Judge changes fine into compensation

摘要

In what the HSE describes as "a highly unusual move", a trial judge has converted a fine into a compensation order for a worker who was left paralysed by his employer's failures. The incident occurred on 18 January 2013 at the Rosebery Industrial Estate in north London. Petros Pogosyan, an Armenian national, was working on the roof of an industrial unit when he fell four and a half metres through a skylight onto a concrete floor. He fractured his back and suffered brain damage, and is now paralysed from the waist down and partially deaf. He will never work again and will need personal care for the rest of his life; his wife has given up work to care for him and the couple now exists on state benefits. On the day of the incident, the HSE served a prohibition notice on Mr Pogosyan's employer, Race Interiors, a south London SME that specialises in refurbishment and interior fit-outs. The company had not provided suitable and sufficient platforms, coverings, guardrails or other measures to prevent persons falling through fragile surfaces. Nor had it provided fall arrest measures such as safety nets or taken sufficient steps to prevent a fall from the roof's edge, for example by using toeboards and barriers. "Nobody," emphasised the HSE's inspector, Simon Hester, "should work on a roof without proper planning."