Company fined for endangering workers

Date:

22 October 2010

Release No:

COISE/2210

A pizza manufacturer in Hounslow has been prosecuted for endangering workers after ignoring calls to make safe an unprotected and dangerous first floor doorway.

Capri Foods Ltd, of Worton Hall Industrial Estate, Worton Road, Isleworth, failed to act on an Improvement Notice served by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) despite a continuous risk of a serious fall from height.

City of London Magistrates heard the doorway, which stood approximately four metres above the ground, was used to load and unload goods from a forklift truck operating in a yard outside. However, it was kept open even when the forklift was parked up, with nothing in place in terms of railings or barriers to stop employees falling through it and onto the concrete below.

HSE flagged the hazard during a visit to the factory on 29 July 2009, serving a notice that required improvements to be made by 1 November 2009. A follow-up visit on 9 December 2009 showed nothing had changed, with an HSE inspector observing an employee leaning out of the doorway to empty a bowl of water.

Capri Foods Ltd, pleaded guilty to a breach of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and a breach of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 in connection to the non-compliance. The company was fined £15,000 and ordered to pay £2,607 in costs.

After the hearing HSE inspector Steve Kirton commented:

"Falls from height remain one of the biggest dangers in the workplace, accounting for a fifth of all deaths and scores of serious injuries in the food manufacturing sector alone according to our latest official figures.

"So it's incredibly frustrating to see a company like Capri Foods blatantly ignoring calls to protect employees when such a clear and obvious risk has been identified. Fortunately no-one was hurt on this occasion, but the consequences of falling through that door could have been horrific."

Further information about falls from height, including guidance on safe-working and employee protection, can be found on the HSE website at www.hse.gov.uk/falls

Notes to editors

1. The Health and Safety Executive is Britain's national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to reduce work-related death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice; promoting training; new or revised regulations and codes of practice; and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement. For more information about the work of HSE, visit www.hse.gov.uk
2. Section 21 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 states "If an inspector is of the opinion that a person: (a) is contravening one or more of the relevant statutory provisions; or (b)has contravened one or more of those provisions in circumstances that make it likely that the contravention will continue or be repeated; he may serve on him a notice (in this Part referred to as "an improvement notice") stating that he is of that opinion, specifying the provision or provisions as to which he is of that opinion, giving particulars of the reasons why he is of that opinion, and requiring that person to remedy the contravention or, as the case may be, the matters occasioning it within such period as may be specified in the notice."
3. Regulation 6(3) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 states: "Where work is carried out at height, every employer shall take suitable and sufficient measures to prevent, so far as is reasonably practicable, any person falling a distance liable to cause personal injury."

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