Health and Safety Consultants

A former NHS worker has been awarded £150,000 in damages after suffering from a nervous breakdown which was caused by three years of harassment and bullying from her manager.

Nanette Bowen, 28, worked at the Prince Phillip Hospital in Llanelli, South Wales. In 2000, the Prince Phillip Hospital merged with Dinefwr Trusts which became Carmarthenshire NHS Trust. During the merge Bowen’s manager was replaced by Eric Lewis. Bowen was bullied and harassed by her new manager so much that she started suffering from stress and panic attacks.

Bowen claimed that Lewis made sexual innuendos towards her and made her complete a daily diary so he could monitor her work. After years of harassment Bowen was signed off sick but she felt that the Trust failed to support her and said the money would never make up for her life being ruined.

Marks and Spencer plc and four contractors have been accused by the Health and Safety Executive of exposing staff and members of the public to asbestos whilst refurbishment work at stores in Reading, Bournemouth and Plymouth took place.

The high street chain pleaded not guilty to contravening sections (2)1 and (3)1 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act at all three of its stores.  Styles and Wood Ltd, one of the contractors that worked at the store in Reading, pleaded guilty to breaching the same sections of the Act. The second contractor, Willmott Dixon Construction, did not enter a plea for allegedly breaching the same sections of the Act for work at the Bournemouth store.  PA Realisations Ltd was not represented in court but was accused of breaching regulation 10 and 15 of the Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations 2002 for work carried out at the Reading store.

The committal hearing will take place on Tuesday 9 February 2010.

Centriforce Products Ltd, a plastics-recycling company in Liverpool, was fined £2,500 after a worker lost four fingers that were cut off by a guillotine.

Wesley Dickinson, 22, got his fingers trapped in the guillotine when he was trying to remove a jam.  Two of his four fingers were reattached by Doctors, but he still has very limited movement in his hand.

Martin Paren, an Inspector at HSE, said: “The Company should have had a guard on the guillotine to prevent workers from reaching the blade. An automatic mechanism should also have been in place so that the power was cut if the guard opened”.

Centrewest London Buses Ltd was fined £400,000 after one of its drivers was crushed to death between two buses. The incident occurred in a garage that was housing almost twice as many vehicles that it was designed to hold.

The court heard that Robert Cherry, 59, had just finished making routine checks to his vehicle and was talking to colleagues. He stepped in between two parked buses and one of the buses suddenly lurched backwards, trapping Mr Cherry against the rear vehicle. He died at the scene.

The HSE investigation revealed that traffic management at the station was poor. The garage was designed to hold a maximum of 65 buses, but on the morning of the accident it was holding 119. Additionally, the bus that struck Mr Cherry had a defective gear selector, which might have caused the wrong gear to be indicated to the driver. The bus company was found guilty of breaching section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

 Bill Hazleton, HSE Inspector, said: “Robert Cherry died because his employer did not do enough to ensure his safety or that of his colleagues. He was a much loved family member who was killed while going about his daily work. Like so many workplace accidents, this one was entirely preventable and should never have happened. The company’s traffic management system was poor and its processes for maintaining vehicles and for identifying and repairing defects were inadequate”.