The man, believed to be from Ireland, had been carrying out maintenance work from scaffolding on the East Intercourse Island jetty when part of the scaffolding fell into the water at around noon on Saturday.
Work colleagues immediately raised the alarm after they heard the scaffolding fall and saw a hard hat floating in the water.
Perth-based Inspector David Picton-King said there were no witnesses to the fall.
Initial attempts to locate the man, an employee of Celtic Scaffolding at the Rio Tinto site, were unsuccessful.
Police divers recovered the body just before midnight.
All work has ceased at East Intercourse Island and access to the site has been closed.
A coronial inquiry is underway, and both police and the Mines Department are investigating the cause and circumstances surrounding the accident.
Sam Walsh, Rio Tinto’s Chief executive Iron Ore and Australia, said the fatality was a tragic event.
He said it would be fully investigated by Rio Tinto and in co-operation with the authorities.
“I offer my sincere condolences to family, friends and team mates,” Mr Walsh said.
“We are ensuring that appropriate counselling services are available,” he said.
The Voice of Scaffolding Since 2008 | U.K. Edition
A huge flock of adult gulls, which have wingspans of up to 40 inches, swooped on scaffolders working more than 80ft up at Greenock’s Municipal Buildings yesterday.
The men – all employees of a firm called Falcon Scaffolding – had to shield themselves from the aerial onslaught before calling in specialist help.
A Harris Hawk called Clyde and his handler then raced to the rescue from their base in Livingston, West Lothian.
Shaken scaffolder Kenny Crighton told the Tele: “It was a pretty crazy situation – the gulls were actually dive-bombing us and whacking us with their feet and squawking like mad.
“It was like something out of the Hitchcock movie The Birds.
“It was relentless and pretty scary too, because we were more than 80 feet up.
“They were all full-size adult seagulls as well, so it’s not as if we were being attacked by anything small.
“We all wear harnesses, which is just as well because the gulls were trying to knock us off balance.
“But we were removing steel beams so it was very obviously a dangerous situation.
“Through the council we managed to enlist the services of a hawk and things calmed down quite quickly after that.
“Apparently it’s the gulls’ nesting season right now and because they have chicks they’re trying to protect they are ultra-aggressive to anyone who comes near.”
Clyde the hawk’s handler, Steven Loran, who works for Wishaw-based Hawkman Services, said it was all in a day’s work for him and his trusty bird of prey.
But he admitted he was taken aback with the sight they were confronted with when he first arrived on the scene.
Steven said: “They were swarming round in a circle like vultures. The seagulls were just going daft.
“But the hawk has certainly done his job in dispersing them. The gulls just don’t like the fact there is a bird of prey around.”
Steven told how he can let Clyde fly around for a while, but he kept him on his glove for this job.
The giant flock almost immediately split up with individual birds landing on nearby rooftops and keeping their distance with Clyde standing guard over the scene.
Steven said: “We’re constantly working on these kind of jobs all the time because seagulls are such a problem at places such as retail parks and bus depots.
“We can be hawking for up to 12 hours a day at this time of the year.
“The gulls most certainly can cause injury to the people they attack and it becomes a real health and safety issue.
“And during the nesting season they become very aggressive towards people.”
An Inverclyde Council spokesman said: “Attacks by gulls were threatening the safety of contractors working at height on the façade of the Municipal Buildings.
“Steps were therefore taken to move nests from the working area in accordance with RSPB guidelines.”
The 46-year-old fell more than five metres from an incomplete tower scaffold – being used to remove floor beams from two levels of a warehouse on Homerton High Street, Hackney, on 13 October 2009.
A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found the client Nabiganj Investment Company Limited who employed the man as a principal contractor, failed to implement a number of measures that could have prevented the incident.
HSE inspectors found asbestos in debris from the demolition work and discovered that no asbestos survey had been conducted prior to work starting.
City of London Magistrates heard at least six Chinese migrant workers who spoke very little English had been demolishing floors and moving debris around, potentially exposing themselves to asbestos fibres. The worker who fell from the scaffold suffered life-threatening injuries to his head, pelvis and spine and can now only walk with difficulty.
Nabiganj Investment Company Limited of Alexandra Park Road, London pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 4 (1) (a), Regulation 10, Regulation 14(1) and Regulation 16(1) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007. The company was fined £37,500 and ordered to pay costs of £5,459.90.
The court heard that the firm has had previous enforcement action imposed on it relating to other sites, including two Improvement Notices for failure to comply with client duties under Construction Design and Management Regulations (CDM) and two Prohibition Notices for work at height.
Speaking after the sentence, HSE Inspector Eileen Gascoigne said:
“A vulnerable worker was left with devastating injuries as a result of the consistently poor attitude to safety this company has displayed.
“This is an experienced property development firm, it has had previous enforcement action taken against it by the HSE relating to similar issues during construction work. Once again in avoiding its responsibilities, it has put the safety and health of at least six vulnerable workers at unnecessary risk.”
Produced specifically for Clients, Site/Project Managers, Agents, Surveyors, CDM Coordinators, Estimators, Planners and Designers the document provides detailed industry requirements on the current best practice for scaffolding contractors prior to working on site and what expectations are required once work has commenced. This document would also be suitable as a protocol template for all scaffolding works and could be used to accompany any Tender or Pre-Qualification document.
The risk of an accident or injury to either operatives or the general public can be greatly reduced by factually knowing what to demand from your scaffolding contractor at every stage of the process.
Gerry Cooper, NASC President states:
John Robertson attended a three-hour hearing at Sunderland County Court.
Mr Robertson, 44, of York Avenue, Jarrow, said: “I’m gutted about being declared bankrupt after being in business for 15 years.
“It was horrendous to appear before a bankruptcy court, but given the size of my debts, I felt I had no other choice.
“I put myself forward voluntarily for bankruptcy because I have outstanding debts of around £1.3m, involving the Inland Revenue, Barclays Bank and mortgages.”
Mr Robertson is also due to appear at South Tyneside Magistrates’ Court this week on a charge of criminal damage.
He is accused of smashing his 22ft truck into Strathmore House, the headquarters of South Tyneside Homes, at Jarrow’s Viking Industrial Estate on March 20.
It is claimed he caused damage totalling almost £160,000.
Untily recently, Mr Robertson employed 20 staff at Robertson Scaffolding at Wagonway Industrial Estate, Hebburn.
But he later became embroiled in a contractual dispute with South Tyneside Homes.
His business has now been dissolved.
He added: “I’m used to being my own boss and working 18 hours a day, so to be declared bankrupt and have no business is really hard.”
But despite his problems, Mr Robertson said he is “heartened” by support from friends and business associates in the community.
And after receiving 767 votes after standing as an Independent candidate for the Primrose ward in Jarrow in the recent local elections, Mr Robertson revealed he plans to continue pressing for a seat on South Tyneside Council.
Fire, ambulance and police crews were called to the Union Chapel, in Compton Avenue, Islington, at around 11.30am on Friday after a 50-year-old man was found unconscious at the top of scaffolding surrounding the old chapel.
A hazardous area response team rushed to the scene and ladders were sent to the top of the spire to bring the man down.
He was then treated at the scene, before being rushed to the University College Hospital in Euston as a priority.
Leon Shoben, 55, who works at the Elfrida Society, an educational facility in nearby Islington Park Street, said: “I was walking back from Highbury and Islington station with a class and I saw a lot of people looking up at the ladders and the fire engines.
“I thought the scaffolding had collapsed at the top, it looked like the people up there were moving a lot of stuff around. There were a lot of ambulances there.”
Daniela Sbrisny, duty manager at the Union Chapel, said: “We were the last ones to find out. One of our colleagues was outside and told us that someone had collapsed on the scaffolding.
“We ran outside to see if there was anything we could do, but by that time they were bringing him down on the big fire ladder.”
A spokeswoman for the London Ambulance Service said: “We were called to reports of a person taken unwell on scaffolding at the Union Chapel. We sent a motorcycle paramedic, an ambulance crew and our specialist hazardous area response team. The patient, reported to be a 50-year-old man, was unconscious at the top of the scaffolding.
“Our crews climbed ladders and scaffolding to reach him at the top of the spire which is 170 feet tall. They helped move him to a fire brigade platform where they treated him before he was lowered to the ground. He was taken to University College Hospital as a priority.”
The Deeside-based company has won five contracts, including a £100,000 deal to work on Merepark’s Central Village development in Liverpool city centre, and a £139,000 contract for Wates Construction at Liverpool John Moores University’s £37m Mount Pleasant Campus Redevelopment.
Six NSG UK staff are now working on the Merepark project, erecting scaffolding for enabling works for the future refurbishment and redevelopment of the famous Lewis’s building.
The firm is also providing scaffolding for the new six-floor LJMU building, which will be home to the Faculty for Business and Law, the Liverpool Screen School and the University’s new Professional Centre.
NSG UK has also been awarded two contracts to work on social housing stock in Sefton and Liverpool, erecting scaffolding for refurbishment and renovation projects.
The scaffolding – which had been in place at the property of Charles Felvus in Dimsdale Road since early last week – was to enable repair work to be done to the chimney.
According to Mr Felvus, this work has yet to be completed.
Now the collapse of the scaffolding has resulted in considerably more damage to the property – including a large hole in the roof which means rain has been getting into the loft.
In addition, the gas box outside Mr Felvus’ front door has been wrecked by falling scaffolding as has a large section of the fence between his home and his next door neighbour.
A shaken Mr Felvus said: “It was like something out of a disaster movie.
“One minute the scaffolding was in place, the next it was crashing down around us. It’s just lucky that no-one was outside when it happened.
“There’s a young girl lives next door and if it had fallen on her I dread to think what could have happened. You can see by the way it smashed through the fence the force it came down with.”
He went on to question the safety of the scaffolding installation and the length of time it had been in position with no apparent repair work being carried out.
He continued: “As far as I’m concerned that scaffolding had never been secured. If it had, no amount of wind would have brought it down.
“It was very dangerous and could so easily have had catastrophic consequences as well as the significant structural damage that has occurred.
“There’s meant to be an inspector who comes round. That never happened. And anyway, why was the scaffolding in place for so long? Surely six days is more than adequate to repair a chimney.”
He added: “I certainly don’t want to be waiting as long for the hole in my roof to be sorted out now.”
Joe Brady, planned and voids manager for the council’s housing and social work, said:
Almost 400 workers lost their jobs in March, when Vivergo terminated its contract with Redhall Engineering Services Ltd.
Through mediation group ACAS, Vivergo has offered almost £4,000 to each worker.
By accepting the offer, know as a COT3 agreement, workers will give up the right to bring further claims against the employer.
Les Dobbs, GMB union senior organiser, said: “We have told members we will support those who accept the compensation agreement, but we will also back those who wishing to continue to campaign to have their jobs back.”
The protests, which began in March, have caused severe traffic delays on several occasions, when workers blocked Hedon Road.