Spanish employer jailed for death

A Spanish court has condemned an employer to a three-year prison sentence following a fatal accident for which he was held responsible.

The accident occurred when a worker was dismantling scaffolding and fell six metres to his death. The Madrid court heard that he had no training for the work and no one was supervising him. The scaffolding lacked any safety features and the workers taking it down had no helmets or safety belts.

As well as the prison sentence, the employer who ran the scaffolding company, Flosan, was ordered not to undertake any scaffolding work for a further four years.

Spain has one of the worst health and safety records in Europe. In 2002 there were 1,104 fatal accidents, around one fifth of all those recorded across the EU.