07.08.2006

Fired St James Palace worker warned of safety failures

Don Pullen, 59 a window cleaner who worked on St James Place and other historical buildings, claims that he made repeated warnings about poor work at height safety practices at the Palace just days before his brother suffered severe head injuries in a fall there.

Croydon Employment Tribunal was told last week that Pullen alerted his employers, One Complete Solution (OCS), to safety concerns he had while cleaning windows at the Royal Residence in July 2005.

His brother Michael, 55, also a window cleaner at the Palace was left with serious fractures to his skull and face and brain injuries after falling from a ladder while at work there.

Pullen and fellow window cleaner Ted Atkins, 60, of Barking, are claiming unfair dismissal against cleaning contractor, OCS after they were dismissed for gross misconduct two months after Michael Pullen’s accident.

The company says that it dismissed the pair for failing to follow health and safety procedures.

But Don Pullen, of Chessington, Surrey, said: "No periodical safety site visits were done at St James's Palace or any of the other sites I worked at unless a specific complaint was made about a health and safety matter. On July 26 2005 I warned of the dangers of the company not having carried out such site visits”.

"The St James's Palace job was one of the jobs which were not reviewed and this was where Michael had his accident two days later. I believe that as I complained about health and safety matters so often this resulted in me and my team receiving less favourable treatment."

Pullen went on to say that OCS had been insensitive after his brother’s fall. He said: "Following Michael's accident I was interviewed. I felt they were trying to blame me for what happened. Michael spent seven weeks in intensive care. He sustained fractures to the skull and face. He will never fully recover and is going to be registered as disabled. The company showed no compassion for what I was going through."

Don Pullen and Atkins had been working at Waddesdon Manor in Aylesbury, Bucks, a National Trust property, when the safety breaches for which they were fired, were alleged to have occurred.

OCS operational director Paul Thrupp said that Atkins was dismissed for walking out onto a ledge without using the correct ladder. He added that Don Pullen, Atkins's supervisor, had failed to carry out proper safety checks and had used an aerial work platform alone.

Thrupp said: "Mr Pullen was more concerned to save expenditure and boost wages than to pay for a third team member. If Mr Atkins had fallen from that ledge we would have had to visit his family to explain what happened. One incident is one too many, you don't get a second chance if you fall."

Atkins said that he had become terrified of using ladders after Michael Pullen’s fall. He said: "After Michael's accident my life changed. I became very depressed and anxious. I also developed a fear of using ladders as I had seen the damage to Michael following a fall from a ladder”.

“I feel that I have been dismissed unfairly because of Michael's accident and because of Don and I raising problems with health and safety."

The two window cleaners, who had both worked for the same company for 36 years, received their dismissal letters just before Christmas last year.

The tribunal continues