Contracting firm fined for lack of welfare facilities

 

The company had permitted their subcontract roofers, damp treatment experts, electricians, joiners and plasterers to carry out refurbishment work on a Grade 2 listed building for several weeks without toilets or running water on site. Workers had to use wet wipes and paper towels to clean themselves and leave the site to find toilets elsewhere.

It was also found that the temperature inside the building was very cold.

The HSE Inspector said:

“It would have been easy for [the main contractor] to reinstate the existing welfare facilities in the building, but instead the firm allowed work to be carried out in grimy and dusty conditions for nearly seven weeks without access to the most basic facilities.

It’s totally unacceptable in the twenty-first century to find Dickensian-like conditions. In fact, it’s a legal requirement that workers aren’t treated in this way.

[The main contractor] should have made sure there were welfare facilities on the site before it allowed the refurbishment project to start. Instead, workers had to face needlessly unpleasant conditions over several weeks.”

Citation advise companies to plan for the provision of welfare facilities for staff irrespective of the nature scale and length of the project.

For more information regarding the provision of welfare facilities contact us to speak with a representitive.