Vion Foods Fined for Worker Health and Safety Incident
Vion Foods is a multi-national company that has been fined more than £16,000 due to a worker incident. The worker was on top of a shipping container, but the metal sheets were lifted up by the wind causing the worker to fall.
The court heard of the incident of the 64-year-old man working at Vion Foods. The incident happened in 2010, with the case finally coming to a resolution in the second month of 2012. The wind blew metal sheets on a forklift onto the roof causing the worker to fall. The employee broke ribs and damaged his shoulder and legs. Barry Walton was unable to work for seven weeks because of the injuries.
The HSE conducted health and safety audits after the incident and found that the fall could have been prevented. The work was not carried out properly and workstation risk assessments were incomplete concerning protecting employees in such a situation. There should have been a better safety system in place.
The worker was being supervised properly, but it turns out the worker was not trained to work at such heights. The supervisor needed to minimise any risks the workers could face including ensuring that they were all properly trained to work at heights. Falls at work can be quite serious, even with proper parameters and safety supervisors on site. It is important that falls be prevented at all costs and that all of the risks are accounted for in the risk assessments.
