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Just seen the national news - M&S fined £ one million - might make other retailers look up and take the asbestos risk in a more serious light.
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Rank: Super forum user 
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There's been plenty of dicussion on this forum about the level of penalaties applied by the courts against various sizes of companies and organisations. One million seems a lot but is it really a proportionate punishment to a company reported last year as making an operating profit of 836.9 million?
Expect prices to rise in order to protect the shareholders.
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Rank: Super forum user 
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Rank: Super forum user
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MEden - are you suggesting that other retailers dont take the risk of asbestos seriously?
All employers and duty holders need to learn from this.
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Rank: Super forum user 
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I do hope that the asbestos removal company charged for each their plastic bags (That's one thing I hate about M&S) :)
From a fire safety point of view, M&S have been seen as everso squeaky clean compared with serial offenders such as Woolworths, as I have never heard of any FS enforcement action against them (even under the FPA or WP Regs).
So I think this widely reported story (perhaps due to the level of the fine) will be a significant dent in their reputation. Let's hope so, if it's going to act as a deterrent
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Rank: Super forum user
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messyshaw - can you please provide more detail on enforcment activity on Woolworths?
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Rank: Super forum user
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Rank: Super forum user
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DP wrote:messyshaw - can you please provide more detail on enforcment activity on Woolworths?
Wasn't it the old Woolies that had that terrable case of workers being killed in a stores fire due to the fact that they're installed bars on windows etc? This is used widely in fire training courses...
http://www.fireservice.c.../history/woolworths-fire
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Rank: Super forum user
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ooer, it's early so don't send out the Grammar Police
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Rank: Forum user
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This is not just any £1,000,000 fine this is an M & S £1,000,000 fine, (sorry moderator I couldn’t resist) .
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Rank: Super forum user
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Dougc wrote:This is not just any £1,000,000 fine this is an M & S £1,000,000 fine, (sorry moderator I couldn’t resist) .
I think the teenagers would say "LOL"
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Rank: Super forum user
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Agree with those who think that this is paltry in relation to profit.
Also how many people could be exposed, 100; 1000; 10,000? these are not small corner shops with limited clientele.
Fine should have been £25m - £50m.
My pension fund would probably have taken the hit then though!!!!
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Rank: Super forum user
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I normally buy my pants from M&S.
But not anymore.
I'm not going to wear pants.
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Rank: Super forum user 
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Martin1 wrote:I normally buy my pants from M&S.
But not anymore.
I'm not going to wear pants.
It's fine as long as it's encapsulated.
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Rank: Super forum user
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MaxPayne wrote:DP wrote:messyshaw - can you please provide more detail on enforcment activity on Woolworths?
DP, I dealt with several large stores during my fire service career and Woolworths (followed closely by the Coop) were the worst.
I served an enforcement notice on a Woolies several years ago after they failed to make improvements (from previous inspections) to the fire separation between a basement and ground floor (you could see daylight through floorboards from the basement) and other issues such as poor extinguisher maintenance. Other members of my team also discovered problems in other Woollies stores during the annual pre Christmas retail crack down.
I am a bit reluctant to give precise personal experiences/examples - especially from 'live' companies, as I do not want to attract unwanted attention from any company's legal team. However, I think it was one of the Sussex brigades who did a purge on Coop stores and found three (I think) in poor order leading to a prosecution and massive fine. The judge was not impressed by what looked like a systematic failure, rather than a one off rogue branch (This case is probably on Google)
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Rank: Super forum user
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Thanks Messyshaw – I fully appreciate your point regarding trading companies and fully agree.
The reason why I asked is because I head up the safety function in a ‘well known’ retailer and used to get the opportunity to train store managers – within the training as you would expect we covered fire safety. I always found ex Woolworths Managers (who we had recruited) very knowledgeable and they had a good grounding on fire safety.
Obviously because it was so noticeable I did the delving to find out why and it was obvious in the end – the 1979 Manchester fire where there were fatalities. Their training was very good.
Because of this I was surprised by your comment that’s all.
Fully aware of Sussex and there frustrations………….
Xmas crack down thanks for that mate just reminded me of all the work I have coming up!!!!
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