May – Bakkavor fined £2M for worker’s death
Prepared foods manufacturer Bakkavor was fined £2M for safety failings, after one of its workers died when plastic bales fell on top of him.
The 29-year-old worker and father of one child, Jacek Adamowicz, was cleaning a storage yard when plastic bales weighing 703kg fell on him, trapping him against the ground on February 4 2015, Manchester Crown Court was told.
The worker’s employer Hitchen Foods, owned by the Bakkavor Group, had failed to consider and properly plan the stacking and storage of the bales, the court heard.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive revealed the stacking of plastic bales at the site was unsafe. Bakkavor Foods Ltd had failed to implement properly planned safe systems of work for its employees, who were exposed to unacceptable risks during the stacking of the bales.
Bakkavor Foods Ltd Foods of Dobson Park Way, Wigan plead guilty to breaches of Section 2 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work act 1974 and was fined £2M with £32,595.10 costs.