Significant fine imposed for unguarded bakery machinery
Alfonso Catering Meats Limited (t/a The Portuguese Bakery) was fined a total of £35,000 plus £2,500 costs by the Royal Court on Friday 16 July 2010 after admitting 2 separate charges under the Health and Safety at Work (Jersey) Law 1989.
The prosecution arose after a routine visit to the bakery, in August 2009, identified a number of serious concerns regarding the safety of the bakery machinery, and the standards of guarding in particular. This included 3 commercial dough mixers, a bread slicing machine, a dough divider / moulder and a Portuguese roll dough moulder. Guards were seen to be missing on several machines, and interlocks to guards on other machines were found to be faulty or, in one instance, intentionally defeated to speed up the dough making process.
In view of the risks to employees working at the premises, who were exposed to the risk of coming into contact with dangerous parts of machinery on a daily basis, 4 prohibition notices were served on the company requiring certain machines to be taken out of use immediately. An improvement notice was also served requiring specified action to be taken to ensure compliance with the legal standards.
The company was found to be in breach of one of the prohibition notices on 3 separate occasions during subsequent visits to the bakery, when a dough mixer continued to be used despite an appropriate guard not being fitted, as required by the terms of the notice.
The court took an extremely dim view of the company’s failure to properly manage the health and safety of its employees, and its reckless disregard for the legal requirements. The situation was exacerbated as the company persistently failed to heed the inspector’s instructions and advice, or take any proactive action to address the underlying failings once these had been raised. Although there had been no reported serious injuries to employees using the unsafe machinery, this was accepted by the court as being nothing other than extremely fortuitous.
The company was fined £15,000 for failing to ensure the safety of its employees working in the bakery and £20,000 for breaching the terms of a prohibition notice. In addition costs of £2,500 were charged making a total of £37,500. The company was given 3 months to pay.