Can A Person Be Held Accountable, For A Sitaution Getting Out Of Hand When They Have Left The Scene.?
hi, can any one please help, my husband is in the process of a suspension from work, his only crime, not questioning a senior managers decision, to allow someone to be elevated 2-3ft of the floor in a waste bin by a fork truck,they were trying to insert a waste pipe into a skip, the other thing his company are saying is that his and the senior managers actions accounted for what happened when him and the senior manager left the scene, another guy came along and decided to hoist the guy in the bin at least 12ft off the floor, breaching help and safety rules, no one was hurt or injured at all during this time, they have cctv footage, but all my husband is seen to do is mainly talk and stand with his arms folded, then climb onto a upturned waste bin that was already there to see if the pipe had started pumping,he has had no formal health and safety training with his company he is at a meeting to decide is fate in the morning, we are very worried that he could lose his job.
Did your husband authorize his subordinates to be lifted on a forklift without being on an approved passenger lift platform? If so, then he was wrong and should be disciplined, as should his boss.
seems unfair to me and I’m not sure what your post here is going to do other than make you feel better but I supposed if he does get terminated (God willing, he won’t be) – and you feel that he has been unjustly wronged, a lawyer is the way to go. Make sure to get copies of those tapes before they disappear. Good Luck.
If health and safety guidelines were violated, and he violated them, it does not make any difference that he has had no training.
ignorance of the rules is no excuse for failing to follow the rules…
if he is the senior person on scene and he FAILED to stop the action… well no action is an action in itself… since no one was hurt.. and he wasn’t aware of the rules.. his best bet is to go into the interview with a plan for how he is going to ensure that this doesn’t happen in the future…
don’t dodge explain.. he was unaware it was a violation so failed to stop what he should have stopped.. he is going to take the following steps to ensure that in the future this doesn’t reoccur and he hopes he and they go forward from there.
He and all the other employees present are all “vicariously” responsible, anyone no matter what grade or rank is responsible for everyone else’s Health & Safety.
“Vicarious liability is a form of strict, secondary liability that arises under the common law doctrine of agency – respondeat superior – the responsibility of the superior for the acts of their subordinate, or, in a broader sense, the responsibility of any third party that had the “right, ability or duty to control” the activities of a violator”
Sorry about that, is he in a Trade Union, if so consult them quickly.