Thorntons PLC fined £12,000 for breaches of health and safety law
As the Derbyshire-based Thorntons PLC, is prosecuted and fined £12,000 this month (March 2009), after an employee suffered serious injuries to his hand on their premises, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) warn employers to ensure that their workplaces are safe.
The accident occurred when the 23 year old employee, slipped on a wet mat whilst standing on a conveyor belt, so that he could cool a depositor, the device which puts the filling into the centre of chocolates. As he slipped, his hand was thrust into the rotating rollers of the depositor. Although a trip bar was fitted over the rollers, it was not correctly positioned to protect someone standing on the conveyor, and his hand was trapped before another employee could stop the machine. He broke two bones, suffered severe tissue damage and needed the assistance of the fire service to be freed. He has not been able to return to work since.
HSE inspector from Derbyshire commented:
"In this case, a combination of the wet surface and inadequately guarded rollers led to this injury, which could so easily have been avoided. This is just one of a significant number of accidents involving the cleaning and maintenance of food machinery and companies must ensure that they have the right systems in place to protect their staff from hazardous situations."
The company which admitted to failing to provide a safe system of work was also ordered by the Court to pay £4,548 in costs.
Unfortunately, statistics show that this is not an isolated incident when over 14,000 people in Britain suffered personal injury and 61 people were involved in fatal accidents, in the work place last year. It is estimated that these accidents cost British society £700 million.
When slipping and tripping accidents accounted for 85% of these personal injuries, and could have been easily avoided, MyClaim fully supports the HSE in its Shattered Lives campaign, which was launched last month, in response to these shocking statistics. This campaign aims to raise awareness of the hazards which can occur in any work place.
The HSE has identified that the main barriers to rectifying the all too apparent problem with health and safety in Britain’s work places as:
- People not taking the risks seriously;
- Little understanding of the causes of slipping;
- Thinking that slips and trips are inevitable;
- Poor application of risk assessment and management controls.
The Shattered Lives campaign which is primarily aimed at those most at risk of a slip, trip or fall at work, and those best placed to take action, hopes to educate these target groups, and tackle these barriers. This will be done largely through the use of online learning tools accessed through the HSE’s website (http://www.hse.gov.uk/slips/shatteredlives.htm).
If you or a loved one have been involved in an accident at work, and you wish to bring a claim for personal injury compensation MyClaim can assist. MyClaim's panel solicitors guarantee that your claim will be handled by a solicitor with many years of specialist knowledge and experience in work based claims including industrial disease and deafness claims. Importantly MyClaim's panel solicitors can offer legal representation on a “No Win No Fee” basis, and guarantees that the injured party will receive 100% of their compensation.