Workplace fined 2.2million through H&S failure

Posted on January 19, 2017

Highstreet savings superstore Wilko has been fined £2.2million after an incident at a store in Leicester.

Female student Corisande Collins, aged 20, had been working for two years part-time at a store in the Beaumont Shopping Centre in August 2013. After she and a colleague had taken an ‘overloaded’ metal cage full of pots of paint out of a lift and tried to manoeuvre it out from an uneven floor, it tipped up and fell on her. The blow fractured part of her spine, causing her to immediately lose control of the lower part of her body.

After weeks at Coventry’s Walsgrave Hospital Corisande was transferred to the spinal injuries unit at Sheffield for substantial rehabilitation. In due course she was discharged in December 2013, and 18 months after her injury, returned part-time to her degree course in Special Educational Needs.

Her paralysis mean she is now wheelchair bound and doctors told her she would have a 1% chance of walking again.

Responsibility

Leicester Crown Court heard Wilko Retail Limited plead guilty to four breaches of the Health and Safety at Work Act. It was noted that the floor of the goods lift was not level with the shop floor, and that the actual cage which fell on Ms Collins was not loaded correctly.

Suitable Health and Safety risk assessments had not been carried out covering the hazards of handling of roll cages, their loads and manoeuvring them on uneven surfaces. Staff were also not provided with adequate training or supervision on the safe use of the lifts involved in the accident.

The judge highlighted nine damning “failings” of the company, that led to the cage in question being top-heavy, with 87.5 litres of paint stored on the top level with 55 litres on the lower level.

Leicester City Council’s Public Safety Team brought the prosecution against Wilko after they had admitted four breaches of the Health and Safety at Work Act.

Verdict

When passing sentence the judge imposed a £2.2million fine for the Health and Safety offences of failing to ensure the health, safety and welfare of employees. The company was also ordered to pay £70,835 in costs.

The chief financial officer at Wilko, responded to the fine and remarked that they are working hard to raise the profile of health and safety across their business and accept the ruling of the judge and would not appeal.

Prevention

Leicester Councillor Sue Waddington, said

“Businesses need to take responsibility for the health and safety of employees. The large fine was deserved because this young woman’s life was put at risk, but it will not make up for the life-changing injuries that she suffered, which could have been avoided if proper health and safety measures were in place.”

Leicester City Council Public Safety team that brought the prosecution against Wilko Retail Limited said that the fine imposed reflected the serious nature of the case and that all businesses needed to take heed and learn from it by taking their health and safety measures seriously. Simple steps like carrying out adequate risk assessments, properly maintaining equipment, health and safety training and supervision for staff would have prevented an accident like this from happening.