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Search forRolls-Royce fined £120,000 for exposing workers to dangerous chemicals
Saturday, July 19, 2008, 07:30
The company made the pledge after it was fined £120,000 at Derby Crown Court yesterday for failing to ensure that five of its agency staff were sufficiently protected against dangerous substances.
The workers developed ill effects, including skin rashes, bowel problems and breathing difficulties, while decommissioning a light alloy foundry at the firm's plant in Osmaston Road, Derby, between July and October 2005.
One of the men, a 27-year-old, is still off work and suffers dizziness.
After the hearing, Noelle Walker, Health and Safety Executive inspector for Derbyshire, said: “This incident could have been avoided if safe working practices had been put in place.
“Employers must ensure that decommissioning work is properly planned to take account of health and safety risks and that employees and agency workers are made fully aware of the risks associated with hazardous substances. This would prevent this sort of exposure, which has resulted in potentially long-term ill health for these men.”
Jacqueline Carey, prosecuting, said the men's symptoms were a result of being exposed to dangerous substances, including the toxic chemical potassium fluorosilicate.
She said: “The risk assessment drawn up for the decommissioning was far too generic. It wasn't specific enough.”
Miss Carey said agency staff were given overalls to work in that had already been contaminated and were not properly instructed on wearing safety equipment.
Rolls-Royce pleaded guilty to failing to ensure that employees were not exposed to hazardous substances.
James Ageros, for R-R, said: “The company very much regrets the injuries suffered by the men. It takes responsibility for this breach of duty and takes health and safety very seriously.
“When they started work clearing away the sand (at the foundry), Rolls-Royce did not realise that levels of potassium fluorosilicate had risen that high.”
Judge David Price said that, in pleading guilty, the company accepted it failed to give agency staff suitable information, instruction and training about what to do when liable to be exposed to chemicals.
He said: “The risk assessment was too generic and there was no health and safety plan and there should have been.”
He said that, as a result, the workers had experienced “reasonably long-lasting ill health effects.”
He also ordered Rolls-Royce to pay £ 12,122.53 costs.
AWARE: Noelle Walker from the Health and Safety Executive
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