Food manufacturer fined £100k for fall from height

A food manufacturing company has been fined after a worker fell six metres from the back of a fork lift truck.

Lincoln Magistrates’ Court heard how an employee of Fishgate Limited was instructed on 16 July 2013 to paint guttering and drainpipes on the outside of a factory in Brookenby, Lincolnshire.

The employee was raised up by a forklift driver in an unsecured tote box to paint when he fell to the ground from a height of around six metres resulting in a dislocated arm, cracked pelvis, broken foot and shattered leg.

Not properly planned

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found the work was not properly planned nor was it adequately supervised. The injured worker had not received any training or advice on how to correctly carry out the task.

Fishgate Limited of Brookenby Business Park, Brookenby, Lincolnshire, was found guilty of breaching Section 2(1) of the Health & Safety at Work etc Act 1974. The company has been fined £100,000 and ordered to pay £19,032.63 in costs.

Speaking after the trial, HSE inspector Samantha Farrar said: “This work activity should have been properly planned.

“The injured worker should have been given the correct equipment as well as instruction as to how to carry out the work. The company also failed to adequately supervise the activity which could have prevented the incident.”

Approaches to managing the risks associated Musculoskeletal disorders

In this episode of the Safety & Health Podcast, we hear from Matt Birtles, Principal Ergonomics Consultant at HSE’s Science and Research Centre, about the different approaches to managing the risks associated with Musculoskeletal disorders.

Matt, an ergonomics and human factors expert, shares his thoughts on why MSDs are important, the various prevalent rates across the UK, what you can do within your own organisation and the Risk Management process surrounding MSD’s.

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