Extract From Life Style Extra
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http://www.lse.co.uk/ShowStory.asp?story=JH327774B&news_headline=prince_charless_window_cleaner_sacked)
TEXT IN FULL HERE
Prince Charles's window cleaner sacked
Thursday, 3rd August 2006, 18:17
A window cleaner for Prince Charles made repeated warnings about poor safety practice at St James's Palace just days before his brother suffered severe head injuries in a fall there.
Don Pullen, 59, alerted his then employers to safety concerns he had while cleaning windows at the Royal Residence in July 2005, an employment tribunal heard.
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 there.
Don, along with fellow window cleaner Ted Atkins, 60, of Barking, are claiming unfair dismissal against cleaning contractor One Complete Solution (OCS) after they were sacked for gross misconduct two months after Michael's accident.
The company said they sacked the pair for failing to follow health and safety procedures.
But in a statement to Croydon Employment Tribunal, Don, from Chessington, Surrey, who earned £815 a week net, 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 was 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."
Don said OCS had been insensitive after Michael'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 Mr Atkins had been working at Lord Rothchild's Waddesdon Manor in Aylesbury, Bucks, when the safety breaches for which they were sacked were alleged to have occurred.
OCS operational director Paul Thrupp said Mr Atkins was fired for walking out onto a ledge without using the correct ladder.
He added that Don, Mr Atkins's superviser, had failed to carry out proper safety checks and had used a cherry picker alone.
Mr 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 visiting his family to explain what happened.
"One incident is one incident enough, you don't get a second chance if you fall."
Mr Atkins said in a statement he had become terrified of using ladders after Michael'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
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