Fine After Risk of Fall at Work

Gee Construction Ltd has been fined £10,000 after putting its workers at risk of a fall on a South Wales site.

The Basildon-based firm admitted breaching health and safety laws at Caerphilly Magistrates' Court during work at the site at Castlegate, Caerphilly last October.

It comes after a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspector found unguarded lift shafts and inadequate edge protection to prevent workers from falls during a site visit.

The firm was also ordered to pay costs of £4,514.25.

Gee Construction Ltd, which is based at Phoenix House, Christopher Martin Road, had also previously received two prohibition notices for work at height issues in 2008 and 2009.

HSE inspector David Kirkpatrick said: "When we visited the site, we found clear failings that left workers at risk of falling from height, and it was necessary to stop all activity above ground floor level until safe systems of work were put in place."

Statistics from 2008/2009 show that 53 people died in the construction industry in the United Kingdom, 21 of which were as a result of a fall from a height greater than 2m.

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David Urpeth at Law firm Irwin Mitchell said: "The construction industry is the industrial sector where a worker is most likely to lose his life in a work accident. Falls from height remain a major category of serious and fatal injuries sustained in an accident at work."