Roofing Contractor Admits Safety Failings Following Employee Death

AN ABERDEEN-based roofing company pleaded guilty to safety failings after one of its employees fell from a ladder and died.

On 21 September 2016, Joseph Kane, 56, who worked for Henderson and Aitken Limited, was carrying out work on a property on Jute Street, Aberdeen. Whilst working, Joseph fell from a ladder that was providing him access to and from the working platform on the property’s scaffolding. His injuries were so severe that he later died.

Safety Failings

Henderson and Aitken Limited pleaded guilty to breaching Work at Height regulations. The company also admitted failing to ensure that scaffolding had been erected by a competent person, that the scaffolding had been put up safely with sufficient protection on the working platform to prevent someone from falling and that there was a safe means of access to and from the working platform on the scaffold.

The charge stated that by failing in to comply with basic site regulations, the company exposed employees to “the risk of injury or death”.

Sheriff Morag McLaughlin deferred sentencing on Henderson and Aitken, which has its registered office at Balmoral Terrace, Aberdeen, until September 2019.