Poultry plant ordered to pay £250,000 in injury costs
Owners of a poultry-processing plant have been ordered to pay
more than £250,000 in fines and costs after accidents involving two
separate workers left one an amputee.
The two accidents at the 2 Sisters Food Group Ltd's poultry
plant cost Shaun Alexander his right hand and left Malcolm Raven
with a broken arm.
"In both cases the injuries occurred because employees were
allowed to come into contact with moving machinery in circumstances
that plainly should not have happened," said Norwich Crown Court
today Judge Peter Jacobs.
Mr Alexander lost his right hand when it became trapped in a
veal processing machine, while Mr Raven's arm was broken after it
was caught between crates containing chickens when he tried to deal
with a blockage.
Judge Jacobs fined 2 Sisters Food Group £90,000 for the first
incident and £140,000 for the second and ordered the company to pay
costs of £24,302.
After the case Health and Safety Executive inspector Julie
Jarvey claimed both accidents were "wholly avoidable".
"Shaun Alexander was failed by the company's lack of proper
training, inadequate assessment of risks, absence of safe working
practises and effective measures stopping access to dangerous
equipment," she added. "He will have to live with the
consequences of someone else's mistakes for the rest of his
life".
"HSE will not hesitate to take companies, big or small, to court
and seek tough penalties when it finds them taking a lax attitude
to their workers' safety."