I want to share with you all a couple of very interesting health and
safety cases that local church’s need be aware of. I know this Blog is
dedicated to disabilities but safety and health affects all of us so please allow
me a little elbow room.
As is often the case the cases referred to are speaking about private organisations
that are set up to generate income and profit, but places of worship do fall
under the same health and safety legislation and should therefore be aware of
these serious matters.
The first is about a joiner who was replacing fence posts in domestic properties
for his employer. The joiner struck an underground cable receiving an electric
shock. This could easily had led to death, but in this instance, thankfully, did
not. The employer was found guilty of failing to protect its employee from
being exposed to a foreseeable risk. The fine and costs came to over £15,000. Not
a sum any church council I know could afford.
Comment: Churches do have
buried services, i.e. electric cables, water pipes, and gas pipes. Some of
these may be on plans of the church property. But even if they are often the
plans are not precise, believe me this is my area of expertise and I am still amazed
how wrong plans can be. When such work is planned a risk assessment is
necessary, and the possibility of such hazards being present must be noted.
Actions may be to get an organisation in to map the services for you, but costly.
Or to dig with great care, not with heavy spades, less costly but the
confidence of no injury would need to be much higher. That is what the risk
assessment is all about, not just a paper exercise.
The second Case:
Quite simple, and one I have written about before. Employer Liability
Insurance.
The law requires that any employer has Employer Liability Insurance, so
where a church pays someone to clean the church, garden, verger, bookkeeping
and so on even if it is only for a couple of hours per week it is an employer employee
relationship hence Employer Liability Insurance is required; see - https://www.gov.uk/employers-liability-insurance
Recently a restaurant in Maidstone found themselves over £3,000 worse
off after going to court for failing to have Employer Liability Insurance, and
no doubt that they have now forked out for the insurance.
Comment: Interestingly if
any of their employees has had an accident over the past three years and makes
a claim against the restaurant the owner will have a shock; a very costly
shock! This is why we need such an insurance cover, often churches will find
that they are covered as part of their general policy – but this must be
checked and then the certificate of Employer Liability Insurance must be
displayed. We should never consider Employer Liability Insurance as a problem
but rather as a friend, for if things do go wrong and someone working for us is
injured then the insurance could be worth more than its weight in gold.
Case one: HSE v Berneslai Homes
Ltd [2015] (http://press.hse.gov.uk/2015/company-sentenced-after-employee-received-electric-shock/
Accessed 07/10/2015)
Case Two: HSE v Hasret Sasmaz, trading as
Starburger [2015] (http://press.hse.gov.uk/2015/restaurant-owner-fined-over-employer-liability-insurance/ Accessed 07/10/2015)
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