EAC fined €28,000 for worker death

The electricity authority (EAC) were handed a €28,000 fine on Wednesday following the conclusion of investigations into the death of a worker in 2018.

The fine relates to the death of 42-year-old father of three Georgios Georgiou, who fell four metres to his death from an elevated work platform, also known as a cherry picker, upon which he was working in Larnaca.

Subsequent investigations into Georgiou’s death by the labour inspection department found the EAC had failed to meet minimum health and safety standards, with the Larnaca district court on Wednesday publishing its decision on the matter.

The court found that the EAC had “failed to have a properly maintained elevated working platform”.

“While their worker was engaged in palm tree pruning and was inside the basket of the machine, four metres above the ground, the machine suffered a mechanical failure, resulting in the basket suddenly falling to the ground.”

In specifics, the court said, the EAC had failed to replace a worn pin in the elevated working platform’s support arm. This caused the support arm to break.

The court also said the EAC had “failed to carry out periodic inspections” of the platform in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions and had failed to implement an appropriate safety or risk management system.

This, they said, had led to no arrangements being made “for the effective planning, organisation, control, monitoring, or review of preventative maintenance and protective measures”.

Such measures, they said “must be taken for workplace activities which present risks”, with the lack of such measures proving deadly.