Specialist roofing contractor fined after employee fell through fragile asbestos cement roof

At Laganside Crown Court (12/1), Newtownabbey based company Abbey Roofing Specialists Limited were fined £9,000 plus costs of £1,500 after pleading guilty to four breaches of health and safety legislation.

The case was brought by the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland (HSENI) and relates to an incident on 24 June 2013 where a 54 year old employee of the roofing contractor suffered multiple injuries after falling over three metres through asbestos cement roof sheeting. Abbey Roofing Specialists had been contracted to strip the roof sheets from a large garage, situated on Beechill Park Avenue, Belfast.

The incident occurred as a result of an unsafe system of work combined with a lack of onsite supervision. The HSENI investigation found that none of the simple and commonly available measures to prevent workers from falling, such as netting or airbags below the roof, were in place. Neither did the company use a Mobile Elevated Work Platform (MEWP) inside the garage which would have allowed the workers to access all areas of the roof quickly and safely from below. 

Abbey Roofing Specialists Limited had not carried out a suitable and sufficient risk assessment before starting the work, which if completed would have set out how to remove the asbestos roof sheets safely. Neither had the company provided adequate training for its employees who could have been exposed to asbestos fibres or taken the necessary precautions to limit the exposure to asbestos.

After the hearing, Anne Cassidy, an inspector with HSENI’s major investigation team said: “The dangers of working at height are well known and the law requires all employers to control the risk of injury to their workers.  A range of methods are available and suitable protection measures must always be put in place to prevent injury to workers from falls from height.”

“The dangers of asbestos are also well known. There is no safe level of exposure to asbestos and the correct procedures for working with it are long established. It is a legal requirement that contractors understand and follow procedures to prevent the spread of and exposure to asbestos.”

For more information on Health and Safety in the workplace visit www.hseni.gov.uk

HSENI’s Duty to Manage Campaign outlines how to manage the risk of asbestos: www.hseni.gov.uk/dutytomanage