March

Arrests made over illegal Chinese fireworks display

A dozen people have been formally arrested in connection with a fire at a Beijing hotel blamed on an illegal fireworks display staged by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, state media reported Wednesday. They include the former head of CCTV's construction bureau, 50-year-old Xu Wei. News reports have said he ordered the pyrotechnics while ignoring safety warnings.

The suspects were detained Feb. 11 but weren't formally arrested until this month, the official Xinhua News Agency said. The step almost guarantees they will be indicted and face trial; Xinhua said they could face seven years in prison.

The Feb. 10 inferno in the nearly completed Mandarin Oriental Hotel next to CCTV's iconic new headquarters building was a massive embarrassment for the state broadcaster. The 5 billion yuan ($731 million) building was gutted, and one firefighter died from smoke inhalation in the blaze that raged spectacularly over the city's eastern district for five hours.

The hotel, which also housed television studios, a visitor's center and exhibition space, had helped transform the capital's skyline for last year's Olympics. The disaster prompted mocking from some Chinese who resent CCTV for producing dull propaganda-style programming while enjoying a monopoly on nationwide broadcasting. The company also has drawn jeers for spending lavishly on grandiose projects, such as its futuristic headquarters complex.

CCTV has apologized for the fire while seeking to squelch discussion of it. CCTV employees, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid retribution from their employer, say they have been ordered not to talk about the fire, even among themselves.

The employees also say sizable bonuses due to be paid to most employees have been canceled as a result of the fire. CCTV reaped huge profits from broadcasting last year's Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, and some bonuses were supposed to top 80,000 yuan ($11,700), they said.

CCTV has said the fireworks were powerful enough to require a special permit, but the broadcaster didn't apply for permission and ignored police safety warnings. Others arrested included eight members of the pyrotechnics crew who fled the scene after the fire broke out, as well as three other CCTV employees who worked under Xu.

Fireworks are usually banned in downtown Beijing, although the rule is waived for two weeks over the Lunar New Year holiday. The hotel caught fire on the final day of that period, when massive barrages exploded for hours throughout the city.

Lawyers warn over the effect of the Corporate Manslaughter Act

Businesses have a "window of opportunity" to get their health and safety systems and cultures right before the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act really starts to take true effect, a panel of top lawyers has warned.

The panel of health and safety lawyers, speaking at the IOSH 09 conference in Liverpool, also said that the new Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act was leading to changes in the way offences were investigated, with the police being very thorough and causing immense disruption.

They warned that businesses should expect health and safety investigations to be long-running, and that many managers could find themselves being quizzed, and even arrested, as part of the police inquiry.

Nathan Peacey, a partner at Bond Pearce, said: "The police seem to be struggling with how they should be investigating. They seem to be arresting everyone down to low level management in the two cases I'm involved in."

Kevin Bridges, from Pinsent Masons, said this was also true of his experience: "The police want a cast iron guarantee they will get a conviction. They are investigating a lot longer and their approach is very different to that of the HSE. They will arrest you and grill you. I'm certainly finding that I'm spending a lot more time at the police station as a result!"

Steffan Groch, partner and head of regulatory at DWF, said that businesses that weren’t yet prepared for the impact of the law still had opportunity to get organised. However, she warned that the window of opportunity is closing, saying: "You have this window of opportunity to do something to avoid being prosecuted for corporate manslaughter, so I'd look at the culture of your business. You have a few years to do this, so get your systems in place in case the unforeseen happens."

As to when the first prosecution for Corporate Manslaughter will take place, most of the panel felt it would still be a number of years.

Pubs and clubs not protecting workers from excessive noise

As many as fifty per cent of pub and club owners are failing to protect their staff from excessive noise at work, a survey by an environmental health organisation has found.

The findings by the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) also show that almost 90 per cent of responding venue owners had not taken steps to reduce noise exposure since the elements of the Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005 regarding the entertainment sector came into force last year.

Director of CIEH Wales Julie Barratt said: “We know that exposure to loud music can cause temporary or even permanent hearing loss. The purpose of the Control of Noise at Work Regulations is to protect employees working in noisy premises. 

“The regulations don’t just cover factories; they also cover pubs and nightclubs, where continuous exposure to loud music can damage the hearing of staff. This survey suggests that notwithstanding the legislation, staff in the premises surveyed are not being protected and may be at risk of suffering damage to their hearing.”

All but one of the staff questioned said they had not received any training at all and one in six regularly had to shout to be heard two metres away.

The Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005 came into force in the music and entertainment sector from April 2008, reducing acceptable level of exposure limits. Under the regulation employers must:

• Assess the risks to employees from noise at work
• Take action to reduce the noise exposure that produces those risks
• Provide employees with hearing protection if you cannot reduce the noise exposure enough by using other methods
• Provide employees with information/guidance
• Carry out surveillance where there is a risk to health

Miss Barratt added: “While all new legislation takes time to bed down, it is quite clear from this research that staff themselves have little understanding of their right to be protected.

“What’s more, the majority of employers have little understanding of their responsibilities and are failing to comply with the law.”

HSE call for more personal commitment from directors

The HSE has called on company directors to demonstrate personal commitment and spend more time outside the boardroom to show they really care about health and safety.

Judith Hackitt, Chair of the HSE, in the annual Rivers Lecture, told the audience of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators in London: "Personal responsibility is fundamental to credibility and strong leadership. The first requirement is to get outside of the boardroom - visit workstations and talk to staff. Ask them what their health and safety concerns are and show genuine interest in and consideration for their response."

In the speech Ms Hackitt challenged the growth of a ‘box-ticking’ and ‘do as I say, not as I do’ culture, among managers. She said Board Leadership in Health and Safety is “about common sense, personal responsibility and integrity.”

She added: "If the actions of the Board are inconsistent with the directions given to staff, this creates a huge integrity gap."

Ms Hackitt concluded that Chartered Secretaries and Administrators were uniquely able to influence and steer the behaviours of their own boards and to extend that influence throughout the supply chains of their organisations.

Minister calls for H&S vigilance

Health and safety will not be allowed to slip down the business agenda because of the current economic difficulties, health and safety minister, Lord McKenzie of has said. Speaking at the IOSH 09 conference and exhibition, Lord McKenzie told an audience of 700 health and safety professionals that while the next few months would be testing, that didn't mean the HSE would be letting up.

He said: "The economic climate over the next few months is going to be testing, but that doesn't mean the duties around health and safety have gone away. The HSE and its inspectors will not weaken their position on health and safety. Skimping on health and safety is wrong – the financial and reputational consequences can be severe."

He also highlighted the threat posed by ill-health: "Working age ill-health costs this country in the order of £100bn per year. That's one of the reasons why the Government made clear that it must be at the heart of what we do. We must not repeat the mistakes of the past, especially where individuals are left today paying the price for those mistakes."

Lord McKenzie concluded by pointing out: "There's been little change in the injury and deaths rates over the last six years and we cannot allow the difficult economic circumstances to drive things back. Health and safety is not an optional extra."

Earlier, chief executive of the HSE, Geoffrey Podger, warned delegates that the most dangerous time may be just as the economy starts to improve, saying, "History suggests that at that time you will have people recruiting, but not training them properly. So while recent history suggests we've not done too badly, we can't be complacent."

Geoffrey also pointed out that there was a need for HSE to be much more creative in its approaches: "HSE needs to think out of the box. We have to recognise that there are new challenges and the world of work has changed. It's extremely important that we're not just seen as the people who clear up after the event."

Working Time Directive opt-out under discussion

Talks are underway in Brussels to decide whether the UK can retain its opt out from the European Working Time Directive, which aims to limit the working week to 48 hours.

That opt out has been under threat ever since MEPs voted to scrap it in December, despite opposition from the Council, which represents national ministers. The disagreement has led to the situation being at a standstill - which is why the EU's higher-level decision-making body, the Council of Ministers, has now stepped in.

The directive regulates how long employees work, how many breaks they have and how much holiday they are entitled to.  Its aim is to ensure that no employee in the EU is obliged to work more than an average of 48 hours a week.  But the UK, along with 14 other member states, negotiated an opt-out from the Directive.

The government is in favour of retaining the opt-out. However, many Labour MEPs are against it. Labour's leader in Brussels, the East Midlands MEP Glenis Willmott, has said via her blog that wants the opt out scrapped for health and safety reason. She wrote: "Working more than 48 hours per week on a regular basis can pose significant risks to health. Excessive working time is linked to stress, depression and heart disease. For me it is an important point of principle that exemptions from health and safety law should not be allowed."

Other MEPs disagree, though, arguing that in the current economic climate workers should have the right to work longer hours in order to earn more money. Peter Mandelson said ending the opt out would be “absurd”.

A compromise must be reached in time for the European elections, which take place in June. If the issue isn’t resolved by then the current working time rules will stay in force.

Prison sentences handed down over Chinese disco fire

China has sentenced six people, including two former police officers and a firefighter, to jail for a nightclub fire that killed 44 people in the southern boomtown of Shenzhen, state media reported. The fire started Sept. 20 when a fireworks performance ignited flammable material on the ceiling of a club in the Longgang district of Shenzhen city, just across the border from Hong Kong.

More than 300 people were in the club when the fire started and 64 were injured in an ensuing stampede, Xinhua said. The hall of the nightclub was on the third floor of a marketplace and was accessible from the staircase only by a narrow passageway, state media reported last year.

Yang Zhouwu, former chief of the Tongle police station, was sentenced to 13 years in prison for taking bribes worth 300,000 yuan ($43,865) from the King of the Dancers nightclub and for dereliction of duty, the official Xinhua News Agency said late Friday.

Chen Feng, former head of the local firefighting squad, and former policeman Liu Libiao were sentenced to six years in jail for dereliction of duty, Xinhua said. The others received jail terms between one to five years, it said.

The club was unlicensed and had not passed a fire safety test before it opened, Xinhua said. Yang and Liu had on many occasions received money from club workers and had not investigated illegal activities there, it said.

Fires and accidents in bars, theaters and other public places are common in China despite government pledges to improve safety. Many are caused by negligence and lax safety procedures, such as a lack of fire extinguishers and emergency exits.

In China's worst nightclub disaster in recent years, a fire blamed on a welding accident tore through a disco in the central city of Luoyang in December 2000, killing 309 people.

Hi-vis gear under scrutiny

Sub-standard high-visibility clothing is putting workers' lives at risk, according to a recent report, which has revealed that many retailers are selling fake or poor standard high-visibility clothing that, in the worst cases, offered just over 1% of the reflection required under the European Standard.

Following calls from health and safety professionals, the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) has agreed to fund an investigation and bring the problem to the attention of local Trading Standards Authorities.

High visibility garments were tested by the Reflective Manufacturers Association (REMA) during 2007 and 2008 in 12 local authority jurisdictions. REMA found sub-standard garments on sale in two of the UK's largest supermarket chains, a car accessory chain and two multi-chain discount stores. The garments could be worn by many types of workers, including those working on the roads and on construction sites, as well as members of the public such as cyclists.

REMA reported that “a piece of toilet paper would reflect more light than some of the clothes it tested”. One of the major worries is that much of the sub-standard workwear is labelled correctly so people think they are protected when they're not. HSB and REMA are calling for action from retailers and the Government, as well as from HM Revenue and Customs to prevent the goods entering the country in the first place.

This is the latest in a long line of reports concerning the use, and mis-use, of PPE, especially in industries such as construction. Last week it was revealed that a quarter of health and safety managers were unsure as to the different levels of PPE required for certain jobs, whilst a recent survey revealed that the recession and cutbacks have led to PPE not being replaced or used as often as it should.

Workers worry over debt

Over a quarter of employees are worried about debt, with one in five reporting they are being kept awake at night by financial worries and over ten per cent saying their health was suffering as a result. Additionally, workers with fewer financial worries report better productivity at work than those with concerns. These are the findings of new research, which recommends that financial education programmes for staff should be more widespread and accessible.

The research, Financial Well-being in the Workplace from the Institute for Employment Studies, surveyed workers in both the private and public sectors. It reveals that over 30 per cent of workers do not feel in control of their finances, and that those in poor financial health are the least likely to use the financial education offered by their employers.

Report author Annette Cox, Associate Director at the Institute for Employment Studies and head of its Work and Well-being Team, commented: “Employees who report better financial well-being are more likely to report increased productivity. Now more than ever, people are going to need help and support to better manage their finances. Employers are in a good position to do this, and offering even basic information about taking care of your money will go a long way. It’s really important to think about how people who are in most need of financial advice can access it easily." Employees who responded to the survey had similar income and debt levels to the UK average.

Key findings from the research include:  40 per cent of employees had made use of financial advice, but are most likely to use sources of information like independent financial advisers and banks or building societies rather than specialist sources like debt advice charities.

Just 15 per cent had made use of financial education programmes run by their employer, and those at higher risk of suffering from poor financial health were least likely to use them. But employees who had participated found them useful. While two-thirds of staff are planning their spending with budgets, just half of these stick to them. People who are vulnerable to, or already have, money problems are most likely to attempt budgeting.

Only around one-third of people surveyed felt positive about their financial future, and less than one-third of respondents thought they would have sufficient savings for their retirement. Employees with better financial well-being were more likely to report improved productivity.

Pub tans its patrons

Workers and customers of a Scottish pub said they suffered sunstroke and other ailments after a manager installed light bulbs from a tanning machine. Locals said manager Emma McLean at The Pub In The Square in Buckie, Scotland, mistakenly used high-powered ultraviolet tubes when she replaced the blue strip lights behind the bar, The Daily Record reported Friday.

Morgan Smith, a bartender, suffered sever burns to his neck as a result of exposure to the lights, his sister said. He was really badly burnt and had sunstroke, Smith's sister said. He was all dizzy and couldn't see because of the brightness of the lights. His neck started peeling and was in a right state, she said. Nobody could believe he got sunstroke from standing behind a bar.

The lamps are only supposed to be used for a few minutes at a time. No one had any idea they were being cooked until staff began to complain of dizziness. Residents said some of the injured customers and workers have been making rumblings about legal action against the bar. I've been told that there are going to be a few claims for compensation, one local said.

Police call for festival to be cancelled

A Police chief has said he would like to see this year’s Bulldog Bash festival scrapped because of security fears. Warwickshire Police chiefs spent £1.4 million patrolling the huge gathering near Stratford because of fears there would be a revenge shooting for the death of Hell’s Angel Gerry Tobin in August 2007.

Senior officers said then that they had intelligence that gangs were planning a reprisal attack for the death of Mr Tobin who was returning from the festival to his London home when he was shot on the M40, near Leamington. But organisers and locals claimed the massive security checks, near Long Marston airfield, were excessive and unnecessary.

Police revealed at a meeting with residents in Lower Quinton on Thursday that another “significant” operation would be needed if the gathering went ahead.

Assistant Chief Constable Bill Holland admitted that he’d prefer the 2009 event to be scrapped and added that his constabulary was assessing whether they could force a review of the licence, which was given by Stratford District Council last year – despite their objections.

Mr Holland said: “We are currently assessing all the information available to us to see if grounds exist to request a review of the licence for this event, which was granted by Stratford District Council last year despite our objections.

“We are taking professional advice on this. Any application for a review of the licence granted for Bulldog Bash would be based on the grounds of ensuring public safety and the prevention of crime and disorder.”

Mr Tobin’s killers were jailed for life last November and were told they would each serve minimum terms of between 25 and 30 years.

Leaving the office? Take the helter-skelter!

A new office development, the Electric Works in Sheffield, has installed an indoor helter skelter to assist its tenants to get from the top to the ground floor in just seven seconds. Made of steel and plastic, it is 87ft long with a 40ft drop, and will provide staff with a quick and easy way of leaving the premises at the end of the day.

The building’s designer, Toby Hyam, says it is intended as a “statement about risk-taking”, but to many, the idea of a fairground ride in the middle of a busy office environment will throw up a plethora of health and safety liability issues. 

Sections Two and Three of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 (HSWA) place general duties on employers (who can also be occupiers) with regard to the health and safety of their employees and others. Occupiers' liability to visitors is governed by the Occupiers' Liability Act 1957 (OLA 1957) which requires occupiers of premises to take such care as is reasonable in the circumstances to ensure that any visitor is safe when using the premises for the purposes for which he/she is invited or permitted to be there.

In the event of an accident and a subsequent claim, the court, in determining whether the occupier has kept the visitor reasonably safe, is likely to consider:

• any warnings given;
• the purpose of the visit;
• the conduct of the visitor;
• the occupier's knowledge of any hazards and any warning the occupier gave about those hazards; and
• the state of the premises.

Occupiers will owe a higher duty of care towards disabled people and children, and extra care will be required in assessing the risks and on deciding what controls are needed to ensure these groups are not harmed. Occupiers should, as a minimum, be able to provide, on demand, suitable risk assessments, disability access audits and access statements.

“We know that it will be a novelty at first, and we don't know whether it will wear off, but if you are having a meeting with a client and people are whizzing past, it will be memorable” says Hyam, although hopefully it won’t be memorable for the wrong reasons.

Office manager, Deborah Walsh, said: “I think the helter-skelter is a brilliant idea and we will constantly have people moving in and moving out, so there will always be somebody new to try it.”

For the less adventurous, and those unable to use the slide, the options of using the stairs or a lift remain. If nothing else, the slide will provide an effective fire exit in case of an emergency, and ensure that employees are always on time for ground-floor meetings.