Royal Mail fined for chemical spill

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Royal Mail was fined £44,000 last month for an incident in which a leaking chemical injured a fleet maintenance worker.

The worker - a CWU member based at Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire - suffered severe chemical burns to his leg from a powerful concentrated cleaning agent.

Royal Mail pleaded guilty at Watford Magistrates Court to two offences under Section 2 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and Regulation 6(1) of the 2002 Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations.

The court handed down maximum fines of £20,000 per offence, plus costs of £4,000 after hearing that investigators had found that Royal Mail had not carried out risk assessments or implemented safe working systems and procedures.

A defective dispensing pump had caused the substance to spill onto the victim's leg while he was spraying the cleaning agent to the underbody of a heavy goods vehicle prior to a steam clean. He was immediately rushed to hospital, where he required skin grafts. He was unable to return to work for eight months.

A CWU national health, safety and environment spokesman explained: "The member had been sent to carry out the work at a contract cleaning facility where he had to work outside in the rain. He had not been issued any personal protective equipment and he was given faulty equipment to use."

He added that the background to this incident had been the closure of the former Watford Vehicle Maintenance Workshop which had had purpose-built facilities.

"Royal Mail then quickly put new vehicle cleaning arrangements in place with a contractor, but they had not safety-inspected the contractor's site and equipment provided and had not carried out risk assessments or established any safe systems of work," he explained, although he went on to point out that, subsequently, the company has worked with the union to introduce and implement appropriate safe working systems and procedures at the site.

Tony Rupa Tony Rupa, CWU head of legal services, said: "In this case, there was a clear failure by the company to comply with the employer's general duty to provide a safe place and safe system of work, and we are pursuing a claim for compensation for our member through our CWU solicitors."