Fatality due to lack of safety guard rail

A Communication Workers Union product story

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Sep 13, 2006

Royal Mail and Romec have been fined for breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act after a Romec engineer, and CWU member, fell to his death from the West London Mail Centre.

Royal Mail and Romec have been fined for breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act after a Romec engineer, and CWU member, fell to his death from the West London Mail Centre.

Royal Mail and Romec have been fined a total of £250,000 and ordered to pay costs totalling £47,000 after Romec engineer and CWU member Ian Dicker, 47, fell to his death at the West London Mail Centre, Paddington in July 2003.

Ian Dicker was working on the main roof of the West London Mail Centre installing a new lighting system and also supervising an apprentice.

The two men were working next to fragile skylights which were not boarded or marked as being dangerous and there was no safety guard rails to prevent someone falling.

Mr Dicker stepped forward to inspect the apprentice's work and fell 30feet to his death through one of the fragile skylights and into a corridor below.

He died of multiple injuries.

Romec failed in their legal responsibilities to ensure the safety of their employees and in their responsibility to provide safe and suitable means of working at height.

These failures resulted in the death of Ian Dicker and could have led to the death of a young apprentice working with him.

Romec pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work Act and admitted they failed to ensure the safety of Ian Dicker and that they failed to ensure that their documented safe systems of work were put into practice by their Engineers.

Royal Mail pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3 of the Health and Safety at Work Act and admitted that they failed to ensure that the fragile rooflights at the sorting office were properly identified by signs, and that they failed to install protective barriers around them.

Sentencing them at Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court on Wednesday, June 15, the Judge, His Honour Simon Smith, described the roof where the men where working as "very dangerous".

Royal Mail were fined £150,000 and ordered to pay the prosecution's costs of £25,000.

Romec was fined £100,000 with costs of £22,000.

With legal costs, disbursements, personal injury litigation costs and compensation added the total bill could run into three quarters of a million pounds.

Fines are reduced in cases where guilty pleas are entered.

Royal Mail and Romec were prosecuted by Environmental Health Officers from Westminster City Council following a lengthy investigation.

Councillor Audrey Lewis, Westminster's Cabinet Member for Community Protection, said, "This was a needless death that could have been prevented if both these companies had obeyed the law.

While I am pleased that our prosecution has been successful, if the Royal Mail and Romec had taken more care then Mr Dicker would be alive today".

National Heath and Safety Officer Dave Joyce said, "The court has rightly imposed heavy fines, having recognised the very serious failures by Romec and Royal Mail in this case where clearly the employers failed to discharge their health and safety legal duty of care to protect workers with a safe place and safe system of work.

However, although the Union is pleased with the outcome, as on the face of it this judgement indicates that the court took the health and safety offences seriously, this fine is less than 0.5 of a per cent of Royal Mail's £355million operating profit on a turnover of £9billion.

This case clearly illustrates why we need a new corporate manslaughter offence on the statue books and reinforces the case for more stringent health and safety duties on directors with penalties for those who neglect safety standards to such an extent that they lead to deaths like this.

I only hope this conviction gives some consolation to Ian's relatives and that the penalty sends a warning to Romec and Royal Mail to think again about putting profit before safety.

I will be doing all I can to work with both Romec and Royal Mail to improve health and safety compliance and avoid further fatalities and serious injuries.

I believe there is a genuine willingness to do this in both organisations, but the Royal Mail Group Board of Directors must put a stop to allowing the continued shortcomings of some operational managers, who in pursuance of efficiency and profit continually undermine safety working methods, safety policies and the efforts of the Safety Managers to uphold standards".