Connect Packaging Ltd and Creo Retail Marketing Ltd have been fined after exposing workers to potentially deadly asbestos over the years, despite the knowledge of its presence in the building in Manor Road Trading Estate, Benfleet.
Asbestos found on the premises was in poor condition when Connect Packaging Ltd moved into the building in 2007 but did not act on the findings. As a result of this, the employees were exposed to asbestos fibres. When Connect Packaging Ltd moved out of the premises in 2009, it sublet them to Creo Retail Marketing Ltd, and continued to carry out maintenance and repair.
In 2014 Creo Retail Marketing appointed a health and safety officer and undertook an asbestos survey, which confirmed the presence of dangerous material in the structure. Despite the findings, the workers remained exposed to the risk, while the two companies argued about who should be responsible for the removal of asbestos.
After Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation, which started after alarms being raised by concerned employees, scientists found asbestos in workers' clocking-in point, in the stationary cupboard and on rafters above their heads.
Airborne asbestos can be fatal due to known respiratory diseases and cancers it causes. Workers and employers were exposed to these risks for a long period of time.
After pleading guilty, Connect Packaging Ltd was fined £65,000 and ordered to pay £8,149.53 in costs, where Creo Retail Marketing Ltd was fined £150,000 and ordered to pay £8,149.63 in costs, for breaching the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and breaches of the Control of Asbestos both 2006 and 2012 Regulations.
This prosecution is meant to act as a reminder to all employers and workers in control of the repair and maintenance of non-domestic premises, that they have to ensure appropriate measures to prevent the exposure to asbestos as far as it is reasonably practicable.
