Overworked employee electrocuted £100,000

Prosecutions and Claims |
02.06.2007

Flawed power isolation procedures on a site where contractors worked excessive hours have cost construction firm CFR Group over £133,000. Philip Martyn suffered a fatal electric shock when a colleague mistakenly switched on circuits that were not properly "locked off". Time sheets showed that CFR had breached the 48-hour weekly limits set by the Working Time Regulations 1998.

HSE inspector Anne Gloor told Health and Safety Professional that lots of different contractors were working on the Halifax bank refurbishment project trying to get the job finished by the deadline. CFR, which was putting in new wiring, told Martyn to wire-in a rest room water heater. He started the work on a Saturday, at the same time as a CFR electrical tester arrived to test the whole circuit system for the site's electrical certificate. In the switch room, there was tape across several circuit breakers but no proper system for locking off the power. When the tester took off the tape and switched them all on, Martyn made contact with live conductors. 

"The company had done some risk assessments," said Gloor, but "these were generic and didn't address the risk of electric shock from the new circuits once they were powered up". CFR also failed to restrict access to the switch room, which meant workers were going in and out to turn the power on and off as needed. Instead of using tape, electricians should have had padlocks to lock the circuits off, Gloor said. "Everyone was using tape because no one had told them any other way."

Time sheets, which the HSE requested after witnesses highlighted long working hours, showed that Martyn and another worker - both CFR employees - had not agreed to "opt out" of the 48-hour week provisions and were over the limits.

CFR admitted charges under Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act for not protecting employees, and Regulation 4(1) of the Working Time Regulations. At the Old Bailey on 11 May, Judge Hone fined it £100,000 and £750 respectively, with £33,000 costs.