Safety Cast Aside
Contractor Pays the Price for Reckless Nighttime Roof Work
A roofing contractor in the U.K. faced jail and fines after regulators witnessed a crew working on a steep-slope roof at night using cell phones for light
Workers were seen using the lights from their phones while working on the roof of a home at night in County Surry, U.K. The contractor received a suspended jail sentence in addition to a near-$11,000 fine.
— Image courtesy of the U.K. Health and Safety Executive office
A roofing firm in County Surrey, England, about 22 miles southwest of London, has been fined — and its director handed a suspended prison sentence — after workers' lives were put at risk during a roof renovation for multiple safety lapses.
The single-family home in the city of Dorking where the crew was working had been observed operating without scaffolding or edge protection, required under the UK’s safety rules, according to the Health and Safety Executive, the regulatory body responsible for safety enforcement. The HSE is roughly the equivalent of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Health and Safety Administration.
Arguably, the most egregious example of worker safety lapses was how the crew of Weather Master Roofing Limited, based in London, illuminated the worksite after dark: the field crew was seen using their cell phone flashlights for illumination, according to the HSE and first reported by the BBC.
The HSE said Weather Master Roofing Limited was served with an improvement notice in February 2023 but failed to comply.
"Falls from height are still the single biggest cause of work-related deaths in Great Britain,” HSE inspector Stephanie Hickford-Smith said. "Support and practical guidance on how to comply with the law is publicly available, free of charge. There is no excuse for putting workers' lives at risk."
The regulator said company director Jack Avanzo received a six-month suspended jail sentence for two years at Brighton Magistrates' Court on Dec. 2. The company was also fined nearly $5,100 and ordered to pay almost $2,000 in costs and a victim surcharge of slightly more than $2,000.
The HSE said Avanzo pleaded guilty to breaching the relevant laws and was ordered to complete 120 hours of unpaid work in addition to the suspended jail time and fines.
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Bryan Gottlieb is the online editor at Engineering News-Record (ENR).
Gottlieb is a five-time Society of Professional Journalists Excellence in Journalism award winner with more than a decade of experience covering business, construction, and community issues. He has worked at Adweek, managed a community newsroom in Santa Monica, Calif., and reported on finance, law, and real estate for the San Diego Daily Transcript. He later served as editor-in-chief of the Detroit Metro Times and was managing editor at Roofing Contractor, where he helped shape national industry coverage.
Gottlieb covers breaking news, large-scale infrastructure projects, new products and business.
email gottliebb@enr.com | office: (248) 786-1591
