Scottish Borders Abattoir Ltd in Galashiels has been fined £100,000 after being found guilty of two health and safety breaches following a worker’s death.
48-year-old meat porter David Barker, of Selkirk, died in an accident at the Winston Road premises in January 2011.
It was heard at Jedburgh Sheriff Court how Mr Barker was in a storage container loosening the fixings of a steel partition door which collapsed and trapped him by the neck as a result of which he died.
Defence lawyer Susan Duff QC told the jury Mr Barker had only been asked by the company’s management to remove boxes from the container so that an assessment of the partition removal could take place and that he had been acting without anyone’s knowledge by unscrewing the fastenings.
Scottish Borders Abattoir Ltd was fined £100,000 after it was found guilty of failing to provide information, instruction, training and supervision to ensure Mr Barker’s health and safety and for failing to carry out a risk assessment for the task. The company denied the charges.
A third charge of failing to carry out risk assessments between August 2006 and January 2011 for tasks unrelated to food management safety at the abattoir was dropped by the Crown during the trial.
At the time of the incident a spokesman for Scottish Borders Abattoir Ltd said: “It was just a tragic accident.
“Everyone is very upset at what has happened.”
No costs are awarded in Scotland.
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There must be more to this case than is reported here!
If as reported in the article, the company had no knowledge of what the guy was doing; how do they risk assess something that wasn’t planned? If someone acts outside of the task they’ve been allocated, are we supposed to be mind-readers now?