Galliard hit by £15k fine

Loughton-based Galliard Homes has been fined £15,000 and ordered to pay £7,000 in costs after one of its workers suffered serious cement burns while carrying out screeding works on a floor of a housing project at Marble Arch, London.

Kevin Creak, a plasterer by trade, was asked to lay a cement floor at the project in March last year. However, no risk assessment or method statement was completed for the works.

The hearing at the City of London Magistrates Court heard how neither Creak, or the site manager, were aware of the dangers of working with wet cement. This involved Creak kneeling in concrete for five hours without any protective equipment.

Creak was not aware of the serious burns he had received from the contact with the cement until the works had been completed.

Galliard Homes pleaded guilty to an offence as provided by Section 33(1) (a) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

[Contract Journal, 9 August 2006, p. 4]