It is not just employers who have a duty to act carefully under health and safety regulations; employees also have an obligation not to place themselves or others in danger. Manchester Magistrates Court in December 2016 sentenced an employee of a steel erection company to 6 months in prison suspended for 18 months and fined him a total of £4,339.

The court heard the employee had been seen by a member of the public balancing on scaffold tubes in the rain while working on the roof a multi-storey hotel in central Manchester. Although a tower scaffold had been provided and a full time scaffolder was employed on the site to ensure safe working platforms were available when required, the employee had climbed up the scaffold to a height 27m above street level and then balanced on the tubes to hammer steel beams into position.

The employee admitted breaching Section 7 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

HSE Inspector Matt Greenly said

“Never before in my career as a HSE Inspector have I seen such a staggering disregard for personal safety. It is a matter of pure luck that no-one was injured or killed.”

Section 7 states

It shall be the duty of every employee while at work—

(a)to take reasonable care for the health and safety of himself and of other persons who may be affected by his acts or omissions at work; and

(b)as regards any duty or requirement imposed on his employer or any other person by or under any of the relevant statutory provisions, to co-operate with him so far as is necessary to enable that duty or requirement to be performed or complied with.

This latest prosecution shows the HSE is stepping up its drive to make the construction industry a safer place to work even if it means fining and sentencing people who put their own lives at risk.