Two slip accidents in two days led to a court fine for a food factory

A West Country food company was fined £7,500 in June following a catalogue of serious and preventable slip accidents. Ice build up around the entrances of industrial freezer units had led to a worker slipping and being injured twice in 2 days.

On the first occasion the worker slipped on ice as he was walking out of the door of one of the freezer units, spraining his ankle as his foot hit the yard surface. He reported the accident and pointed out that something needed to be done, but no action was taken. Two days later he slipped on ice again, this time, he was stepping-down from the doorway of another freezer, having pulled a pallet of frozen food to the edge ready for fork-lifting away. This accident was far more serious and he fractured his ankle. There were four walk-in industrial refrigeration and freezer units outside the Tofu making factory. Freezer entrances were in poor condition owing to forklift-truck damage and general wear and tear. The doors seals were damaged so they would not shut fully or seal and the floor was uneven and battered. Due to these problems, water vapour was able to freeze on the floor inside the freezers and on the outside ledge.

The ledge created a high step of about 1½ to 2 feet, which had to be negotiated by staff without the aid of handrails or midsteps.

The company were well aware of the risks associated with ice build-up and employees slipping on that ice; employees had been reporting the problem for over a year, a risk assessment highlighted the issue and an inspector had raised it at a previous visit, but nothing had been done to put right the problem. 

The HSE felt that there had been a breach of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations and took the matter to court. Two charges were brought against the company, one for the cause of the accident and another for not doing anything about it afterwards. The court heard that despite the good things the Company had since done, the incident was entirely foreseeable. Magistrates handed down a fine of £7,500 and awarded £1692 costs.

The investigating inspector prosecuting for the HSE told the Court that the incident was particularly sad as the injured employee had previously been the victim of a slip accident at the same site in 2003 where he slipped on neat cleaning chemicals and permanently scarred and burned his buttocks and inner thighs.