Roofing Work News Roundup – July, 2018

Here at D-marc we’re in the business of making work at height, namely roofing work, safer with our innovative rooftop barrier solutions.  As such, we keep a close eye on the news for stories about roof work and working at height in general so that we can provide our readers with useful and relevant information that will keep them up to date with what’s going on in our industry.  Once a month, we’ll publish a roundup of the news that affects our sector in one easy place so that readers can get a quick overview of the most important happenings over the past month.  If you have anything to add or know of any stories that you’d like us to cover, please don’t hesitate to let us know, either by email, on our Facebook Page or on our Twitter feed.

A Manchester based roofing contractor was handed a suspended prison sentence and ordered to do community service after ignoring prohibition notices.  Michael Roden and his employee were carrying out roof replacement work on a butcher shop in Manchester with no scaffolding or edge protection and no employer’s liability compulsory insurance.  Roden had already been served with two prohibition notices by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) but continued to work in a manner that risked himself and his employee suffering a fall from height and passers-by were at risk of falling materials.  During the latest incident, a concerned member of the public took a photo of Roden and his workmate working without proper safety measures and sent it to the HSE.

CCTV in Tameside captured footage of brazen thieves stripping lead from the roof of a family home.  The footage clearly shows the two men clambering over a car to reach the lead roofing above the front door of the property, then peeling it back until it fell to the ground and making their escape with the lead.

Magistrates’ Courts in Cardiff and Grimsby have been handing down punishing fines to contractors who fail to ensure the safety of their employees during roof repair work.  This is welcome news for the roofing sector and the construction industry as a whole.  We must all work together in order to reduce the number of falls from height and make Britain a safer place to work.

A topless roofing technician in New Zealand was fired after being accused of flirting with a woman after being invited into her home for a drink and a croissant.  The woman’s husband was annoyed by the incident and complained to the roofer’s employer who fired him.  However, the Employment Relations Authority investigated the incident and found that the dismissal was unjustified and compensated the topless roofer. 

Herman Shine, one of the last survivors who escaped Auschwitz has died.  Shine worked as a roofer at the Nazi camp before making a daring escape with his friend, Max Drimmer.  Shine claimed to be a roofer in order to survive and learned to build roofs at the camp where he met a Jewish girl who worked at the camp but was allowed to return home at night.  Drimmer and Shine formulated an escape plan and his girl, Marianne and her family hid the two men during the final weeks of the war.  Herman and Marianne eventually married and, along with Drimmer, immigrated to the USA.