Health and safety breaches ‘will be prosecuted with no hesitation’

Construction companies may like to look to online learning platforms for health and safety training to prevent accidents such as one in Hertfordshire that led to a significant prosecution.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has fined a company based in Hatfield and its secretary after workers were put at risk while refurbishing office space.

Premises of Haz International in Great North Road, Hatfield were found to have a serious lack of consideration for health and safety regulation when it received a routine inspection by the HSE in September 2009.

Watford Magistrates Court heard that the firm failed to implement safety precautions for the maintenance staff carrying out work to the building, in particular for those working at height.

 

Read More – http://www.virtual-college.co.uk/news/Health-and-safety-breaches–will-be-prosecuted-with-no-hesitation–newsitems-801268319.aspx

Marchers remember fallen window cleaners

MINNEAPOLIS – With flowers and prayers, window cleaners and supporters remembered a co-worker and father who died doing his job in downtown Minneapolis.

Member of Service Employees International Union Local 26 held a memorial march Friday to commemorate the life of Fidel Sanchez-Flores, killed when he fell while working at the IDS Center in downtown Minneapolis in 2007. He was one of three window cleaners to die on the job in the past three years. The march occurred as some 60 window cleaners remain locked out of their jobs by cleaning companies in the Twin Cities. Local 26, which is in contract talks with the contractors, said the workers were locked out because they have been raising safety concerns. The marchers stopped in front of two buildings they said are very dangerous to clean – the Oracle building at 9th St. and 2nd Ave., and the U.S. Bancorp building on Nicollet Mall. The workers said many buildings fail to have adequate places for workers to tie on safety equipment. After a moment of silence in front of the IDS, Vielka Sanchez – Fidel Sanchez-Flores’ daughter – told marchers that their cause is just. “Where my dad’s at right now – he’s so thankful you guys are doing this,” she said. “He’s 100 percent behind you.” Window cleaners carried purple and yellow flowers that they laid in front of a large portrait of Sanchez-Flores. Rain began to fall as some wiped away tears. James Miller, a window cleaner for 12 years, said he and his co-workers want to prevent further injuries and deaths on the job. While their union supports them in their effort to make their work safer, window cleaners without representation have no such support, he said. Many get hired and start cleaning high-rise buildings without any training, Miller said. Not enough laws are in place to protect these workers, he said. “You have to have a license to cut hair, but not to hang off a building,” Miller noted. Article source – http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?news_6_4423

Council fined for carbon monoxide leak at community centre

Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council has been fined for endangering people’s health after carbon monoxide leaked from a gas boiler at a community centre.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted the local authority after members of a bridge club using the Westlands Community Centre in Whitfield Avenue called the fire service to deal with a suspected gas leak.

Fenton Magistrates’ Court heard fire fighters found extremely high levels of carbon monoxide escaping from the flue in the loft and evacuated the building.

Sections of the flue had come apart and the potentially lethal gas had built up and started to flow through an open trapdoor into a storeroom off the main hall.

HSE’s investigation into the incident revealed that the contract for maintenance and annual safety checks of all gas appliances in the 38 properties owned by the council, including nine households, had lapsed 12 months previously.

The court also heard that the 30-year-old boiler at Westlands Community Centre had not been checked for nearly two years before the incident on 30 March 2009.

Read More – http://www.hse.gov.uk/press/2011/coi-wm-54711.htm

“Labourers On Rope” Hit Town

High-rise buildings in Ghana can now be serviced without the hassle of a scaffold, following the entry of ROPETEC Ghana Limited, a registered rope access company, into the Ghanaian market. This resulted from the recognized need for specialised inspection and maintenance services in elevated, almost inaccessible locations. According to Bobby Dicks, Country Manager of Ropetec, the company specializes in Rope Access and Accessibility, offering inspection, maintenance, industrial and civil solutions. Speaking to The Business Analyst after a demonstration of its operations in Accra last Saturday, he said the company offered a wide range of specialized services to both the marine and industrial sectors.

Like ‘spider men’ embarking on a rescue mission, Ropetec operators were observed hanging and washing the windows of the ‘Opeibea House’ suspended only by ropes. The job, which would have taken weeks if scaffolds had to be used, took a few hours to complete in a clear demonstration of the ‘high-tech’ involved. Bobby Dicks said Ropetec Ghana had completed various projects in the past few months, all located on offshore installations, involving non-destructive testing (NDT), blasting, painting and general maintenance.

Read More – http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=224821

Firm fined for unsafe roof work

Three roofers were spotted working on top of a Nottingham cash and carry store without any safety equipment by a passing Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspector, a court heard.

Nottingham Magistrates’ Court today fined roofing contractors SPV Road Carpet Ltd after the men were found risking their lives at the store on the Lenton industrial estate on 20 May 2009.

SPV employee, Lewis Male, was also prosecuted for failing to take reasonable care of himself and others. The court heard Mr Male was replacing sky lights with two others on the roof when he was spotted by a passing HSE inspector.

The inspector noticed the workers were using no safety equipment, edge protection or harnesses to prevent falls. It was discovered this unsafe system of work had continued over a period of three weeks, risking injury to the roofers and to employees and customers inside the store.

http://www.pwc.uk.com

Read More – http://www.hse.gov.uk/press/2011/coi-em-256.htm

Building Site Manager Fined For Ignoring Safety Notices

A Cardiff construction site manager has been fined after failing to comply with two safety orders issued to protect workers from injury.

Mr Haider Zaman, 53, trading as Pride Builders, was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) for ignoring two Improvement Notices served while he was refurbishing two residential properties in the Cathays area of Cardiff.

During an unannounced inspection of the two sites on 1 March 2011, HSE inspectors found sub-standard safety measures in relation to working at height, asbestos safety and structural stability and issued three Prohibition
Notices ordering Mr Zaman to cease work immediately.

 

Read more – http://www.build.co.uk/construction_news.asp?newsid=132123

Housing 21 chooses Willmott Dixon for care project

 

 

Warwickshire is set to see five new elderly care facilities constructed after a contract for the work was awarded to Willmott Dixon by Housing 21.

The deal is worth around £38 million and will see the developer carry out construction works on the new homes over a two year period, starting in 2012.

Meanwhile, Housing 21 has a five-year contract with Warwickshire County Council for the building maintenance and management of the facilities.

In total, the scheme will deliver 355 new care units in addition to 21 self-contained bungalows, providing elderly people with somewhere secure to live, with support on hand if needed.

The first of the builds will get underway in July next year in Bedworth, with facilities also due to be located in Rugby, Atherstone, Stratford-upon-Avon and Alcester.

Housing 21 currently manages more than 18,000 apartments and bungalows in sheltered housing developments around the country.

It intends to add a further 1,000 properties to buy or rent to its portfolio by the end of 2012.

read more – http://www.sageforconstruction.co.uk/IndustryNews/construction_industry_news_selected.aspx?aid=2457

Willmott Dixon offers jobs for school leavers

Willmott Dixon Partnerships has launched a scheme to offer youngsters vocational training across the country.

Willmott Dixon Partnerships, the maintenance specialist of Willmott Dixon Group, has introduced measures aimed at tackling the issue of youth unemployment in the towns and cities where it has contracts, such as Birmingham, London and Scarborough.

The company has responded to a record youth unemployment rate, which has now topped 900,000, by incentivising the job training for school leavers.

The workforce at Willmott Dixon currently comprises 9 per cent of young people aged 16 to 24 who are employed in a variety of roles, with 46 apprentices and trainees working throughout the business.

Willmott Dixon does not impose a minimum number of qualifications which potential applicants need to hold for opportunities for work advertised through its Opening Doors scheme. This initiative comprises The Work Experience programme, The Building Maintenance Skills programme, and The Willmott Dixon Partnerships Apprentice programme.

Article sourced from http://www.heatingandventilating.net/news/news.asp?id=8931&title=Willmott+Dixon+offers+jobs+for+school+leavers

Ramirent Poland wins scaffolding project in Slovenia

Ramirent Poland will supply the general scaffolding services and access solutions for the development of the Slovenian, Sostanj power plant. Ramirent has been selected by the project’s main contractor Alstom Power Systems GmbH.

The project is the largest power-generating investment in Slovenia and includes the construction of a new block with a capacity of 600MW. The modernisation of the Termoelektrarna Sostanj Power Plant will last from March 2012 till November 2014.

About half the workforce will be recruited locally and during the peak stage of the scaffolding works, the project will employ about 100 workers. Based on similar projects undertaken in the past, Ramirent has estimated the value of the contract to be EUR 10 million.

Tomasz Walawender, Ramirent’s senior vice president, Europe Central  said, “The Sostanj Power Plant is a major recognition of Ramirent’s expertise in providing rental services for industrial construction. The project supports our strategy of providing specialised services for the construction and maintenance of industrial facilities. We have already started planning the scaffolding works and look forward to working with Alstom Power Systems on this demanding project.”

550 jobs at risk as Kinetics Group goes bust

Building maintenance company The Kinetics Group, based in Sutton Coldfield, has fallen into administration putting about 550 jobs at risk. Begbies Traynor has been appointed to handle the failure, which also affects four subsidiary companies.

The company attributed its winding up to confusion regarding the solvency of subsidiary companies, delays in payments from important customers and suppliers’ refusal to continue trading with the group.

Partners Gary Lee, Dean Watson and Neil Mather at Begbies Traynor have been appointed joint administrators. They will take control over subsidiaries SCP Renewable Energy; Sureway Gas; Kinetics Midlands and Kinetics South.

The administration is likely to affect approximately 550 staff over five sites, said The Kinetics Group.

The company provides building maintenance solutions to about 250,000 social housing properties, schools and public buildings across the UK.

In June this year, shares in Sureway Gas, Kinetics Midlands and Kinetics South were acquired by SCP Renewable Energy as part of a restructuring of the company.

At the same time, the group announced it would halt all of its northern operations.

Since the reorganisation, Kinetics said it suffered with issues including delays in payments and suppliers’ refusal to continue trading with it after its credit insurance cover was removed.

Gary Lee, joint administrator, said: “It is with regret that the group has failed so soon after the restructuring exercise was carried out. A range of factors have impacted upon the group’s cash position and uncertainty over the financial position of the group has meant many of its contracts with customers have been placed elsewhere, curtailing the group’s ability to trade on.”