Kebab company put employees at risk through negligence

Date:

21 January 2011

Release No:

HSE-E-02-11

A manufacturer of kebab meat 'towers' has been fined after workers were found using machines designed to skin, cut and mince frozen chunks of meat without the proper safety guards in place.

Workers at KC's Doner Ltd, formerly known as Oz Kebab Ltd, were exposed to the risk of serious injury after the company failed to prevent access to dangerous moving parts of machinery at its factory in Suffolk.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted Mr Ozgul Balciner, Oz Kebab Ltd and Mr Ozgul Balciner trading as KC's Doner Ltd of the Lion Barn Industrial Estate, in Needham Market.

Bury St Edmunds Magistrates' Court heard how HSE served six prohibition notices between 24 March 2009 and 7 May 2010, ordering the company to stop using a skinning machine, a meat pre-breaker/reducer and a bowl mixer until the appropriate protective devices and guards were fitted and maintained in working order.

However, Mr Balciner failed to ensure this work was carried out and it took significant and ongoing intervention by the HSE to prevent the unsafe machines from being used.

Mr Balciner, 45, admitted breaching Regulation 11 of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 and Section 37 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. He was fined £4,000 and ordered to pay £10,000 costs and Oz Kebab Ltd was fined £5,000.

Investigating HSE Inspector Martin Kneebone said:

"Every year, the meat industry reports on average 3,000 injuries per 100,000 workers per year in the UK.

"Food processing machines are dangerous pieces of equipment and every precaution should be taken to protect people using them. The machines used at Oz Kebab Ltd and KC's Doner Ltd have been designed to skin, cut and mince meat chunks even when frozen, so they could do a lot of harm to a person's limb.

"Mr Balciner ignored the risks associated with using these machines and his legal responsibilities to workers and others, leaving them at risk of injury. HSE will proactively prosecute any company exposing workers to these unnecessary risks."

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.
2. Regulation 11 of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 - this regulation places a duty upon a person or company, which has control to any extent of work equipment, to ensure that measures are taken, that are effective, to prevent access to dangerous parts of machinery. The measures required include the provision of guards or effective devices to the extent that it is practicable to do so. It is also incumbent upon the person or company which has control to maintain the guards and the protective devices in an efficient state, in efficient working order and in good repair.
3. Section 37(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 states: "Where an offence under any of the relevant statutory provisions committed by a body corporate is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of, or to have been attributable to any neglect on the part of, any director, manager, secretary or other similar officer of the body corporate or a person who was purporting to act in any such capacity, he as well as the body corporate shall be guilty of that offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly."
4. One charge for breaching Regulation 11 of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 was laid against Oz Kebab Ltd trading as KC's Doner Ltd; two charges for breaches under Section 37 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 were laid against Mr Balciner as the company director.
5. For more information about risks in the meat industry, go to http://www.hse.gov.uk/food/slaughter.htm

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