Window Cleaning Companies Fined & About to Be Fined

Unconscious, Kuypers was rushed to Auckland City Hospital's intensive care unit. She had five dislocated ribs, a hairline fracture in her eye socket and broken bones in her neck, ankle, shoulder and collarbone.

Companies fined over window cleaner's fall: Two companies found to be responsible for a teenage window cleaner falling four storeys have been sentenced in Auckland District Court. Louisa Kuypers, 18, plunged 30 metres while scaling an office building in the Auckland suburb of Newmarket last year. The company she worked for - At Height Ltd - was today fined $9,000 while the company it contracted to - Building Wash Services - was fined more than $20,000.

Judge Emma Aitken said At Height Ltd was more responsible for the accident and originally allocated it a fine of more than $46,000. However, the fine was discounted as Aitken said the fine would effectively bankrupt the company. The 18-year-old made what doctors describe as a remarkable recovery after falling from the top of the Lion Breweries building. An emergency department clinician who helped save Kuypers said he believes wearing a helmet "helped immensely". Kuypers received compensation of $40,000 for the debilitating injuries she sustained during the fall. "Anything's fine. I wasn't really expecting to see more than $5000 so I'm quite happy with it," she said outside court.

Kuypers said her fall was "just an accident". "I was friends with all those guys and I didn't want to see them go down and I didn't want to see the company get hurt. In fact if I'd had it my way nothing would have happened. She is aiming to train as a nurse.

Thrill-seeking teen: For the thrill-seeking teen abseil window-washing was a natural career choice and her father Gilbert Kuypers told ONE News she was so happy in the job she "would have done it almost for nothing". But Kuypers worried about his daughter's safety. "I just dropped her off before the accident and I said, you know, be careful. And she's 'oh yeah, always do that'. And all of a sudden, bang, you know, she's in hospital, and all we're looking at is just a nose and a pair of eyes sticking out of bandages." He still wants answers about how the accident happened. Previous stories here.

Two companies have been fined almost $30,000 and ordered to pay $40,000 in reparation after an abseiling window cleaner suffered serious injuries in a 15-metre fall. The 18-year-old woman, who was employed by At Height Limited, was lucky to survive the fall from the Lion House building in Newmarket in February last year, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) said. The company was sentenced alongside Building Wash Services, which had contracted it for the work, in Auckland District Court on Friday.

The court was told that the victim was told to attach her sling and ropes to air-conditioning ducting brackets on the roof of the building - but the brackets were not fixed to the roof. In the fall, she suffered fractures to her skull, face, collarbone, lower legs and neck, and pulmonary contusions and lacerations to her liver. She spent nearly a fortnight in hospital.

Sentencing the company on Friday, Judge Emma Aitken said the appropriate starting point for a fine was $100,000. However, taking into account At Height's limited finances and other discounts, she reduced the fine to $9000, and ordered it to pay $32,000 to the injured worker. Building Wash Services was fined $20,800 and ordered to pay $8000 in reparation. Both companies had earlier pleaded guilty to breaching the Health and Safety in Employment Act.

In a startling workplace accident earlier this year Louisa Kuypers, 18, fell from a 30-meter height while abseiling as part of her job, industrial window cleaning. Kuypers was washing windows at Lion Nathan offices in New Market, Auckland when she fell and realised immediately that something was wrong when she launched off the roof. The rope, usually meant to tighten up, kept releasing, letting her fall four stories onto concrete. She was taken to Auckland City Hospital’s intensive care unit unconscious and suffering from five dislocated ribs, a fractured eye socket and broken bones in her neck, ankle, shoulder and collarbone. Kuypers was lucky to survive the fall, and is especially lucky she isn’t permanently impaired by her injuries.  She was wearing a helmet at the time of the accident, likely saving her from brain injury.

The building she was working on didn’t have the eyebolts that are usually used to thread abseiling ropes through so another form of anchorage was used. Kuypers said of her co-worker, a more experience rope-access worker, “[He] isn’t coping too well. There’s no blame, but he blames himself”. Rope Access Industry standards require two forms of anchorage to be used in this type of work, in case the first anchor fails. In a compliant set-up both anchors would have had to fail – in Kuyper’s case bystanders said only one metal anchor had fallen from the roof with her. The cause of the accident is still being investigated; this accident was the third of its kind in eight months in New Zealand.

The city distanced itself from the situation saying it wasn’t their employee. “The person in the picture you provided is an employee of Citywide Professional Window Cleaning, contracted to clean the windows of the building.”

Man on a ledge worries downtown workers (ALBUQUERQUE) - A worker standing on a ledge above the eighth floor at City Hall had people doing double-takes Wednesday. That is because by all appearances he wasn’t wearing a harness. The man was rigging up a platform to clean the windows on a high-rise 107 feet up. Now investigators want to know if he was wearing anything to keep him from plummeting to his death. The city distanced itself from the situation saying it wasn’t their employee. “The person in the picture you provided is an employee of Citywide Professional Window Cleaning, contracted to clean the windows of the building,” said Breanna Anderson, deputy communications director for the city of Albuquerque. “As such, the city is not liable.”

The owner of Citywide Professional Window Cleaning told KRQE News 13 the employee was wearing a harness. He called it a half harness and said it went around the waist and thighs. A photo was sent to KRQE News 13 that appeared to show a worker with nothing around his thighs. That’s when the company declined to comment further. Now OSHA , the government agency in charge of investigating workplace safety issues, is looking into the matter. “The photo that was provided to us indicated the potential for a high gravity hazard. A fall from that height would obviously be very severe,” said Bob Genoway, bureau chief for New Mexico OSHA. OSHA says it is possible the city is not off the hook. “When OSHA does inspections, we look at all employers on site to determine who has responsibility for different aspects of safety,” Genoway said. Multiple sources say the city’s risk management group has already met with the window cleaning company. OSHA says if it finds wrongdoing, the penalties can be up to $70,000 per violation.

Life Falling Through the Cracks: An employee of the Greek Parliament hangs after falling through the glass roof over the Greek Parliament Hall, in her efforts to prevent rain water from entering the building, in Athens, Greece, on Feb. 22. A heavy storm of rain and sleet in the greater Athens region created problems with transportation, flooding streets and interrupting sea transport.

Window Cleaners Hidden Death, Fuzzy Endorsement & Wage Legislation

Greek ministry 'covered up Egyptian window cleaner death: Greece's labour ministry came under fire on Tuesday for allegedly covering up the death of an Egyptian window cleaner in a fatal fall at one of its buildings over a week ago. Greek newspapers said the ministry was keeping mum on the death of Asiz Emad who died on December 19 after losing his balance and falling from the third floor of the ministry's central offices in Athens. "The labour ministry has blood on its windows," charged left-wing Avgi daily.
The greater Athens union of cleaners (Pekop) has accused the ministry of trying to cover up Emad's death and demanded to know why the father of four was working on a Sunday in violation of his contract. A protest is to be held outside the ministry on Wednesday. The ministry could not be reached for comment. A spokesman for the state labour inspectorate told Kathimerini daily that legal action has been initiated against the cleaning contractor.
In a break with usual practice, no announcement was made on Emad's death because the competent employee was on vacation, the inspectorate said. Over 60 people have been officially recorded as work-related casualties in Greece this year, Communist daily Rizospastis said.

Mayor John Peyton, Celebrity Endorser? Jacksonville Mayor John Peyton has another accomplishment to add to his resume, that of celebrity endorser. The mayor, who will leave office next summer, appeared in print ads for Krystal Klean, a Jacksonville company that provides pressure washing and window washing services, over the Christmas weekend. The ad, which ran in the Florida Times-Union on December 24, 26 and 27, apparently took the mayor by surprise.

"When the workers were present they asked to take a photo and get his feedback to use as a testament to their work with potential new customers," said Jennifer Savage, a spokesman for the mayor's office. The mayor, it seems, didn't intend for his personal testimony to be used as advertisement for the company. His spokesman said he's asked the company to refrain from running the ad in the future.

Paterson vetoes prevailing wage legislation: MAYVILLE - A veto signed Thursday by Governor David Paterson was good news to Chautauqua County IDA Director Bill Daly. The legislation, which had passed the state Senate and Assembly, would have broadened prevailing wage requirements for contract service workers at public agencies. That wouldn't have been beneficial for the state as a whole, Daly said prior to the veto. "This was a wonderful, wonderful early Christmas present for the people in the state of New York," Daly said Thursday. "For the workers in the state of New York, for job seekers, for our economy - it sends a big message."

In specific, the legislation would have required utility companies and public agencies such as IDAs to pay prevailing wages to services workers such as janitors, security guards, handymen, gardeners and window cleaners. After having passed the Senate, the legislation subsequently passed the Assembly and continued on to Paterson. On Dec. 2, Daly sent a mass e-mail explaining his opposition and calling on people to petition the governor for a veto. "All the pressure from IDAs, economic development, business councils and not-for-profits paid off," Daly said after the veto.

Several vetoes were actually signed by Paterson regarding the issue - the Senate's version, the Assembly's version and the chapter amendments. "In sum," Paterson writes in the veto message, "while I respect and admire the intentions of the sponsors and supporters of this legislation, I fear its impact on the economic well-being of our state at a particularly perilous moment."