A retail giant has been fined £1.2 million after an agency worker suffered serious injuries at one of its distribution centres.
The worker climbed a set of small steps to a conveyor belt at the Leicestershire site in February 2022. The steps didn’t have a handrail, and the headspace was confined. He fell and sustained a broken hip which required extensive surgery and resulted in long-term complications.
Milton Keynes City Council’s Environmental Health Team investigated the incident and determined the steps at the warehouse were unsafe and were an obvious and imminent risk. The city council served a prohibition notice to immediately prevent the use of steps without handrails across operational conveyor belts in the warehouse. Following a review of all the evidence gathered by the city council, a decision was made to proceed with prosecution against the company for the health and safety breaches which led to the injuries.
The court heard that the company had failed in several areas, including:
– Failing to undertake a suitable and sufficient risk assessment for crossing conveyor belts
– Not providing and maintaining a safe system of work for employees and agency workers
– Not providing adequate information, instruction and training for staff.
At Oxford Magistrates Court, the company admitted breaching sections 2, 3 and 33(1)(a) of the Health and Safety at Work Act for failing to protect the health, safety and welfare of its employees. It also pleaded guilty to contravening regulation 3 of the Management of Health and Safety Regulations. In sentencing, the Judge stated that ‘the nature of the manoeuvre he was required to take was inherently unsafe’ and that ‘the offence was a significant cause of the actual harm suffered’. She ordered the company to pay a £1.2 million fine after granting a reduction following the company’s early guilty plea, remorse for the incident and compliance with the investigation. The company was ordered to pay full costs of £11,271 and a statutory surcharge of £190.
Employers must make health and safety their number one priority. Failure to do so can lead to real harm with devastating consequences. Slips, trips and falls are a major cause of injury in workplaces and the onus is on businesses to ensure they provide safe working environments. There are lessons to be learnt from this case to prevent similar incidents in the future.
Source – IOSH