A director and his firm have been fined £30,000 after a worker fell 30ft and suffered “severe injuries”.

Llandudno Magistrates’ Court heard that builder Nicholas Roberts, a 28-year-old from Rhyl, was working on scaffolding at a site in Llanfairfechan in December 2007 when he fell. He fractured his pelvis in three places, broke some teeth and brusied his groin.

JJB Homes Ltd, of Stockport, pleaded guilty to health and safety breaches and was fined £20,000 and ordered to pay £10,835. The firm went into liquidation subsequent to the accident. The firm’s director, James Burt, also of Stockport, pleaded guilty to breaching the health and safety Act and was fined 10,000.

Debbie John, the HSE inspector handling the case, said: “Falling from a height of around nine metres, Mr Roberts was extremely lucky to survive. It’s incredible that he managed to walk away with broken bones.

JBB Homes Limited and James Burt failed in their duty to provide a safe system of work, including a lack of suitable means to prevent falls from the scaffolding. Mr Burt also failed to properly supervise his staff.”

“Falls from height remain the single biggest cause of workplace deaths and one of the main causes of major injury and construction companies must not leave safety of their workers as an after-thought, which could lead to tragic consequences.”

More than 4,000 workers suffered a major injury as a result of a fall from height in 2008/09.

A maid in a nursing home was awarded €23’000 by the Circuit Court after sustaining an injury to her neck.

The court heard that the woman was hanging old fashioned heavy drapes that separated beds as the floor she was standing on was being mopped. The curtain rail that supported the drapes snapped and hit her on the head. She was knocked over a foot stool and collapsed between two beds.

As a result of the accident, she suffered a soft tissue injury, bruising, and scrapes to the back of her neck. The injured woman told the court that the pain could still flare up (the accident happened in November 2003) and she sometimes had to treat it by retiring to bed with specially arranged pillows, painkillers and heat pads.

She has been unable to return to her job as she is unable to carry out some of the heavy work involved. Since then she has gained similar employment with lighter duties.

In awarding the injured woman €23,000, the president of the Circuit Court, Mr Justice Matthew Deery added “Her painful symptoms had affected the injured woman on an intermittent basis for six years. The woman’s employer had admitted liability.”

Olive Safety have recently developed a suite of online health and safety training courses.

The new venture by sister company Olive Media delivers high quality, cost affective, and user friendly training across a digital platform.

Manual Handling, Fire Safety, Work Station Ergonomics, and Decision Driver Training are currently available with more courses being added in the new year.

Produced in Ireland and utilizing the latest web 2.0 technology learners can experience rich multimedia interactivity and high quality course content all at the click of a mouse.

Olive Media brings the classroom directly to the learner. Whether in the office, on the road, or at home. Our unique approach combines in-vision tutors with high quality video production and dynamic interaction.

A solid Learning Management System provides essential data on learners progress.

General Manager of Olive Media John Hagan says, “This innovative approach to health and safety training will revolutionise the way companies train their staff. It’s about delivering more for less with an emphasis an quality and ease of use.”

Olive Safety are pleased to announce that two additional courses have been added to their training programmes. Signing, Lighting and Guarding at Roadworks is a three day course delivered by Olive Safety’s FAS accredited trainers. Candidates who successfully complete the course will be trained, able and motivated to plan, organise, direct and manage the safe flow of traffic through roadworks, in both rural and urban situations, with a minimum of delay to road users.

The second course added to the training schedule is the VDU Assessors course. The course aims to provide the knowledge and skills necessary for the assessment of Visual Display Units / Display Screen Equipment in the workplace.

Musing over the menu of seemingly endless delights that will soon appear on the table in front of us, the very idea about the mechanics of how the food is served is perhaps placed towards the back of our imagination. However, behind the scenes there are very stringent hygienic measures in place to make sure your food doesn’t reappear at a later date.

Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) is a systematic approach to identifying and controlling hazards (i.e. microbiological, chemical or physical) that could pose a danger to the preparation of safe food.  HACCP involves identifying what can go wrong and planning to prevent it. In simple terms, to control the safety of ingredients and supplies coming into a food business and what is done with them thereafter. Businesses are legally obliged to put in place, implement and maintain a permanent procedure or procedures based on HACCP principles (Reg. EC No 852/2004).

Healthy Standards, Healthy Profits
HACCP is a European standard and in Ireland there are several organisations to help businesses setting up a food serving business in the hospitality sector comply with the law in terms of its hygiene and food preparation. Adrian Aungier, senior safety consultant at Olive Safety, the leading Irish health and safety solutions provider, said that the Hospitality sector has come on leaps and bounds in the last few years in terms of investment in their food safety management systems. “There’s a level of quality that the owners are looking to implement HACCP standard would be internationally recognised and legally required,” said Aungier.

According to Aungier managers, owners and staff need to understand the principles of food safety and that if the management and owners take food safety seriously, “you can be guaranteed that the ethos with trickle all the way down to the those involved in the final handling and serving of the food.” Food Business Operators (FBO) training is a requirement by law for the business, and it makes sure that the owner or site manager has a level 5 training in food safety

Aungier believes that if a bar, restaurant, hotel, or café has a high food safety standard it helps to put bums on seats. The opposite is true of somewhere that’s not up to speed on their hygiene and it can have serious implications. “The return on investment from proper food safety procedures is important for shop owners and stores to realise… the quality of the food being served increases when it is stored and served at the correct temperature for instance. If your food management systems are not up to scratch, the legal and financial implications, plus the adverse affects from bad publicity could cripple your business and your name in the hospitality sector.”

How the System Works
Olive Safety provides advise, consultancy and training in area of health and safety and are specialists in the food safety sector. Aungier explains how the process works, “We will generally begin with an audit of the premises and an audit of the food safety management within the business. We will look at and evaluate the HACCP system in place; obviously looking at, among others, critical control points, such as the temperature food is cooked at or stored in. Since the premise of the system is all about ‘one step forward, one step back’, if the client wishes, we can carry out an audit of the suppliers processes.”

Olive Safety then provides advise on how to improve the food safety management process. Such improvements may come in the form of a new process for recording of procedures or from the audit it may become apparent that some of the staff have not received HACCP training and will need to attend a course. Aungier says, “We don’t just walk away at this stage. With the introduction of new dishes and foodstuffs to the kitchen, HACCP is constantly evolving. We run periodic site audits for our clients to make sure they continue to achieve their high standards in the area of food safety on an ongoing basis.”

About Olive Safety
Established by a team of experienced professionals, Olive Safety is Ireland’s leading health and safety solutions provider. Based in Dublin, Olive Safety provides a number of other Health and Safety training courses and consultancy for the hospitality sector. The organisation prepare safety statements, which are a requirement by law. Other areas such as Chemical Handling, Manual Handling, First Aid and Fire Safety training can be completed at the Olive Safety training centre or at the client’s premises. For more information visit www.olivesafety.ie or telephone 01 4111 011.

Olive Safety will be showcasing our latest solutions and services at this year’s Safety & Health at Work Exhibition 2008, in the RDS, Dublin. Olive Safety will be demonstrating our newest software solutions plus discussing how our innovative approach to health and safety is helping our clients succeed in a safer workplace.
For those looking to discuss their training or safety consultancy requirements, a team on experts will be on hand to help answer any questions.

Please come visit us at Stand C5.

The number of days lost to work-related injury and illness has been increasing steadily since 2003 according to figures released by the Health and Safety Authority.  And it is now clear that illness, rather than injury, causes more days’ absence from work.

The figures were presented at the launch of the 2007 Annual Report and Summary of Workplace Injury, Illness and Fatality Statistics 2006/07 published by the Health and Safety Authority each year.

Minister for Labour Affairs, Billy Kelleher T.D., who launched both reports, stated, “It’s vital that health and safety is at the top of the agenda in all workplaces.  It has clearly been shown that investments in worker health and safety will save money in the long term.  Not only is there a legal and ethical duty to protect workers, the financial case is also strong.”

Speaking at the launch, Martin O’Halloran, Chief Executive of the Health and Safety Authority stated, “We have set ourselves ambitious targets in our Strategy Statement and in our yearly Programme of Work.  These reports published today show that we are moving in the right direction but there is still a huge amount of work to be done to see a further reduction of accidents in all sectors.  We firmly believe that accidents at work are preventable in the majority of cases.”

Jim Lyons, Chairman of the Health and Safety Authority, added, “There have been significant improvements in some industry sectors but nobody can become complacent.  With 67 lives lost in workplace accidents last year and 31 worker deaths so far this year there is still much work to be done.”

Some key highlights from the reports include:

• The number of work-related deaths in 2007 was 67.  This compares to 51 in 2006 and 74 in 2005.
• The agriculture sector had the highest fatality rate at 8.3 fatalities per 100,000 workers.
• Of the injuries reported to the Authority in 2007, approximately 14% involved non-Irish national workers.
• A total of 13,631 workplace inspections were carried in 2007 and enforcement action was necessary in 12% of those workplaces.
• Manual handling continues to trigger approximately one-third of all reported incidents with ‘slip, trip and fall’ incidents the next most common.  Together they accounted for over 50% of all reported accidents in 2007.
• The most recent data available shows that Ireland has the second lowest non-fatal injury rate in the EU15 but a higher than average fatality rate.

Commenting on emerging trends, Martin O’Halloran added, “Our statistics report clearly shows an increase in levels of occupational illness over the last number of years.  This is an area which we will be targeting further and it’s important that employers and employees don’t focus solely on occupational injuries.  Illness as a result of work activity is just as serious as having a physical injury.”

Olive Safety has market World Health and Safety at Work Day, April 28th, with a renewal to ask all workplaces and employees to ‘Make Safety Second Nature.’

Celebrated internationally, World Health and Safety at Work Day aims to raise awareness about managing risk in the work environment, one of the main principles of accident prevention.

According to the HSA, globally, the number of work-related accidents is increasing. The International Labour Organisation estimates that globally 2.2 million people die annually from work-related accidents and diseases. The ILO also estimates that each year there are 270 million non-fatal work-related injuries and up to 160 million new cases of occupational diseases.

While the world-wide figure for accidents at work is on the increase, in Ireland over the last number of years the overall trend is a decreasing one. However, with 67 work-related deaths in Ireland last year, the Chief Executive Officer of the Health and Safety Authority, Martin O’Halloran, is calling for increased vigilance and awareness, “The number of workplace deaths in Ireland last year was unacceptable, we are asking employers to re-focus on assessing the risks and put in place proper controls to ensure that work can be carried out in a safe manner.”

The ILO estimates that the global economic impact of work-related accidents and diseases is 4% of the world’s gross domestic product. In 2005 the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment published the Indecon report entitled ‘The Economic Impact of Safety and Health at Work Legislation’. This report estimated that workplace accidents and ill-health cost the Irish economy approximately €3.3 billion per annum.

Olive Safety is continuing its own national campaign, “Make Safety Second Nature” which aims to change perceptions of why being health and safety compliant is necessary. Traditionally seen as an unnecessary cost, Olive Safety are highlighting the savings and increased profitability that will be made by making the workplace a safe environment for employees and customers

Commenting on the economic impact of workplace accidents Martin O’Halloran added, “Safe and healthy workforces enhance business productivity and benefit national economies. Successful businesses know that it pays to invest in safety and health.”

Entrepreneur Ben Dunne, the former director of Dunnes Stores, has highlighted the benefits of undertaking a safety audit at a breakfast briefing “How health and safety compliance can improve businesses’ competitiveness” hosted by Olive Safety in Dublin this morning (Thursday 13^th September). Speaking to delegates, Mr. Dunne drew attention to a recent Olive Safety report which stated that on average Irish companies pay 350% more by paying out costs associated with compensation claims, sick days, insurance costs and others than on the cost of becoming safety compliant.

The Health and Safety Authority’s most recent annual figures (2005) show that there were 24,000 non-fatal work related injuries which Olive Safety estimate costs an average of €2,750 through costs and lost revenue. Fatal injuries for 2007 has reached 43 to date and while employers have a moral and legislative responsibility to provide a safe working environment for staff, Olive Safety are trying to educate firms of the savings that will be made by investing in health and safety.

Speaking in the in Stephen’s Green this morning, Mr. Dunne said that compliance with health and safety legislation was not only a matter for large companies but for small and medium sized firms too – a sector highlighted specifically by the Health and Safety Authority. “There’s a misunderstanding among Irish firms that it’s only large companies that should be concerned with undertaking regular safety audits,” said Dunne. “But if you look at the cost of settling claims relative to annual turnover for smaller companies, you see that health and safety is an area where real savings can be made. However, employee claims and sick days are not the only unnecessary drain on company finances, the HSA are fining firms an average of €27,662, a clearly unnecessary expense given that the average cost of an audit for a company based in one location is €700.”

Olive Safety Chief Executive Brendan Kavanagh drew attention to the HSA initiatives and their substantial impact on Irish business, but insisted real inroads would only be made by a cultural shift from within. “While the HSA is driving the Government-led initiatives to improve health and safety across all business sectors, there has to be a real cultural change within companies from the top down,” said Kavanagh. “The HSA’s aim is to ultimately reduce fatal and non-fatal accidents in the workplace and it seems that the only way to drive the message home that an unsafe workplace is unacceptable is through a combination of clearer and specifically defined legislation with larger fines and greater liabilities on the individual. If a company is serious about increasing profits, its executives will ensure that health and safety initiatives go beyond the minimum requirements set out in the SHAW Act 2005, thereby making significant savings.”

Olive Safety is undertaking a national campaign, “Make Safety Second Nature” which aims to change perceptions of why being health and safety compliant is necessary. Traditionally seen as an unnecessary cost, Olive Safety are highlighting the savings and increased profitability that will be made by making the workplace a safe environment for employees and customers.

Established by a team of experienced professionals, Olive Safety is Ireland’s leading health and safety solutions provider. Olive Safety is based in Dublin and specialises in safety consultancy, safety training and safety software solutions. Olive Safety offers a number of consultancy services such as safety advisor placement, integrated safety management systems, safety statements and health and safety audits. From a new purpose built training centre, Olive Safety run health and safety courses daily to help all clients succeed in a safer workplace.