risks 364
Hazards news, 12 July 2008

Global: Olympic movement from sports goods firms
A month before the start of the Beijing Olympics, key sporting goods brands including Nike, Adidas, New Balance, Umbro and Speedo have formed a groundbreaking joint working group with trade unions and campaign groups.
Play Fair 2008 • Risks 363
Hazards news, 5 July 2008

Britain: ‘Shocking’ failures led to fatal petrol burns
A Twickenham garage has been fined £20,000 after pleading guilty to safety breaches that led to the death of employee Biagio Malacaria. Alexanders of Twickenham Ltd, a car MOT, service and repair business, was also ordered at City of London Magistrates Court last week to pay costs of £16,905.
Risks 363
Hazards news, 5 July 2008

Britain: Small dip in work deaths
There has been a small dip in the number of people killed at work this year, but the workplace death rate has remained significantly higher than record low recorded in 2005/06. The figures show the general fatality rate for employees, the self-employed and all workers has remained broadly the same over the last five years.
HSE statistics webpages • Risks 363
Hazards news, 5 July 2008

Britain: Oil firms accused of putting production first
Offshore oil operators have been accused of deliberately delaying maintenance operations to produce as much oil as possible to exploit sky-high world prices. The claim by Liberal Democrat MP Malcolm Bruce came in a Commons debate on the 20th anniversary of the 1988 Piper Alpha disaster, in which 167 workers perished.
KP3 report [pdf] • Risks 363
Hazards news, 5 July 2008

Britain: Why did rail firm ignore deadly hoist warning?
Rail union RMT is demanded the withdrawal from use of ‘Unimog’ hydraulic hoists after an incident in Essex left three workers injured, one subsequently succumbing to his injuries. RMT had earlier raised concerns about the safety of the hoists.
Risks 363
Hazards news, 5 July 2008

Britain: Government blasted on crane register refusal
Safety campaigners have reacted angrily to a government refusal to introduce a central register of cranes. Construction union UCATT said “the reasoning that the register is not feasible because the cranes are mobile is spurious.”
BCDAG news release • Risks 363
Hazards news, 5 July 2008

Britain: Unions slam ‘complacent’ government
The government’s response to a highly critical Commons select committee report on the work of the Health and Safety Executive has been described as “complacent” and “disappointing” by unions. The 21 April committee report warned that lack of funding was undermining HSE and called for more cash, more front line inspectors, more inspections and more prosecutions, but the government response said improvements would be achieved by HSE “prioritising and targeting its activities” and indicated it would persevere with the existing HSE policy.
Work and pensions committee news release and full government response • Risks 363
Hazards news, 5 July 2008

USA: Watchdog complicit as firms bury victims
The US system for measuring workplace safety is flawed and misses up to half of all workplace injuries, according to a report presented at a hearing on OSHA, the federal agency charged with protecting workers' safety and health. “Without accurate injury and illness statistics, employers and workers are unable to identify and address safety and health hazards, and policy makers are unable to assess the state of workplace safety in this country,” said George Miller, chair of the House Education and Labor Committee.
House Education and Labor Committee news release and report [pdf] • Wall Street Journal • Risks 362
Hazards news, 28 June 2008

Philippines: Union says deadly shipyard must close
A Philippines shipyard with a horrendous safety record should close, a union has said. Instead of bringing economic development to the Central Luzon area, the shipbuilding facility in Subic Bay operated by Hanjin Heavy Industries Cooperation Philippines (HHIC) has become a “graveyard” for workers, construction union NUBCW said.
BWI news release • Risks 362
Hazards news, 28 June 2008

Bangladesh: Zara forces Dhaka factory closure
Fashion firm Zara has forced the closure of a supplier's factory in Bangladesh after workers reported harsh treatment, including physical and verbal abuse. The supplier has agreed to close the factory, redeploy its workers, and recognise trade unions at its other factories.
BBC News Online • Global Business – listen to the latest programme • Risks 362
Hazards news, 28 June 2008

Britain: Fruit packer fined over work injury
A Sittingbourne company has been fined £3,000 after its failure to train workers and assess work risks led to a worker sustaining serious injuries. Fruit packing company Cross and Wells Ltd was also ordered to pay full costs of £3,422 at Sittingbourne Magistrates' Court after pleading guilty to safety offences.
HSE news release • Packaging News • Risks 362
Hazards news, 28 June 2008

Britain: Construction giant fined over driver’s death
A construction company has been fined £120,000 after a worker fell to his death at one of its yards. Lorry driver Nigel Sargeant, 45, plunged 15ft (4.6m) to the ground at Calders and Grandidge Limited in Boston, part of the global Saint-Gobain group, as he was trying to reduce the height of his trailer-load of steel poles.
HSE news release • BBC News Online • Risks 362
Hazards news, 28 June 2008

Britain: Scaffold boss jailed for ignored HSE notice
A Rotherham scaffold boss has been jailed for three months after a worker was seriously injured just months after the firm received a formal Health and Safety Executive (HSE) stop-the-job notice for the same safety failings. Philip Wolstenholme, the boss of A1 Access Scaffolding, was charged after one of his workers fell six metres on 12 January 2007.
HSE news release • Building • Risks 362
Hazards news, 28 June 2008

Korea: Shipyard deaths linked to deregulation
A spate of deaths in South Korea’s highly profitable shipyards has been linked to the government’s deregulation of health and safety in the sector. The Korean Metal Workers' Union (KMWU) reports that 15 shipbuilding workers have lost their lives at work in the last year.
IMF news release • Risks 361
Hazards news, 21 June 2008

Britain: Jail for asbestos dumpers
Two men have been jailed for a £1.2 million flytipping scam which saw thousands of tonnes of hazardous waste including asbestos dumped at bogus construction sites emblazoned with mock health and safety notices. James Kelleher, from Dagenham and Patrick Anderson, from the Irish Republic, were accused of dumping over 14,600 tonnes of waste – the equivalent of 750 lorry loads - at 15 sites in London and Essex.
Environment Agency news release • BBC News Online • Risks 361
Hazards news, 21 June 2008

Britain: Weetabix worker loses fingertips
Cereal manufacturer Weetabix has been fined £3,500 after a worker lost his fingertips in a workplace machine. HSE inspector Peter Snelgrove said the injury could have been avoided if the company had obeyed the law.
HSE news release • Risks 361

Britain: Chemical burns blast firm pays twice
A worker who suffered serious burns after an explosion at a Brighouse chemical container site has been awarded £15,000 compensation. Mohammed Ahmed Ali suffered 15 per cent burns to his forearms, thighs, genitals and lower abdomen when a chemical container he was working on at Pack2Pack exploded in March last year.
Brighouse Echo • Halifax Evening Courier • Risks 361
Hazards news, 21 June 2008

Britain: Fall leads to £15,000 fine
A Darlington building firm has been fined £15,000 following an incident in which one of its workers was seriously injured in a workplace fall. Bussey and Armstrong Ltd pleaded guilty to a safety offence and was fined £15,000 and ordered to pay costs of £3,193 at Darlington Magistrates’ Court.
HSE news release • Risks 361
Hazards news, 21 June 2008

Britain: Government told to fund site safety or fail
The government needs to provide adequate safety training and an increase in Health and Safety Executive inspectors if its new strategy for the construction industry is to succeed, a top safety organisation has said. Safety professionals’ organisation the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) said for the government strategy to succeed there must be “an eventual doubling” in the number of frontline inspectors.
IOSH news release • BERR Strategy for Sustain Construction webpage • Risks 361
Hazards news, 21 June 2008

Britain: HSE dismay as most sites fail safety test
Thirteen out of 15 Merseyside construction sites visited in a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspection blitz were issued with enforcement notices for breaches of safety law. A February blitz of over 1,000 sites saw over 300 sites shut down for serious safety breaches.
HSE news release • Risks 361
Hazards news, 21 June 2008

Britain: Safety Bill moves to the Lords
The House of Lords is to look at tougher penalties for those who breach health and safety laws after proposals were passed by MPs. The Health and Safety (Offences) Bill put forward by Labour MP Keith Hill cleared the Commons after being given an unopposed third reading.
IOSH news • Health and Safety (Offences) Bill • Risks 361
Hazards news, 21 June 2008

Britain: It’s worse than murder at work
At least twice as many people die from fatal injuries at work than are victims of homicide, a new report has revealed. Academics Professor Steve Tombs and Dr Dave Whyte found that at least 1,300 people died as a result of fatal occupational injuries in 2005-06 in England and Wales, compared with 765 homicide deaths.
Centre for Crime and Justice Studies news release • A crisis of enforcement: the decriminalisation of death and injury at work, Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, 17 June 2008 • Response to the report from HSE chief executive Geoffrey Podger • Risks 361
Hazards news, 21 June 2008

Global: Union dismay at more journalist deaths
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) says the deaths last week of journalists in Afghanistan and Somalia, both of whom worked for the BBC, underscores the need for comprehensive international action to confront the global crisis of violence against independent reporters.
IFJ news release • NUJ news release • Risks 360
Hazards news, 14 June 2008

Britain: Five grand fine for near fatal fall
A worker was nearly killed when he tried to fix a ceiling unit and fell from a ladder, a court heard. Wellingborough firm Spray-Craft Coating Limited was fined £5,000 after the unnamed employee fell more than two metres from the top of a spray booth, resulting in several fractures and bleeding to his brain.
HSE news release • Northamptonshire Evening Telegraph • Risks 360
Hazards news, 14 June 2008

Britain: Five metre fall ends in fine
A five-metre fall that left Rhondda carpenter David Morgan with serious injuries that may well have ended his career has resulted in a fine for his employer. Loft conversion company Allied Welsh Ltd pleaded guilty at Bridgend Magistrates’ Court last month to a safety breach and was subsequently fined £25,000 at Cardiff Crown Court and ordered to pay costs of £8,600.
HSE news release and Shattered lives web resource • Risks 360
Hazards news, 14 June 2008

Britain: Firework boss charged over deaths
A firework depot owner and his son have been charged with manslaughter over the deaths of two firefighters. Martin Winter, 50, and Nathan Winter, 23, have been bailed to appear at Lewes Magistrates' Court on 18 June; the company, now known as Alpha Fireworks Ltd, has been summonsed for breaches of explosives regulations.
The Telegraph • BBC News Online • Risks 360
Hazards news, 14 June 2008

Britain: Convicted fatality firm fined £2
A company convicted of workplace safety crimes after a fatal gas blast sent a fireball through its premises has been fined just £2. Factory worker Christopher Knoop, 50, was killed and three others were seriously hurt when liquified petroleum gas exploded at North West Aerosols Ltd in Aintree in 2005.
FACK news release and website • HSE news release • Daily Mirror • Risks 360
Hazards news, 14 June 2008

Britain: Tony’s death was no accident
The family of a Hartlepool council labourer who was struck down by a car as he put up signs has criticised the inquest process following a verdict of accidental death. Hartlepool Borough Council worker Tony Gate remained in a coma for nearly three years after being struck by a car in July 2003.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Northern Echo • Risks 360
Hazards news, 14 June 2008

Britain: Freight firm fined for lorry driver death
A transport firm has been fined £22,000 after a lorry driver was killed. Martyn Simm, 45, was killed in March 2006 when a defective sliding metal gate weighing 0.4 tonnes fell onto him as he was closing it, at Berser International Cargo Services Ltd’s site in Chesterton.
HSE news release • Risks 359
Hazards news, 7 June 2008

Britain: Six figure fine for mechanic’s death
A Staffordshire vehicle maker has been fined £166,000 for health and safety violations after a 39-year-old mechanic was crushed to death. Simon Rose, a field engineer at Dennis Eagle Limited, was trying to cure a brake fault on a bin wagon at a council depot, Stafford Crown Court heard.
HSE news release • Risks 359
Hazards news, 7 June 2008

Britain: Fined transport firm loses its appeal
A transport firm fined for safety failings that led to a worker being seriously injured has lost its appeal against the penalty. Harris Transport Ltd failed in its 2 June bid at Southampton Crown Court to overturn the £28,000 fine imposed in January 2008.
HSE news release • Risks 359
Hazards news, 7 June 2008

Britain: Fined transport firm loses its appeal
A transport firm fined for safety failings that led to a worker being seriously injured has lost its appeal against the penalty. Harris Transport Ltd failed in its 2 June bid at Southampton Crown Court to overturn the £28,000 fine imposed in January 2008.
HSE news release • Risks 359
Hazards news, 7 June 2008

Britain: Bus firm failed to learn deadly lesson
A bus firm that missed “blindingly obvious risks” even after experiencing a workplace fatality has been fined £60,000. The London Central Bus Company Limited was prosecuted following an incident in which employee Omar Maouche fell into a pit and suffered spinal injuries, just over a year after another employee died in similar circumstances.
HSE news release • Risks 359
Hazards news, 7 June 2008

Britain: Dismay at ICL inquiry means testing
The families of those killed in the May 2004 ICL/Stockline disaster in Glasgow have voiced concern over plans to means test those wishing to have legal representation during the forthcoming public inquiry.
STUC news release • ICL/Stockline independent report and campaign website • Risks 359
Hazards news, 7 June 2008

Iran: Chemical plant fire kills 30
At least 30 people have been killed and 38 injured, many of them suffering severe burns, in a fire in a chemical plant in central Iran on Sunday 25 May, the state news agency IRNA has said. The fire in the cosmetics and detergent-producing plant near the town of Shazand is reported to have been caused by a blast during welding work.
ABC News • BBC News Online • Risks 358
Hazards news, 31 May 2008

Europe: Campaign challenges corporate abuses
Victims of human rights and environmental abuses by European companies around the world could find justice in European courts under proposals unveiled this week at an international conference at the European Parliament. The European Coalition for Corporate Justice (ECCJ) revealed policy proposals developed by a team of legal experts which if adopted by the European Union would guarantee the legal responsibility of companies based in Europe, and their directors, for human rights or environmental violations committed by their subsidiaries or subcontractors anywhere in the world.
ECCJ news release, including links to the full report, Fair law: Legal proposals to improve corporate accountability for environmental and human rights abuses, ECCJ report, 29 May 2008, executive summary [pdf] • Smart regulation: Legislative opportunities for the EU to improve corporate accountability, ECCJ conference, 29 May 2008 • European Coalition for Corporate Justice • Risks 358
Hazards news, 31 May 2008

Global: Pursuing the corporate killers
The trades union-backed health and safety magazine Hazards is stepping up the pressure on deadly bosses with the launch of new ‘deadly business’ web resources. Hazards magazine’s Jawad Qasrawi said: “The Hazards ‘Deadly business’ online resource provides tools, information and news to help trades unions and campaigners build the pressure on killer bosses.”
Hazards magazine deadly business webpages • Risks 358
Hazards news, 31 May 2008

Britain: Experts slam corporate manslaughter law
Legal experts have warned the new corporate manslaughter law is not tough enough because it fails to hold individual directors accountable for deadly mistakes. No director or senior manager of a large of medium-sized UK firm has ever been jailed for workplace manslaughter.
Contract Journal • Hazards magazine deadly business webpages • Risks 358
Hazards news, 31 May 2008

Britain: Worker dies after being buried in waste
A worker died after being buried in rubbish at a waste dump, a court has heard. White Reclamation Ltd was fined £50,000 and ordered to pay costs of £30,000 at Manchester Crown Court, after pleading guilty to workplace safety offences.
HSE news release • Hazards magazine deadly business webpages • Risks 358
Hazards news, 31 May 2008

Britain: Meat firm chops off fingers
A multinational meat processing firm where a worker had the tops of three fingers sliced off, another received a serious electric shock and employees and contractors were using dangerous walkways 60 feet above the factory floor has been fined £265,000 and ordered to pay £21,653 in costs. Michael Warnes was changing a mould on a packaging machine at the Tulip factory in Thetford in October 2005, when machine parts moved.
HSE news release • BBC News Online • Risks 358
Hazards news, 31 May 2008

Britain: Firm fined for four flattened fingers
An engineering firm has been fined £7,000 after an employee had his fingers crushed in an unguarded 60 ton power press. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) brought the case following its investigation into the incident on 25 June 2007 at Metal Products (Arden) Ltd's site in Burntwood.
HSE news release • Risks 358
Hazards news, 31 May 2008

Britain: Beehive firm doesn’t cut it on wood dust
A Lincolnshire firm making beehives has been fined after a worker was injured by a cutting machine and colleagues were exposed to potentially harmful Western Red Cedar wood dust. Company managers had attended a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) woodworking safety and health awareness day only seven months earlier, but have now been criticised by HSE for not acting on what they learned.
HSE news release • Risks 358
Hazards news, 31 May 2008

Britain: HSE is still facing staff crisis
A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) announcement that it is to recruit 40 new inspectors will still leave the safety watchdog too stretched to properly do its job, critics have warned. After a spate of construction deaths in New York, the city – which is similar in size to London – has just announced it is to hire 63 more inspectors to enforce safety rules at construction sites.
PCS campaign • IOSH news release • CIEH news • New York Times • Risks 358
Hazards news, 31 May 2008

USA: Court dismisses industry’s unsafe assumption
A well-resourced attempt by industry lobby groups has failed in a legal bid to keep under wraps a listing of non-statutory, non-binding chemical exposure limits. In a summary judgment, a federal judge in the United States District Court in Macon, Georgia dismissed the last of four counts in a lawsuit against the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH).
ACGIH news release • The Pump Handle • DefendingScience.org • Risks 357
Hazards news, 24 May 2008

Britain: Tesco fined £25,000 for lift injury
Supermarket giant Tesco have been fined a total of £25,000 after a faulty lift in a Sheffield store knocked an employee unconscious. The incident happened when the hydraulic arm of a scissor lift struck the employee on the head - four days after it had been reported as defective by a council safety inspector.
Risks 357
Hazards news, 24 May 2008

Britain: Bad move could lose key HSE staff
A cost-cutting move to shift the Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) HQ from London to Bootle is causing a recruitment and retention crisis for the beleaguered safety watchdog. A news report from the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) notes: “For a body that is struggling to keep its staff and to recruit new ones, the Health and Safety Executive’s move from London to Bootle could not have come at a worse time.”
CIEH news • Risks 357
Hazards news, 24 May 2008

Global: Exposing Grupo Mexico’s worker abuses
When multinational firms behave badly, putting the lives and livelihoods of their workers at risk, they usually do this unseen by outside eyes. Not any more. Unions are harnessing the internet to expose wrongdoing and as a focus for campaign action.
USW news release • The record speaks for itself website • Risks 356
Hazards news, 17 May 2008

Britain: Fourth ‘unacceptable’ EDF death
The union GMB has criticised energy multinational EDF after the fourth death of an employee in a year. EDF Energy maintenance worker John Higgins, 59, died from the effects of burns and inhalation of toxic gases at an EDF sub station in Chelmsford on 7 May.
GMB news release • BBC News Online • Risks 356
Hazards news, 17 May 2008

USA: Put death mine bosses in the dock
The mine manager and other senior staff at the Crandall Canyon coal mine in Utah hid information from US federal mining officials that could have prevented the disaster and should face criminal charges, a congressional committee said. Last August, six miners and three rescue workers died after the mine collapsed.
AFL-CIO Now blog and YouTube coverage of the committee findings • UMWA news release • Risks 356
Hazards news, 17 May 2008

Britain: Welsh firm canned on machine safety
A firm making cans has had to cough up compensation after a worker seriously injured his thumb. Unite member Gerald O’Reilly, 58, a machine operator at Impress Merthyr Tydfil Limited, secured £11,000 damages with the help of the union.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 356
Hazards news, 17 May 2008

Britain: HSE's ‘shocking’ failure costs lives
There is growing concern that the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is failing at its job. HSE has reduced the number of its inspectors by around 25 per cent in five years from 916 to 680; firms on average face an HSE inspection just once every 14½ years; and meanwhile the number of policy officers the HSE employs has more than doubled from 38 to 87.
The Observer and related article • Risks 356
Hazards news, 17 May 2008

Britain: Fumes death boss is fined but free
A company boss has been cleared of the manslaughter of a worker who died after inhaling poisonous fumes – but was fined £17,500 for a health and safety breaches. John Beckett, 44, was accused over the death of “right hand man” Dean Cox; the 21-year-old was found slumped over a vat of chemicals used to strip alloy wheels at Wolverhampton firm A1.
Express and Star and related story • Risks 356
Hazards news, 17 May 2008

Britain: Fines not jail time for guilty managers
A court has fined two contractors and two individuals after a German worker died at a depot in Worksop, Nottinghamshire – but a manager was found not guilty of manslaughter. Hans Zdolsek fell 8.5m while he was working at the Wilkinsons distribution centre in February 2004.