Court / Construction firm fined after worker falls through asbestos roof
A CONSTRUCTION firm has been fined £9,000 after one of its workers suffered significant injuries from falling through an asbestos roof.
Steel Erect Shetland admitted failing to properly plan for working at height, which resulted in one employee breaking through a roof and plummeting to the ground on 17 August 2021.
It pleaded guilty to failing to properly plan and supervise work at height.
It came while the company was carrying out work for Lerwick Port Authority to replace an asbestos roof on one of its buildings.
Only parts of the roof were netted underneath to catch someone if they fell, Lerwick Sheriff Court heard today (Wednesday), and there were no signs to tell workers which sections of roof were not netted.
The man broke through a section of asbestos roof while working on it and fell to the ground of the single storey building, sustaining serious injuries.
He was left with “multiple lumbar fractures”, fractured ribs and now had flashbacks to the incident – which had left him “agitated and stressed”, the court was told.
Steel Erect Shetland, which was formed in 1997, had never previously been found to have breached any health and safety regulations, defence agent Tim Lennox said.
And the firm had taken immediate measures to ensure that crawl boards were required to be used by employees working on roofs, with netting a secondary precaution measure.
One of the company’s three directors was in court on Wednesday to hear the case.
Procurator fiscal Duncan Mackenzie said Steel Erect Shetland had taken on a £160,000 tender to replace asbestos roofing at a port authority building.
On the day of the accident the worker was on the roof when a sheet section “jammed in place”.
When he moved to start on another section, he broke through the roof and plummeted to the ground.
Nearby workers rushed to his aid and an ambulance was called, before he was taken to the Gilbert Bain Hospital.
He was then flown to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary due to the severity of his injuries.
Mackenzie said the company’s risk assessment was “generic” and “lacking in detail”, and though there was advice about using crawl boards it “didn’t state these needed to be used”.
The risk assessment was “not suitable” for the work being done, he added.
The worker involved had “comprehensive training” on the work he was doing, including working with safety netting and asbestos roofs.
However, he was “not briefed or shown the relevant risk assessments” for the work he was carrying out on the day, and not told what he should do if he fell into one of the safety nets.
The company had co-operated fully with the Health and Safety Executive in its investigations, he added, and had made changes to its working practices as a result of the incident.
Defence agent Lennox said Steel Erect Shetland had carried out the initial risk assessment while under the impression that the building would be empty when it carried out the work.
However Lerwick Port Authority had then informed them that one tenant needed to remain in the building, he said.
That meant that netting could not be installed right the way across the roof, but had to be put up in sections.
The risk assessment was not updated when this was discovered though, he admitted, and said that it was “inadequate” for the work being done.
Crawl boards had also been used frequently during the work, Lennox said, including on the day before the accident – but not on that day.
He told the court that the company had three full-time and one part-time employee, and made a profit of £97,000 in 2024.
The man who suffered the accident had been compensated through the civil court already, he added.
Sheriff Ian Cruickshank said the company had pleaded guilty at the first possible opportunity, and had taken responsibility for the health and safety failings.
He fined Steel Erect Shetland £9,000, which was reduced from £13,500 due to the early plea.
A victim surcharge of £675 will also be applied.
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