Oldham company in court over electric shock risk

Date:

5 May 2011

Release No:

HSE/NW/13Townfield

An Oldham company has been sentenced after it ignored two formal warnings, putting its workers' lives in danger from poorly maintained and dangerous electrics.

Townfield Manufacturing Co Ltd was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after inspectors uncovered a series of cracked socket casings, exposed conductors and live wires on a visit to its premises in Mount Pleasant Street.

An example of the dangerous electrics at the factory

During the same visit on 15 December 2009, inspectors also found that staff at the company were forced to work in gloves and coats because of the near-freezing conditions in the workshop, which had no heating system.

Townfield, which manufactures kitchen equipment for takeaway restaurants, was served with two improvement notices, requiring it to make the electrics safe and provide a reasonable working temperature.

But when HSE inspectors revisited the site on 17 February 2010, they found that the wall sockets were still unsafe and the company had only provided workers with one stand alone heater, which had barely lifted the temperature.

Speaking after the hearing, the investigating inspector at HSE, Sarah Taylor, said:

"This is one of the worst cases of dangerous electrics I have ever seen. The employees at this firm were at serious risk of injury or even death.

"The temperature of the factory was also a serious issue. It is simply not acceptable to expect staff to work in conditions so cold that you can see your breath in the air. This is not only bad for their welfare, but also potentially damaging for their health.

"Improvement notices are not intended to serve as a suggestion. They need to be taken seriously and, if companies fail to comply with them, HSE will look to prosecute."

Townfield Manufacturing Ltd was found guilty of two breaches of Section 33(1)(g) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, by failing to comply with the improvement notices which had been issued.

The company was fined £10,000 and ordered to pay £3,979 towards the costs of the prosecution following a trial at Trafford Magistrates' Court in Sale on 5 May 2011, after failing to attend the hearing or enter a plea.

Around 1,000 electrical accidents at work are reported to HSE each year and about 25 people die of their injuries. More information on health and safety in the workplace is available at www.hse.gov.uk.

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. www.hse.gov.uk
2. Section 33(1)(g) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 states: "It is an offence for a person to contravene any requirement or prohibition imposed by an improvement notice or a prohibition notice."

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